Jade Goody's tragedy

• 24 February 2009 at 00:01
• Gossip, Politik Pop

Jade Goody is a young woman who became famous when she entered the Big Brother house, and the British were always taking the piss at here, because of her coarseness and her stupidity. She came back on the national stage two years ago, by taking part of the "celebrity" edition of the show who made her famous, and by making racist remarks towards an indian competitor. (Her words had sparked furious reactions from Indians, and it was bad timing for Gordon Brown who was officially visiting the country as Chancellor at the time...) In a nutshell, Goody was the star that the British loved to hate.

But things took a tragic turn. To redeem herself, Goody took part of the indian Big Brother last summer. She had even been introduced into the house by her former competitor herself and had insisted that her jibes were "part of the past" and that she wasn't "proud of it". Ironically, this is where she was told she had cervical cancer. Lately, she learnt she had reached the terminal phase and that she only had a few months, maybe only weeks left to live. These revelations shocked the UK, all the more as she's the mother of two young boys.

Since then, Goody does a lot of interviews and photos. Her admitted goal is to make a lot of money to secure her sons' future. Nevertheless, there is something perverted in this behaviour: if she is aware of it and plays the game, the tabloids still make money out of this tragedy.

Many people showed support for her. Like Mohammad Al-Fayed who gave her a haute couture dress for her fast wedding to her boyfriend last weekend. Gordon Brown himself, even though he was in deep shit because of her two years ago, reacted by mentioning the particularity of the media coverage of this story and by insisting on the fact that her approach had to be applauded.

However, of course, reactions are different on this story and some feel free to make fun of it, like this guy I met at a party, or this website who will give an iPhone to who will guess the exact date of her death. But who is coarser when you make fun of someone dying? Jade Goody probably did not deserve her kind of success, but she cerainly didn't deserve neither to lose her life so young, nor the chance of seeing her children grow up. The lact of humanity some show towards her disgusts me more than her vulgarity.

This story is ironic from the beginning to the end. If Jade Goody had not been such a controversial character, her celebrity would have been very short and she would never have got so much support and been able to live this dream wedding. If Jade Goody did not have this terrible disease, she would have disappeared forgotten. Her "last fight" to secure her sons' future is but doing what she could do best: generate gossip and play the medias' game.

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