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LONDON - British television star Jade Goody, accused at home and abroad of being a racist bully for her treatment of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, was evicted from the Celebrity Big Brother show today.
The 25-year-old was favourite to be kicked out by public vote after she was cast as the villain of a programme that has triggered protests in Britain and India, prompted a sponsor to pull out and now threatens Goody's lucrative career.
Even top politicians have weighed into the row, which has dogged a visit to India by finance minister Gordon Brown.
"There is a lot of support for Shilpa," Brown told reporters on Friday after visiting Bollywood producer Yash Raj Chopra and film stars at a studio in a northern Mumbai suburb.
"It is pretty clear we are getting the message across. Britain is a nation of tolerance and fairness."
Shetty, an A-list Indian star, was called a "dog" on the show. Housemates refused to learn her name, referred to her as "the Indian" and "Poppadom", and model Danielle Lloyd said: "She should f*** off home. She can't even speak English."
Internet chatrooms, news bulletins and newspapers have been abuzz with debate about whether what was said on the show constituted racism and to what extent Goody and her allies in the Big Brother House reflected prejudices in society at large.
Because the house is cut off from the outside world the contestants knew little of the controversy surrounding them, although Big Brother producers did warn Goody yesterday that her remarks may be interpreted as racist.
"I sincerely apologise to anybody out there that's in India that that may have offended," said Goody, before learning of her eviction. "I also know that I don't judge people by their nationality or by their skin colour."
Trevor Phillips, head of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, was in no doubt that events on Celebrity Big Brother were part of a broader problem.
"What we are seeing is a noxious brew of old-fashioned class conflict, straightforward bullying, ignorance and quite vicious racial bigotry," he said.
"This programme has laid bare the dark heart of private prejudice that all too often sits behind the public veneer of tolerance."
Some commentators argue that the issue is more one of class than race, while others consider events in the house as little more than bickering prompted by female jealousy.
Shetty herself rowed back from earlier comments suggesting she was a victim of racism, and she and Goody hugged and made up late on Thursday and again on Friday.
Channel 4, under pressure to limit the fallout, has banned crowds gathering outside the house to greet the evictee and cancelled a press conference with Goody. The show has attracted around two million extra viewers since the row erupted.
Carphone Warehouse, Europe's biggest mobile phone retailer which paid around £3 million ($8.63 million) for a year's sponsorship of this series and another in the summer, said it was pulling out because it did not want to be associated with allegations of racist bullying.
- REUTERS
