Strange - months ago a close friend of mine, divorced, lonely , life has no particular purpose etc.... asked me to have lunch with her as she was going to an important interview and needed bracing beforehand. The interview was for a reality TV show called 'The ycnegeR yrtnuoC House' where a group of people had to live in a huge R..C.. House for two months in exact R..ency mode. The theme would be that it was a sort of marriage market and would comprise various young girls and suitable young men, several older women chaperones and oddments like vicars, aunts etc. plus an extensive staff. As the family were supposedly rich the lifestyle would be very comfortable indeed.

She, the friend, who I will call T..., was absolutely desperate to go as she was certain that her life would be totally transformed by the experience and, once her many talents had been revealed to the nation, she would be offered all sorts of jobs, possibly her own chat show and would be buried under proposals of marriage. (She didn't say all this but I know her well). She IS very attractive and DOES have many talents - life has been a little unfair to her. Psyched up and dressed with a perfect blend of tweed and tartiness, (to show that she understood country house ways but was also quite 'racy' for audience appeal), she skipped to the interview. After weeks of hanging about and re-interviewing it was down to her and one other. And they gave it to the other. They said that they had to have contrasting types so they chose someone much older. When she had actually secretly thought she was going to get it she said that her whole future happiness depended on this and if it didn't work out 'she didn't know what she would do'.

Last week the cover of the TV guide had a huge photograph of Re..cy women and 'full story of forthcoming new series inside'. I turned to it out of vague interest to see who they had chosen over T.. and there, in an unbecoming hat, was my older daughter's godmother, L.... She lives far away in the 'North' and we hardly ever meet now but she had unusually sent me a Christmas card so I had thought that perhaps she was lonely. When I rang another mutual friend to say 'OMG, how come L.... is doing this?' she said that as L... was divorced, lonely and her life had no particular purpose, she thought it would be a chance to show her talents to the nation and she was expecting jobs, chat shows, marriage proposals etc. ' And', here the friend lowered her voice, 'she had said that if she didn't get it, she didn't know what she would do'.

For f@cks sake. How could two women with massive charm, looks, wit and brains both have no real ambitions or hope for the future beyond prancing about in a rather silly and rather dull TV programme? If it DOES totally change L..'s life then I will obviously admit that I am wrong, but really. The mutual friend said she thought that L... just had a burning, undirected longing to be famous. I think that T... probably does too. They both have a certain ruthless quality which I, personally, like in a woman but does seem to often lead to divorce and general nastiness. In L..'s case she slightly junked her role as a chaperone, apparently, and embarked on a wild affair with one of the 'suitors' who was half her age. For her sake I hope that the series is a big success but for T..'s sake, of course, I rather hope that it isn't. It will be interesting to see which of them is leading the happier life in about a year's time.
- posted by Iris @ 2/04/2004 01:25:00 AM comment