OH MY GOD! My favourite TV show of all time, Big Brother, is causing some massive controversy not only in the UK but across the world! Contestants have been accused of racial bullying towards Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty.
Shetty, 31, one of the most famous stars of Indian cinema, labelled as the Indian equivalent of Angelina Jolie has been the subject of vicious attacks from Jade Goody, 25, a former Big Brother contestant who has become a celebrity in her own right, as well as Danielle Lloyd, 23, a disgraced beauty queen, and Jo O' Meara, 27, former singer from S Club 7.
The rows began when Shetty offered to cook the group a traditional British roast dinner but was unaware of the amount of time the chicken needed to be cooked for. Following this incident the 3 housemates professed their disgust that Shetty had touched their food with her hands, Lloyd stated 'They eat with their hands in India, don't they - or is that China? You don't know where her hands have been.'. O' Meara then followed up by arguing that Indians are thin because they are sick from unproperly cooked food.
Amongst other insults Shetty has been called 'a dog', 'a wanker', and allegedly 'a Paki' by Goody's boyfriend Jack Tweed, 19. Last night the arguments reached a boiling point when Goody used food that Shetty had ordered for herself on the shopping list. Amongst other comments Jade stated, 'You might be a princess in never never land (referring to India) but here you're just a normal housemate.' Lloyd added, 'She can't even speak English properly', 'She should fuck off back home'
Here is a brief video of the incident where Shetty finally reacted to Goody's comments by stating that her only claim to fame was being a former Big Brother contestant.
In a later argument, to be broadcast this evening on Channel 4, Goody is shown referring to Shilpa as 'Poppadom', in a manner similar to her mother Jackiey, 48, who during her time in the house refused to learn Shilpa's name and referred to her as 'the Indian'.
The repurcussions have been immense, a total of 36,000 compaints have been registered with Ofcom, an independent regulator of progamming in the UK. Politicians including Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Anne Widdecombe have spoken out against the use of racism as entertainment. Almost every front page headline in the UK has spoken exclusively about the racism debate and as a consequence Jade Goody has been dropped by the charity Act Against Bullying who said her treatment of Shilpa was 'unforgivable'. Jade's perfume Shhh! has been removed from the shelves of The Perfume Shop in the UK and Danielle Lloyd has been dropped from modelling contracts. The Carphone Warehouse, a lucrative sponsor for Channel 4 have chosen to sever their ties with the channel following the incidents in the house.
Shilpa herself has been divided as to whether she feels that she is the victim of racism, today stating, 'I don't feel there was any racial discrimination happening from Jade's end. Erm, I don't think that is true. That's it. I think that there are a lot of insecurities from her end but it's definitely not racial.'
Here, 2 former housemates discuss whether they feel Shilpa has been the victim of racism.
The altercation will finally come to an end tomorrow when either Shilpa or Jade will be evicted. Shilpa is currently the favourite to win the show.
To be honest, It's kind of inevitable when you put a stunningly beautiful, intelligent superstar who knows 8 languages and is one of the most recognisable faces in world cinema in a house with someone who is oddly reminiscent of a jar of pickled pig snouts and who thinks that Albert Einstein is related to Sherlock Holmes and Mother Teresa. Something is bound to go down.
