Belle de Jour (writer)

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For the 1967 French film, see Belle de jour.
For the television character sometimes called Belle de Jour, see Hannah Baxter.

Belle de Jour is promoted as the nom de plume of a former London call girl.[1] Under this name she maintains a successful blog, Belle de Jour: diary of a London call girl which by 2003 had achieved selection by The Guardian as its blog of the year,[2] she then elaborated on her blogs in her first published book, The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl, which has given rise to two more books published in both the UK and US.

The name recalls the 1928 novel Belle de jour by Joseph Kessel and the 1967 film of the same name starring Catherine Deneuve, directed by Luis Buñuel. In French "Belle de Jour" is an expression translating literally as "beauty of [the] day," as opposed to "femme de nuit" or "belle de nuit," women of the night (common references to prostitutes). "Belle de jour" is a play on the phrase, possibly a reference to the daylight rendez-vous made by some call girls, including Belle de Jour herself.

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[edit] Real identity

There has been speculation in the media as to the real identity of the author, whether Belle really was a call girl and whether her diary entries are based on fact or are entirely fictitious. Belle has always maintained that she is who she claims to be and her publisher, Orion Books, continues to print her first two books as part of its "Non Fiction/Memoir" line.[3] Her third book, however, has been classified as fiction and purports to represent a fictional continuation from the first two.

[edit] Television spin-off

A television series loosely based on the first book was in development with Channel 4 in the UK, but eventually aired on ITV2 as Secret Diary of a Call Girl. The first series aired from 27 September 2007 to 15 November 2007 starring Billie Piper as Belle. It is now being re-aired in the United States on Showtime. The second series started in the UK on ITV2 on the 11th September 2008.

The third season is scheduled to run in the UK in late spring 2009 and is intended to make its way to North America by fall 2009.

[edit] Other work

From November 2005 until May 2006, Belle contributed a regular column in the Sunday Telegraph.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Belle de Jour". Orion Books. http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/11455-0/author-Belle-de-Jour.htm. Retrieved on 2007-11-21. 
  2. ^ "British Blog Awards 2003". Guardian Unlimited. http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/weblogs/story/0,14024,1108883,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-11-21. 
  3. ^ "The Intimate Adventures Of A London Call Girl". Orion Books. http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/MP-42688/The-Intimate-Adventures-Of-A-London-Call-Girl.htm. Retrieved on 2007-11-21. 
  4. ^ "Belle de Jour - diary of a london call girl". http://belledejour-uk.blogspot.com/. Retrieved on 2008-06-23. 

[edit] External links

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