Shilpa Shetty - The Biography. Julie Aspinall
it didn’t seem to go any further than that. Dirk still appeared to have a serious crush on the actress, actually blushing when he was teased about it. Ken, meanwhile, was responsible for the next real shock. Following in Donny’s footsteps, he walked off the show, complaining that he simply could not deal with the vulgarity and mouthiness of Jade and her family. This caused quite a stir and, given that Ken, possibly more able to look after himself than anyone else in the household, simply couldn’t bear the proximity with Jade and her crowd, it speaks volumes for Shilpa that she actually managed to stay the course. She went on to have far more to complain about than he ever did and bore it with extraordinarily good grace.
What finally prompted his departure was a row about food: he helped himself to some crackers, an action to which Jade took offence – technically one of the servants should have served him his food. Soon afterwards, he walked out, calling himself ‘fuddy duddy’ and saying that some of the surprises were ‘a little too much to take’. No one was under any illusion as to which ‘surprises’ he was talking about; afterwards, he described Jade’s onslaught as ‘a non-stop stream of top-of-the-lungs abuse that was both unwarranted and obscene’. Ken might have been one of the major controversialists of the day in his time, but he couldn’t take such ill-educated vulgarity, and it was left to Carole to tell the others he’d left the set. ‘He was a lovely old man,’ she said. ‘I shall miss him.’
Jade then accidentally broke Shilpa’s glasses. Ominously, it was revealed that her grandparents were to visit the show. The introduction of Jade who – oh, the irony of it – only became a celebrity herself by appearing on the programme, along with her loud and noisome family, was always going to be interesting, to say the least. Clearly, it never occurred to anyone that this ploy might be so successful as to make headlines all over the world. Even a generation ago, the idea of someone like Jade finding a national platform, let alone becoming the centre of attention to politicians and public alike, would have been quite laughable.
But we live in a different society now; one created in part by the makers of Big Brother, that exercise in voyeurism masking itself as a social experiment, which has done so much to make crude behaviour mainstream. The Goody clan’s antipathy to Shilpa contained the seeds of something really nasty, and perhaps because of this the ratings were shortly to go through the roof.
It was still not obvious what was beginning to happen, however. Indeed, the real interest regarding Shilpa continued to be Dirk’s obvious attraction to her, even though, at 61, he was 30 years her senior. Dirk was aware of this, too: ‘Even my belt is older than her,’ he sadly told Leo.
But it was clearly on his mind. Asked by Danielle if there could be a happy ending, he remarked, ‘There already is. Naaaah, I’ve been flirting with her, I tease her; it makes her happy. Isn’t that good? For me it’s nothing. When a man meets a woman, it’s always the woman that decides. There may be dinner, but it doesn’t matter what he does. He can do whatever he can to convince her he is a good guy to be with – even today when the girl does all the stuff.’
It was clearly going to be no dice, though. Shilpa had already told the others – who were only too keen to pass it on to Dirk – that she was only interested in marrying a fellow Indian, to say nothing of the fact that she wasn’t interested in an older man.
Perhaps it was the fact that a bona fide Hollywood star was interested in her, albeit one a little past his heyday, or maybe because she appeared to be getting on equally well with Jermaine that around this time there were the first indications that some ugly jealousy was beginning to stir. Danielle’s suggestion that Shilpa and Dirk get married live on air in Big Brother was greeted with hysterics by Shilpa, after which the other women present began to take an altogether bitchier look at the most glamorous woman in their midst. There was some speculation as to what Shilpa earned from her films, as well as the true nature of her star status. Shilpa had apparently compared herself to Angelina Jolie – not, perhaps, the best way of endearing herself to her fellow housemates – a claim the others were only too happy to dispute. Even so, there was still no hint as to quite how nasty matters were to become.
The following day, the atmosphere began to worsen. A mini-row broke out between Jackiey and Shilpa, over ordering a bottle of lemon juice from the food store. Shilpa, said Jackiey, was too controlling. At this point, Jade and Danielle joined in, deciding Shilpa was too bossy. Shilpa looked utterly bewildered by the venom but contented herself with saying that, in India, this conversation would not have taken place. With commendable self-control, she managed not to retaliate, saying she would not shame her parents by indulging in such abuse herself.
Some days later, after Jackiey’s departure, Shilpa’s mother Sunanda commented on how well her daughter had behaved. ‘Her [Jade’s] mother and I could not be farther apart,’ she said. ‘I found her to be very obnoxious. And when Jackiey was rude to Shilpa, she maintained her dignity because, over here, you don’t mistreat your elders.’
Ouch! Could anything have been calculated to dig deeper at the hapless Jackiey? Not only had she been rude and insulting to a visitor to her country but one who was a lot younger than her too.
By this point, the only other woman present who seemed to be sticking up for Shilpa was Carole, advising her to stay out of Jackiey’s way. This might have been the first moment at which Shilpa herself began to have qualms about what was going on: ‘I don’t know what I am doing here,’ she admitted. ‘It is not really my scene … I do like most of the people here.’
Alas, it was not a sentiment reciprocated in all quarters. Though the men still seemed pretty enamoured of her, the women were beginning to show a very unpleasant tendency to gang up.
Jackiey, initially, was the worst offender. Despite the fact that it was hardly a difficult one to master, she refused point blank to pronounce Shilpa’s name properly, referring to her as ‘the Indian’. She continuously made barbed remarks to Shilpa, which may or may not have been the reason why she was the first housemate to be evicted. Shilpa was ‘jarring me big time’, she informed the world when she did her exit interview, but she was not, unfortunately, alone in her feelings. The bullying – for that is what it had become – only intensified with her absence. Stuck in the Big Brother household, Shilpa may have been having an increasingly unpleasant time of it, but her plight was (shamefully) making for gripping TV.
It wasn’t all bad. Speculation about Dirk’s feelings for Shilpa continued, with Shilpa confessing to Cleo that she found Dirk sexy – but too old. She and Jo also chatted about affairs of the heart, agreeing it is impossible to help who you fall in love with. She also admitted to being interested in the idea of working abroad (almost certainly the reason why she went on Big Brother in the first place) before, again, hints of quite unpleasant tensions lurking in the background reappeared. Jade had been making a series of catty remarks about how many servants Shilpa had when she was at home and, clearly increasingly irritated by her attitude, Shilpa asked Dirk if he had ever seen her actually helping to clean up.
The next sign of the rows to come came with the eviction of Carole Malone, possibly Shilpa’s biggest remaining ally in the house. Shilpa actually attempted to console Danielle, who responded badly, much to the chagrin of her supporters outside.
‘I think things escalated when Carole was evicted. Danielle was so upset because she felt that Shilpa was responsible for Carole leaving the house and that night Danielle had a bit too much to drink and exchanged a few cross words with Shilpa – which she later apologised for,’ said Leeandra Anderson, a great friend of Danielle’s. ‘Danielle will be deeply disheartened when she leaves the house to find out what has gone on in the outside world. I’m sure she will be hurt, but she has the support of her family and friends. We know she’s certainly not racist.’
What actually happened was this: Carole, Cleo and Shilpa had been caught discussing nominations, something in direct contravention