Prostitute Blogger May Be Faking It

Turns out everyone's favorite prostitute blogger, Belle de Jour, may actually be writer Sarah Champion. Don Foster, the Vassar professor who unveiled Joe Klein as the author of Primary Colors, analyzed Belle's bloggy prose and determined that Campion matched Belle's style: " "While no piece of evidence is conclusive by itself, I'm sure we have found our woman." Belle made news after receiving a book deal, which may, according to the Post, fall apart if she's not really a hooker. What kind of proof would a hooker need? Physicals from the past years, showing various VD's? Her ID in the Prostitutes Union? Anyway, some of the smoking gun similarities between Belle and Champion as reported by the Times of London: "They both display an extraordinary love of obscure bands, have relations in Yorkshire, have spent time in Manchester and are widely read in modern literature." Huh. Sounds like a British hipster to Gothamist.

Champion has been in San Francisco and asked, "How did you find my name? Give me a clue?" when a reporter contacted her. Meanwhile, Belle is still denying that she's been outed.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment on March 22, 2004 7:46 AM

Comments [rss]

Rocka

Now if only they put this much energy into finding Bin Laden...

d

the BDJ link is broken.

spieler

Forensic Linguistics, interesting as hell in this world of words.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20031220/bob8.asp

Google for more...

Row

Fake or not fake:- fun to read. Let's escape into the unreal virtuality here!

Real life is outside/offline.

Jay Smooth

Some of Don Foster's other investigations have been proven wrong later, such as his attribution of the poem "Funeral Elegy" to Shakespeare, which he now admits was incorrect.. so he's not infallible. I'd like to see the details of his analysis though.

Harold

Faking it? Why has no one pointed out the obvious: Sarah Champion is moonlighting as a prostitute...

jonmc

I don't know which of them it is, but the fact that it's fake falls squarely under "Duh!"

It's a new spin on an old middle-class fantasy, only this time instead of having a heart of gold, the whore has an intellect of gold.

Suckers.

jkottke

Champion denied being Belle de Jour in yesterday's Guardian. The Independent speculates that knucklehead journalist Andrew Orlowski is BDJ, which he has sorta kinda denied. Belle herself says she has not been outed.

brian w

Champion denied being BdJ in the Observer yesterday. Andrew Orlowski, who was linked to her, did the same in the Register. Troubled Diva has details & links.