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Deja Vu: Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty Meet Again
August 14, 2008 10:32 AM
By Ammu Kannampilly, ABC News London
Nineteen months after reality-TV celebrity Jade Goody sparked an international racism row during her stint on the British reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother, she may be in line to do the same in India.
And this time, the woman targeted by Goody’s attacks in 2007, Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty, will be the one hosting the Mumbai-based show, Bigg Boss, and questioning the contestants, including 27-year-old Goody.
But if Shetty – the winner of Celebrity Big Brother in 2007 – has any plans to extract revenge from her co-star for her bullying, she hasn’t divulged them.
In an interview with Indian newspaper the Hindustan Times, Shetty quipped, “I guess to win you must be goody-goody or Jade Goody,” but quickly added, “I’m just kidding.”
The two women were housemates in the show that helped jump-start the reality TV craze, spawning versions around the world, including in Mumbai, where the show launched in Novermber 2006.
The last time Jade Goody’s name came up in India, it was during protests staged by Shetty’s fans in the eastern state of Bihar.
The mother of two is believed to be nervous about flying to Mumbai this Sunday, unsure of the public reception she will get.
She would do well to take a tip out of Shetty’s book: practice yoga. “It genuinely helps your peace of mind,” the actress told the Indian film publication, Screen.
Another piece of advice from the one-time winner? “Just be yourself. If you try to be someone else, that will fall through sooner than later,” she told the Hindustan Times.
Well, it worked for her; it may not be such a good idea for Goody.
But the show’s producers won’t have any problem with that.
Last year, the controversy generated by the racism row dominated the front pages of the Indian press, even as the British chancellor (now Prime Minister) Gordon Brown was making a high-profile visit to the country.
And, although the show received more than 50,000 complaints from viewers outraged by Goody’s behavior, its audience share jumped by 1 million in a single day, as the war between the two women made headlines.
This time, though, Shetty won’t be in the house. She will instead communicate with the contestants through a TV screen, meeting them in person only when they are evicted from the house by a public vote.
“I will be like an agony aunt,” she told Screen, adding that “because I have already been there and done that, I will be able to empathize better with the housemates.”
That sentiment is likely to disappoint viewers hoping for a dash of the controversy that made last year’s U.K. version of the show so compulsively watchable.
Photo Credit: Associated Press
August 14, 2008 in Ammu Kannampilly | Permalink | User Comments (6)
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Look at that picture, on the left a poised, young, attractive lady and on the right a broad you might have picked up in a bar about 2 A.M.
Posted by: JR | Aug 14, 2008 3:01:51 PM
Is that a female Matt Daemon I see in that picture on the right? Or is it the real mccoy in drag? :) Right down to the smile!
Posted by: Enrico di Parma | Aug 14, 2008 4:09:15 PM
Hey JR and Enrico Di Parma...What do you two bring to the table? For all we know you two could be as ugly as stumps.
Posted by: Ted | Aug 14, 2008 4:47:43 PM
hello
Posted by: asdf | Aug 14, 2008 5:17:27 PM
that jades so ugly she makes blind children cry
Posted by: Toby | Aug 14, 2008 6:55:12 PM
The show Big Boss 2, will start from 17th August and this time the host will be Shilpa Shetty. According to an article on UTVi (http://utvi.myrecourl.com) it seems that the producers had to offer something really intresting for Shilpa to be a host. Will being just the host get her the same fame she had in Big Brother?
Posted by: Abhi | Aug 15, 2008 3:22:44 PM
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