My two bits on Jade (or - let me onto the BBBandwagon!)

I'm probably going to be pilloried for this, but I've gotta say this anyway, despite all the hate towards Jade Goody.

I kinda like her. And I feel more than just "kinda" sorry for her.

There. I've said it. I'm ready for the barrage of rotten items from the vegetable/fruit family. (One request though - no eggs, please. I dont need any olfactory flashbacks to chem lab.)

Seriously, though, when I read this article, and especially this bit quoted from a columnist in The Sun - "She shrieks racist obscenities, her piggy eyes bulging as she struts round the house like a demented toad"- I couldnt help thinking Hey hold on there, buddy. Jade doesnt have piggy eyes and she certainly doesnt look like a toad, demented or otherwise. Actually I think she's quite pretty - a very nice smile, nice eyes and dimples to die for. (Ok, I'm a sucker for dimples almost every time... Almost. If George Dubya Bush had 'em, I'd have had to boycott 'em.)

Anyhoo, Jade. I've never watched a single episode of any Big Brother, whether Celebrity or normal (if that word can ever be used to describe the BB contestants!). Reading about Jade's incredible stupidity was enough. And somehow that very same stupidity that made me despise her every time she opened her big gobby mouth also engendered a sneaky sort of affection in me. You gotta feel sorry for someone THAT dumb, dont ya? In fact Jade almost seems like a very large, very clumsy, terminally stupid child trying to get on in a world where everybody is streets ahead of her in terms of intelligence. Her lack of awareness of her own stupidity is almost a form of innocence, in a way.

So yeah, I think what Jade said about Shulpa/Shupla/Shoopa/Shilpa was stupid, not racist. An intelligent, educated person would have been discriminatory and disparaging in a much, much less obvious way. Jade's "racism" was of the my-god-she's-just-one-step-short-of-losing-her-only-brain-cell-when-she-opens-her-gob variety. In other words, very, very stupid. But that's Jade.