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I have talked to loads of people about Jade Goody in the past few days.
She's gone from hoping for a miracle cure to coping with a terminal diagnosis and her picture is everywhere, from the covers of celebrity magazines to giant TV screens at stations.
Everyone I've spoken to feels uneasy about this exposure, not because we're hard-hearted but because it turns us all into voyeurs.
We're familiar with Ms Goody's story, from grim beginnings in Bermondsey, to “reality” TV star, to young mother struggling with the fact that she's only got a few months to live. At the weekend she was photographed huddled in a wheelchair on a shopping trip to buy a dress for the wedding she is planning at the Royal Marsden Hospital.
Earlier, she was snapped with a bald head, the result of chemotherapy, and the images were shocking for magazines where well-known women usually appear at their airbrushed best.
As well as being widely reported, these last months of Ms Goody's life are being recorded for a documentary by Living TV. Some people argue that that's perfectly OK. She has agreed to do it and even says she's thinking of having her death filmed. She's lived her entire adult life in public, so why not this as well?
I won't watch it and I'd rather live in a world where such films weren't made, let alone shown. But Ms Goody is used to TV crews and maybe she finds their presence comforting.
No one could fail to feel sorry for her, but there is a problem. As the comedian Rob Deering remarked to me yesterday, TV series like Big Brother could not exist without class divisions.
From the beginning, Ms Goody has been famous for not knowing things, whether it's place names or the length of the London marathon. Middle-class commentators enjoyed sneering at her because she was uneducated and craved attention so much.
That's why I find her story so troubling. The latest developments are nothing to do with breaking taboos, just the logical outcome of allowing production companies to abandon human decency in pursuit of cheap thrills.
The Romans used to entertain themselves with bread and circuses, and the modern equivalent is Big Brother and its offshoots.
The ghastly truth is that Ms Goody's life and death have become popular entertainment — and that's more reality than most of us can stand.
The rot has set in for Woody
If you've been reading reviews of the new Woody Allen film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, you might be under the impression that he's back on form. Don't believe a word of it.
Last weekend I watched an amateurish travelogue of Spain unroll in front of me, unable to decide whether I was more irritated by the droning narration or the waste of good actors.
Rebecca Hall is the obligatory Diane Keaton stand-in and there's some girl-on-girl action for dirty old men in the audience. I just don't know how Allen gets away with it.
Please put me in the picture
My local cinema is scheduled to be demolished as part of a plan to regenerate the area around Hammersmith town hall. I'm delighted about the creation of a new piazza with shops, cafés and restaurants, but I'm aghast — as are my neighbours — that the council hasn't included a cinema in the proposals.
A supermarket is proposed for the site, as if we don't have enough of those already, and the council hasn't replied to my letters asking if it has bothered to find out what local people want.
According to our MP, Greg Hands, none of the council's potential partners in the scheme considered a cinema to be viable. But there are plans for a new one on an NCP car park site on the other side of King Street.
So we are asked to believe that our existing cinema isn't viable but the new one will thrive. I wonder if the council has done any research to support this assertion, and when they will it allow us to see it?
Reader views (13)
you may be gone jade but you will never be forgotton!!!!!
rest in everlasting peace little angel and young mum of two little boys farewell darlin you've found peace at last!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
rest in peace jade
- Ann Keogh, dublin/ireland
Whilst I like many other people sympathise with Miss Goody, we all have to remember there are lots of other people, including a friend of mine, who is also in the Royal Marsden, who will die. Unfortunately she will not be making a penny from the media for her children.....
- Debbie, Reading, UK
Sarah Bradshaw - it's not so easy to "not tune in" unless you avoid all newspapers.
I agree with Colin Mills - this story is the modern equivalent of the freak show in
latterday travelling shows and is perhaps even more repulsive "entertainment".
The fact Miss Goody earns so much is a dismal reflection on our society.
And yes of course she's going to give it to her children - who else?
However, has it occurred to her to donate the £1million wedding income to cancer research? For all those who write cosy messages about her I expect there are countless terminally people who feel very left out of all this.
- Dee, london
The only undignified people here are the pond slimes criticizing a terminally ill woman who they've probably never even met and who's leaving behind two very young children. I don't know how you can be so heartless to write the things you have. It is not just unnecessary, it is inhumane. Do you also wish you didn't live in a world where people with cancer try to raise money for their charities or where the Paralympics take place? Tough bananas, this is life, get over it why don't you.
- Disgusted Of Hampstead, London
Firstly , you go N.Field from harrow , I totally agree with you.Wtaching JAdes story has definately made me appreciate life as it has beena reminder that none of us are here forever and that cancer is a lottery that could effect any one of us.
Joannie is also right about others dying of this disease and all the attention being on Jade , but the thing is Joannie , her case is highlighted because she is a celebrity.The attention her story has brought has been remarkable and I know atleast three young girls who have since been for a smear test purely because of Jade.For that reason alone she should be put on a pedestal.
- Rlm, London
I have read the Standard more or less every day for 20 years and for the first time ever have got half way through and been so angry that I have closed it and binned it. The article is cruel and I hope that Jade or any of her family do not see it - as if they haven't got enough to deal with. If 10p is given to her sons by me watching her die then sign me up, as a mother there cannot be a single person heartless enough to condemn what she believes is the right thing for her children, seeing them financially secure, its not everything, I agree but at the moment that's all she's got. And as for turning it into a Victorian freak show, well I disagree because watching what Jade has gone through should be a reminder that every day of our lives should be treasured, I would rather watch that reminder than constant adverts for things that we cannot afford but break our necks every day to buy. I'm sure that for a lot of people that have had a normal background and comfortable life with a stab at an education and chance of a decent career that this might be a bit gritty, but Jade has never had any of these things until reality tv came into her life but she has always said that she knows that these things are important and has always promised them for her boys even before the cancer struck. She is sticking to her promise even when the going has got as bad as it possibly could. Good for her - GO GIRL!!
- N. Field, Harrow, Middx.
I think the public is finally waking up, making up their own minds and choosing to pass judgment or not.
Chidi
- Chidi, London, Uk
Jade isn't the only person dying from cervical cancer in London, so please so putting her on a pedestal. Where is the media for the other victims of this terrible disease?
- Joannie, London, England
I am no fan of reality shows in general but this is one I would support. She is doing it for her kids and that is good enough reason but it's already encouraging other women to get screened too. Good on her I say!
- Daniel Rapp, Hampton, Middlesex
Who are we to judge? Is it right for people to make money out of being professional critics? Is it right for someone like Gordon Brown to lie and deceive so that he can remain in power. Is it wrong for a girl who has been continuously let down by her parents, the makers of Big Brother, the NHS for failing to diagnose a very curable cancer along time ago?- The only thing she can do and control is how she manages her own life - She may not articulate in the way the chattering classes would prefer but her instincts are fine and moral. She has forgiven her parents and effectively been parents to them. She has said she would never sue the NHS and make money out of the tax payer (take note Leslie Ash) and she just wants to ensure that her children have the best education and a secure upbringing that she is now going to be cheated of witnessing and sharing. Respect her wishes and stop passing judgement. Leave the girl alone. The public watch Big Brother. We should all hang our heads in shame.
- David Green, London
I think when a person is dying they are entitled to spend that time exactly as they choose. If you don't like the way she's living out her last weeks or months then, as you say, you don't have to tune in.
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx
Spot on. We've sunk so low, we cannot see the surface. Time to rise.
- Vision Aforethought, Oxford
I agree wholehaertedly with your comments on Miss Goody.
Her current circumstances are almost unbearably tragic - even more so because they are being played out in front of millions of people. Certain reality shows have become our equivalent to the Victorians visiting the asylum as a means of entertainment. They create people out of nothing and hand them over to the rest of the media to play with.
I don't blame Miss Goody for wanting to extract every penny she can from the media for the benefit of her children but I find the willingness of certain sectors of the media to pay for her death story quite repulsive. Yes we pride ourselves for the tolearnce and openness of our media world but surely there should be some standards in place to stop these kinds of tragedies being broadcast to us all?
- Colin Mills, London, United kingdom
