Jade Goody (Tweed) Dies

[Sundae]

I doubt any American has heard of her.
And many of the Brits will be perplexed as to why it matters to me.
But it does.
I watch Big Brother every year, have done since its inception.
And Jade really made me laugh. And won my admiration. I started off thinking I couldn't bear to be in a room with her, and ended up wishing we could go down the pub together.

She was poorly educated. She seemed to have no common sense. The world of literature was a closed book to her. And yet somehow she was endearing. She wasn't just a reality TV star. On screen and in interviews she was herself. She behaved in public exactly the way she'd always been in private. She was Jade. End of.

She died in the early hours of this morning.
I've given her her own thread because she was larger than life. And I will miss reading about her.

Reality TV star Jade Goody dies after cancer fight
By NANCY ZUCKERBROD – 2 hours ago

LONDON (AP) — Jade Goody, a dental assistant turned reality-TV star whose whirlwind journey from poverty to celebrity to tragedy became a national soap opera and morality tale in Britain, has died. The 27-year-old had cancer and died in her sleep early Sunday at her home in Essex, southeast England, her publicist Max Clifford said.

Goody gained fame at 21 in 2002, when she joined the reality television show "Big Brother," in which contestants live together for weeks and are constantly filmed. Loud and brash, she became a highly divisive star — initially mocked as an ignorant slob, then celebrated as a forthright everywoman by a hungry tabloid press.

It was a pattern of praise and condemnation that followed her for the rest of her life. Goody became a national touchstone who sparked debate about race, class and celebrity in Britain.

For some, Goody was a survivor who had overcome a tough childhood on a London housing estate. Her father was absent and often in jail, and her mother struggled with drug addiction.

But she also was reviled in the press during her stint on "Big Brother" for her weight, her big mouth and her apparent lack of general knowledge — she branded the English region of East Anglia "East Angular," and asked whether it was abroad.

She didn't win the show, but she did become a celebrity, earning millions through television and magazine appearances, an autobiography, a perfume and a series of exercise videos.

It was during a follow-up stint on a celebrity version of "Big Brother" in 2007 that Goody was labeled a racist bully for her treatment of another contestant, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. Goody bad-mouthed Shetty's cooking of Indian food, mocked her accent and referred to her as "Shilpa Poppadom." While complaints against the show skyrocketed, so did ratings.

Goody's treatment of Shetty sparked anger in India and Britain — even becoming the topic of debate during a House of Commons question-and-answer session with then Prime Minister Tony Blair. A major sponsor suspended its advertising deal with "Celebrity Big Brother," and a chain of perfume shops pulled a Goody-endorsed fragrance, ironically named "Shh..."

After television viewers voted to evict Goody from the show, Goody — herself of mixed race — insisted she wasn't a racist. "I argue like that with everybody. It wasn't just because of the color of her skin that I was that aggressive," she said during an interview on Britain's GMTV.

After the eviction, the Indian Tourism Office invited Goody to travel to the country. She did, visiting charity projects and later agreeing to appear on an Indian version of the show.

"The people of India have only seen a small part of me and I'd like to show them that there is more to me," Goody said. "I'm a mother of two, a businesswoman. I can't be all that bad."

It was during filming of the show in the summer of 2008 that Goody received a diagnosis of cervical cancer by telephone from a doctor in Britain. The camera captured the deeply personal moment, which was shown repeatedly on TV in Britain, though not in India.

The progress of her illness was chronicled in detail in the tabloid press and weekly magazines, to the unease of many.

"Goody isn't rich or famous because she won the lottery: she's rich and famous because we bought all those papers and magazines and ghosted books with her on the cover, because we watched her television series, because we cheered when she was good and booed when she was bad, because we sat around discussing her over lunch," wrote columnist India Knight in The Sunday Times. "Now she's dying, she's making us all feel bad so we want her to go away, like a broken toy that's stopped being fun."

In February, a bald and frail Goody, married fiancee Jack Tweed in an elaborate event staged at an elegant countryside hotel outside London. She reportedly sold the photos for more than $1 million.

Goody defended being paid for interviews and photo shoots.

"People will say I'm doing this for money," she said. "And they're right, I am. But not to buy flash cars or big houses — it's for my sons' future if I'm not here. I don't want my kids to have the same miserable, drug-blighted, poverty-stricken childhood I did."

Before her rise to fame, Goody worked for a period as a dental nurse. She had an unhappy childhood in a poor south London neighborhood. Her father was a heroin addict who served jail time for robbery and died in 2005, her mother a former crack addict who lost the use of an arm in a motorcycle accident.

While many empathized with Goody as she underwent surgery and chemotherapy in the public eye — filming part of the experience for another television series — she still inspired vitriol in others. A Web site was even set up, devoted to predicting when she would die.

In February 2009 Goody's publicist said the cancer had spread to her liver, bowel and groin.

Goody is survived by Tweed and her two sons Bobby and Freddie, with an ex-boyfriend, television presenter Jeff Brazier. She also is survived by her mother, Jackiey Budden.

Budden told reporters Sunday: "Family and friends would like privacy at last."

[DanaC]

Poor lass.

I always had a soft spot for Jade. Actually, I really admired her. The way she handled the abuse and tabloid nastiness when she first came out of the BB house was impressive. The way she handled the racism row was equally impressive I thought. Me? I'd have hidden in my house and not come out for months. Not Jade. Say what you like about her, she was always prepared to stand there in public and explain her position. Then seeing her turn into such a committed mum. Ballsy chick. Hard to believe she was only 27 when she died isnt it? She's been in the public eye for such a long time.

In effect Jade grew up in public. She was just a kid when she first came to our attention. So she wasn't very bright (in some ways, in other ways she was) and said dumb shit. She was a fighter who'd had a very challenging childhood, yet never lost her spark, even when dying.

I feel like the nation's lost its slightly stupid, but very sweet little sister.

R.I.P Jade. Youve done brilliantly.

[Sundae]

Thanks Dani.
It's good to know that an intelligent and studious woman like yourself (someone I look up to) understands.

She'd have been baffled by the both of us But she had the power to draw people in. Even people who would have confused her.

[DanaC]

Oh don't get me wrong, from time to time the media fascination wih her pissed me off. And because she lived in the public eye we saw her warts and all. That meant from time to time she came across badly. She didn't come across well during the Shilpa shetty incident, but I never bought the racism tag. She did come across as a bully on that occasion. But hating her for it wuold have been like hating a child for acting up, she had that kind of innocence to her. Spoke before thinking.

I was never comfortable with the way the media responded to her. That building up and tearing down. The usual British pattern. Some nasty shit was said during the American elections on both sides in the media; but nobody does a tear down with quite the level of savagery that a British tabloid manages with a character like Jade.

In Britain we build all our heroes from wicker, it makes them easier to burn.

I will say this though; she is the only one of those reality tv turned media stars that I ever watched or whose name I bothered to remember. She was compelling when she was on the screen. Like you Sundae, I initially thought I wouldnt have been able to bear being in the same room as her, but ended up thinking I'd love to go for a drink with her. I suspect she'd be a fab addition to any girly night.

[Trilby]

I know about Jade. I thought she was gutsy but i only knew of her thru her interviews with press - not the tv show. she had her mind on her boys to the very end. a wonderful mother if you ask me.