Jade Goody: Difference between revisions

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Jade Cerisa Lorraine Goody ^[2] (born June 5, 1981) is a British reality television celebrity. As a participant in the 2007 series of Celebrity Big Brother, she was at the centre of allegations of bullying - along with accusations of racist comments - against one of her fellow housemates; the Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. Goody - with 82 percent of the votes - was evicted from the house when up against Shetty in the public vote.^[3]

Rise to fame

Goody was born in 1981 in Bermondsey, London, to Andrew Goody (who died of a heroin overdose in 2005 at the age of 42^[4]) and Jackiey Budden. Goody worked as a dental nurse before coming to public attention in 2002 when she was a contestant in the third series of the UK version of Big Brother.

Goody was denounced in the British tabloid press for among other things threatening to "deck" (knock out) another contestant who claimed that Goody had a verruca on her foot. More notoriously, she displayed a high level of ignorance regarding basic general knowledge for a British native. Goody thought that the British city of Cambridge was in London. On being told that Cambridge is in East Anglia, or rather Goody's "East Angular", she assumed that this was abroad.^[5] Goody also believed that Saddam Hussein was a boxer. Fears were expressed that Goody would be physically attacked on leaving the Big Brother house.

She was voted 4th worst person in Britain in the poll 100 Worst Britons.

Since her first appearance on Big Brother she has earned an estimated £8 million fortune^[6] in other reality shows and appears almost constantly in celebrity, trivia, and gossip-oriented magazines such as heat and OK!. On January 5 2007, Jade and her family returned to Big Brother, re-entering the house during Celebrity Big Brother.

Television appearances

When she was five, Goody appeared in the pilot episode of ITV's London's Burning (sometimes referred to as the 'Telemovie' episode)^[7].

Since her debut on Big Brother, her appearances included What Jade Did Next, Celebrity Wife Swap, alongside Charles Ingram, and Celebrity Driving School.

Goody went Back To Reality on Five with former Big Brother contestants Nick Bateman and Craig Phillips in 2004. She also appeared in Channel 4's Big Brother Panto at Christmas 2004. In September 2005 she opened a beauty salon, Ugly's, in Hertford. The preparations for opening the salon were filmed for a LIVINGtv series, Jade's Salon. The salon recently closed for unknown reasons, though she denies being in debt. ^[8]

Goody has also appeared on the BBC's Celebrity Weakest Link.

On March 25, 2006 Goody won Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes. Soon after, she appeared on the ITV1 makeover show 60 Minute Makeover, redecorating her mother Jackiey's house.

In July 2006, Goody appeared on The Friday Night Project as the guest host. Many of the skits made reference to her Big Brother experience and her perceived ignorance.

Goody competed in Celebrity Mastermind in 2006 for Sport Relief. Her specialist subject was EastEnders, but she was beaten by Chantelle Houghton, whose specialist subject was Coronation Street.

In late 2006, Goody's latest series, Jade's PA, was aired on LivingTV.

Subsequent time in the limelight

On October 4, 2005 Goody was arrested on suspicion of shoplifting a £16 denim jacket from an Asda supermarket in Harlow, Essex. She was later released after police decided there was not enough evidence to charge her.^[9]

Goody ranked #25 in a poll by Heat for the most influential person in the world - something which has brought her much ridicule after she mentioned it whilst on Celebrity Big Brother 2007^[10] and in the same sentence admitted not even knowing the meaning of the word.

On 2 May 2006, Goody published her autobiography titled Jade: My Autobiography (ISBN) and in June she launched her own fragrance, Shh.... The perfume went into the top 3 best selling perfumes in the UK within three days of it being released. ^{[citation needed]}However, due to recent allegations of racism, The Perfume Shop has decided to remove the fragrance from its shelves.^[11]. On January 18 2007, Debenhams also removed the perfume from their shelves with 'immediate' effect, saying they would not be associated with any racism.

Until November 2006 Goody also contributed a weekly column to NOW magazine. However, she admitted on her show Just Jade that she gave her opinions on things to the writers and they wrote the column for her.

Running for charity

Goody signed up for the 2006 London Marathon. She did not finish the course, collapsing after 34 km (21 miles) of the 42.195 km (26.2 miles) and was taken to The Royal London Hospital to recover overnight. The Sun newspaper reported that the final action of the "panic-stricken" Goody was shouting "I'm dying, I'm dying".^[12] Before the race, Goody described her preparations to TV chef, Gordon Ramsay (who completed the course), "I've been eating curry and chinese and drinking." Afterwards, she explained why she could not finish the race:

"I don't really understand miles. I didn't actually know how far it was going to be. I'll be honest, I didn't take it seriously which is really bad of me because there's people out there who actually want to do the marathon. I didn't realise how much commitment the marathon was. I had four training sessions, that's all I did. At most I could run half an hour on a treadmill."

Goody raised around £850 for her selected charity, the NSPCC.^{[citation needed]}

Fitness video

On 26 December, 2006, Goody released a new fitness video Jade's Shape Challenge. Goody has earned a large piece of her estimated £8 million fortune from fitness DVDs. She says that the regime of a healthy new diet and fitness regime helped her shed two stone in ten weeks and drop two dress sizes. However this weight was soon put back on as can be seen on the 2007 Celebrity Big Brother.

On 10 January, 2007 The Sun newspaper revealed that Goody had undergone a procedure called Smart Liposuction at the Leicester surgery of cosmetic surgeon Dr Kam Singh, the same surgeon who had given her mother a new body on the LIVINGtv/Five series "Extreme Makeover."^[13]

Return to Big Brother

On 5 January 2007 Goody, her mother Jackiey Budden, and her boyfriend Jack Tweed entered the Big Brother House for Celebrity Big Brother 2007.

Upon entering the Big Brother House, Goody was informed that she and her family (later joined by Jermaine Jackson, Shilpa Shetty and Ken Russell) would stay in the main house in luxury, while the 8 other remaining celebrities would become their servants and live in the house next door. Goody was not informed that she and her new family faced an eviction in which the public voted for their favourite to keep in the house. As a result, Jackiey had the fewest votes and was evicted on January 10 2007 ^[14].

Fellow housemate Donny Tourette left early by scaling over the wall, saying "Mate, I'm out of here. I'm not fucking waiting hand and foot on some fucking moron and her family. I'm out."^[15] On 7 January 2007, Ken Russell asked to leave the house after arguing with Jade and her family. In a statement he said: "I don't want to live in a society riddled with evil and hatred".^[16] He left the house at 14:55.^[17] On the same day, Goody's grandparents entered the Big Brother house for a meal and left shortly after.^[18]

On 19 January, Goody was evicted from the Big Brother house when she received 82% of the vote. In contradiction of their own rules and in order to limit the fallout and possible assaults againt Goody, Channel 4 banned crowds gathering outside the house to greet Goody and cancelled a press conference with her.^[19] In her interview afterwards with Davina McCall, Goody stated that she was "disgusted with [her]self" after watching a video of the alleged bullying.^[20].

PR Guru Max Clifford stated that Goody now faces an "uphill struggle" to rescue her career, and that: "Ironically, the programme that made her could be the programme that breaks her." The Sun newspaper's editorial said Goody's previous image was "a meticulously manufactured lie. (Goody) had shown herself to be a vile, pig-ignorant, racist bully consumed by envy." Columnist and TV Presenter Lorraine Kelly said she hoped Goody would "now disappear into obscurity. There really has to be an end to the celebration of stupidity and ignorance."^[21]

Accusations of racism

Goody has been accused of making racist comments about, and derogatory comments to, her fellow housemate Shilpa Shetty^[22] and for hypocrisy because of her support for an anti-bullying charity.^[23] A number of complaints have been received by British broadcasting regulator Ofcom about the behaviour of Jo O'Meara, Danielle Lloyd and Goody towards Shetty.^[24] By 20 January, Ofcom received a record of more than 50,000 complaints from members of the public,^[25][26] while Channel 4 received an additional 3,000 complaints.^[27]

Among Jade's comments were: "I've seen how she goes in and out of people's arseholes"^[28], as well as suggesting Shetty "makes [her] skin crawl".^[29] She also referred to Shetty as 'Shilpa Poppadom'.^[30]

Their behaviour has created an international outcry gaining heavy coverage in the Indian media. Gordon Brown, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer visiting India at the time, condemned the programme on the grounds that he is against anything which might damage the perception that Britain is a country of tolerance.^[31] In a statement on 17 January Channel 4 defended the programme against charges "of overt racism or racial abuse".^[32]

Personal life

Goody had a stormy, on and off relationship with TV presenter and fellow reality television regular Jeff Brazier, the father of her two sons, Bobby Jack, born a month early on June 6, 2003 and Freddie, born in September 2004. Goody has stated she is of mixed race. ^[33]

References

External links

• Fan site
• Please use a more specific IMDb template. See the documentation for available templates.
• More information about Jade's fund-raising efforts
• Jades P.A. at LIVINGtv.co.uk
• Celebrity Big Brother Updates: Jade Goody