Billie Piper, who portrays the anonymous blogger and prostitute Belle de Jour in London in the Showtime series, has been revealed to be based on the real life of Dr Brooke Magnanti, by the Times Online.
Dr. Brooke/Belle has used smoke and mirrors, false email accounts and a cryptic network up until the Times Online interview to keep her true identity hidden.
Dr. "Belle" is a specialist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology. According to the Times, she holds a PhD in informatics, epidemiology and forensic science and is now working at the Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health. She is reportedly part of a team researching the effects of exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos on fetuses and infants.
Dr. Brooke/Belle has used smoke and mirrors, false email accounts and a cryptic network up until the Times Online interview to keep her true identity hidden.
Brooke described how she solicited an agency website and sent an email with a couple of photographs and then went for an interview.
In 2003, she blogged about her agency interview.
The woman who interviewed Brooke asked her about her range of services. “So now we have to talk about services.” She pronounced the word like it had 12 vowels: suuuuuuuuuurvices. "Have you done A-levels?" A-levels? Well, yes, but that was years ago. Besides, I was under no impression that academic fluency was a prereq for the job. “A-levels?”
“You know,” her voice dropped to a whisper. “Anal.”
“Oh, right. Yes, I can do that. Provided I haven’t been out for a curry the night before.”
From 2003 to late 2004, Dr. Brooke was a prostitute in a London escort agency; and in a tip of her hat to a Catherine Deneuve film, named herself Belle de Jour and began her fee-based sexual escapes for £300 an hour - which she got to keep two-thirds of.
Fear of debt and curiousity led her to prostitution.
“I have a pathological aversion to being in debt. My mother’s family are Jewish; there’s this hoarding thing, saving, being prepared — if you’re in debt somebody could come and knock at your door and take it all away tomorrow. It got to the point where I didn’t have quite enough money for my rent..."
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