So Belle de Jour was real after all. The Internet’s most famous anonymous sex blogger – turned best-selling author – turned internationally successful TV series – has finally outed herself in the UK’s Sunday Times. And it turns out she’s a character straight from the pages of XKCD.
From her interview with the Times’ India Knight, we learn that Belle is in fact Dr Brooke Magnanti a specialist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology who ran out of money during the final stages of her PhD thesis and decided to become an escort to make ends meet. So to speak. Add in the fact that Magnanti was already a reasonably well known science blogger and ‘The Secret Diary of a London Call Girl‘ was born.
Despite Belle’s growing fame, and the determined efforts of journalists around the world to out her, Belle’s anonymity remained intact – mainly thanks to a complex series of agents and shell companies that allowed her to receive payment for her work without compromising her identity. Even her agent didn’t know her real name until this week when Belle herself chose to out herself, granting an interview to Knight, one of her harshest critics.
A better example of someone operating on her own terms it’s hard to imagine. Anonymous bloggers everywhere can read Belle’s story and take heart in the fact that it really is possible to be both successful and anonymous in the Internet age.
There’s just one problem: it isn’t.
Let’s give Belle and the Sunday Times the benefit of the doubt and assume that Magnanti really did approach them, and not the other way around. There’s no reason to doubt Magnanti’s version of events, but it’s worth remembering that the Sunday Times has a particularly grubby history when it comes to anonymous bloggers.
As readers of my Emmy-award-winning book will know, back in 2006 my friend Zoe Margolis opened the door of her London home at an ungodly hour of the morning to accept a flower delivery from an anonymous admirer. What she didn’t know was that the delivery man had actually been sent by the Sunday Times who had positioned a photographer across the road ready to snap her when she came to the door. Two days later she learned the horrible truth: an email arrived from the paper’s ‘acting news editor’; a scumbag called Nicholas Hellen. In the email, Hellen announced that the paper was preparing to out Zoe as the author of the anonymous sex blog ‘Girl With A One Track Mind‘, which – like Belle de Jour’s blog – had just been turned into a book.
Hellen proposed a deal: either Zoe could agree to give her story to the Times, illustrated with a photoshoot in “glamourous evening wear” taken by their resident fashion photographer – or the paper would run its own hit-job expose, written by fellow-scum-bag Anna Mikhailova and complete with the (in Hellen’s words) “not particularly flattering” paparazzi shot.
Zoe told the Times to go fuck themselves, and the rest is a painful outing, a hideously uncomfortable conversation with her parents and a week of press-camped-out-on-her-doorstep hell (stories she tells in a follow-up book to be published in March 2010)
But, despite the fact that the print version of Magnanti’s Times’ interview is illustrated with a photograph of her wearing glamourous evening-wear, let’s assume this was an entirely consensual encounter. Knight also mentions in the interview that Magnanti has an ‘ex-boyfriend with a big mouth’ and that she had decided to go public before the decision was forced on her. Again, let’s assume that the ex-boyfriend hadn’t already contacted the Sunday Times.
Even assuming all of that, the existence of the big-mouthed boyfriend neatly illustrates the biggest problem with becoming a successful anonymous blogger. As your hidden life takes over more and more of your normal life, there comes a point where you have to share your secret with someone you trust. Batman had Alfred the butler, Deep Throat had Bob Woodward and, as any child of the 80s will tell you, three people shared He Man’s secret – his friends the Sorceress, Man-at Arms, and Orko. In Belle’s case, there came a point in forming serious relationships where she had to confess her lucrative hobby to her lover. From that point on she was just one bad breakup away from being exposed.
(The break-up didn’t even have to be her own; when screenwriter Nora Ephron divorced Carl Bernstein, she took pleasure in sharing the real identity of Deep Throat – her husband’s biggest secret – with anyone who would listen. Fortunately for Deep Throat, not many people would listen.)
And Belle’s secret was known to more people than just her boyfriends. Since the Times published its story a few hours ago, various friends of Magnanti have admitted to being in on the secret. Most were bloggers who knew her from her science blogging days and who pieced together various clues to stumble upon the truth, but who considered themselves part of a ‘bloggers code’ of silence. That kind of code of honour amongst bloggers sounds great in theory – not least because they make the blogosphere sound noble – but, as the financial rewards of Belle’s blogging became greater and greater, so did the financial incentives for her friends to cash in themselves. Once Belle hit a certain level of fame – or infamy – the question went from being “will she be outed?” to “when will she be outed?”
The only way to absolutely guarantee that no-one can out you, then, is to tell absolutely no-one about your secret. Trust no close friends, take no lovers – and keep your signature a million miles away from a book deal. And yet that’s where we bump into the biggest irony of all: the fewer people who are in a position to out your secret identity, the more fierce the compulsion to out yourself. The only thing worse than enjoying huge success with a blog and only being able to tell close friends and lovers, is enjoying huge success with a blog and not being able to tell anyone.
At the risk of hopping back on an old hobby horse, blogging is is, by nature, an egotistical activity. If Belle didn’t have an ego, she would simply fuck people for money, rather than feeling the need to put herself at risk by writing about her adventures. Sure enough, in the Sunday Times interview, Magnanti admits her frustration about not being able to attend her own book launch parties or to otherwise fully enjoy the rewards that success brings. Meanwhile, a Google search for Brooke Magnanti reveals that earlier this year she invited friends on a local web forum to come and support her debut as a stand-up comedian. It doesn’t take a genius to see how someone with Magnanti’s exhibitionist tenancies would be driven mad at not being able to openly showcase her real literary talents.
The truth is, once your work achieves a certain degree of adulation for doing something (especially something as egotistical as blogging), it is basic human nature to want to shout “THAT WAS ME! I DID THAT”. And as the adulation builds, so too does the desire until you simply can’t contain it any longer – and you either become deliberately sloppy in protecting your identity or you go the whole hog and pick up the phone to India Knight at the Sunday Times.
It’s like the scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit where Judge Doom taps out the rhythm ‘a shave and a haircut’ on the wall of Roger’s secret hiding place. Roger knows that he’ll be killed if he’s caught and yet his frustration at not being able to complete the couplet doubles with each repetition. A shave and a haircut… a shave and a haircut… A SHAVE AND A HAIRCUT… until, eyes bulging, body shaking, he just can’t take it anymore and bursts through the wall….
TWO BIIIITTTTTS!
In Doom’s case, the lesson was “Toons can’t resist the old shave and a haircut trick”; in the case of successful anonymous writers, it’s the “I DID THAT” urge that’s utterly irresistible. Hell, even Mark Felt couldn’t resist outing himself as Deep Throat in his old age. The idea of dying before having the chance to say “I did that” was simply too much to bear and so he picked up the phone to Vanity Fair.
And so, inevitably, ends the story Belle de Jour. She had a good run, and now it’s time for Dr Brooke Magnanti to take centre stage and to finally enjoy all of the fame and adulation her considerable literary talents have earned her.
And like all good stories, hers ends with a wonderful lesson… That the only way to truly remain a successfully anonymous blogger is not to have any success whatsoever. Because the moment people start to pay attention to you, it’s inevitable you’re going to get screwed.
And if someone else won’t screw you, you have no choice but to do it yourself.
Love your work
Rupert Murdoch’s News International will have paid to carry this exclusive story in his Sunday Times. He’s already said The Sunday Times wil be his first newspaper to go behind a pay wall. So this type of exclusive story is what he hopes to build his pay wall around. Seeing how quickly bloggers repurpose it, reuse it will be interesting. Will bloggers like Carr advertise what’s in Murdoch’s papers to the point we want to pay to read the original or will it be enough to read versions for free?
No, bloggers like Paul will simply tell us everything we need to know without us needing to go and view the original article (and thus need to pay for it).
Times will get pissed about it, but there’s nothing they can do with what Paul’s done here. He’s probably within copyright and fair use (I say perhaps, the image might cause them some flak, but it’s debatable)
If anything this story is actually a great example of how stupid pay-walls are. I just went to the Times website now to read the original article (and rack them up another page view) — which I wouldn’t have done if it required pre-pay. So Times would have simply lost a hit on their site.
You may be right, I just thought t would be interesting to think about the pay debate using this story as an example. Are you from new media? If there was an easy, inexpensive way to pay and if you kept not being able to read originals, it might be irrititating and you might actually decide to pay. It will depend on those wanting to charge having better journalism than we’ve seen before which would be a good outcome for the fourth estate and society. On this I agree with Mathias Dopfner, CEO of Axel Springer. The crisis of old media is a crisis of journalism. Rupert Murdoch is the carnivour coming to rescue the herbivour, again. I agree with you on the photo though. And without it, what would the story be?
The crisis of old media is the shrinking attention span of the society overloaded with information. Nothing more. The format is no longer right. Reinvent the format people.
Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal was behind a pay firewall long before he bought it. It was when Murdoch bought it that it started coming out from behind that firewall.
When local newspapers go behind a pay firewall, other sources of local news – television, radio, news sites – rejoice. It means more traffic for their websites, and more advertising revenue.
The average daily newspaper sells for 50c, but it costs more than $4 to print and deliver it. The only reason they charge 50c is to convince advertisers that their ads will be seen. Most dailies now own free weeklies, but advertisers know that many free newspapers are thrown away without being looked at.
There’s no news channel that operates on the HBO pay model. Why does Murdoch expect it to succeed on the internet? Oh, yeah, that’s right. He thinks we’re stupid. And considering the success of Faux News, he may be right.
People wouldn’t have to lie if it wasn’t for the corporate censorship which needs everyone to be bland, boring and without flaws.. we live in a very insecure world where we wrap ourselves in illusions so we can sleep at night..
Uh, I’m pretty sure my blanket’s not an illusion.
OH SHIT, WHERE’D IT GO?
Now that’s a very bold & tough step in life. A perfect case for a true-story inspired movie.
I think her anonymity was the main source of entertainment in her work. And now that it is gone…
Having clicked through to the Sunday Times, what’s the copyright on the photo you’ve published with this story? It’s the same as the Sunday Times photo. Is copyright owned by her book publisher or the Sunday Times? I can’t see a photographer’s credit on either.
Nora Ephron was married to Carl Bernstein, not Bob Woodward.
Good spot, thanks. Fixed.
ROFL. Talking about journalism.
Somebody should give Paul a scrapbook because all his articles sound like a bad chapter from a sorority house.
“And if someone else won’t screw you, you have no choice but to do it yourself.”
this was brilliant
the best screw is when yuo do it yourself…to yourself.
There are people who inevitably want to pull someone out of anonymity but I think more than that it has to do with the type of content she was creating. For anything relationship or sex related you want a better picture of the person. If someone has a huge ego when they write you want to know what they’ve got going on to justify it. No one’s sending Bike Snob Trojan flowers, you know what I mean?
At last, Paul Carr is not writing about himself.
Although of course, in keeping with the theme of the article, he couldn’t resist pointing out that his book won an Emmy- ‘I did that!’ indeed. Egotists writing about egotists. Fascinating.
But all in all, a vast improvement, and a nice article- much less meandering than of old. Keep it up.
“he couldn’t resist pointing out that his book won an Emmy”
Comment of the week.
The funny thing is I actually though of writing Grammy instead, but I figured Emmy was obvious enough. My bad.
I say “nobel peace prize” would be more believable nowadays
+1
Never count on Trolls figuring out jokes, even the stupendously obvious ones.
hahaha when i got to that part i actually blinked and read it over and thought ’shit i now have to go and google paul’s book to see if he actually won an emmy”…but then i figured out that it wasn’t true in that same moment and now i’m a bit bummed out. but the piece itself was a good read.
Brilliant piece Paul. The only thing you left out was that I threatened to out her as a means of getting some of my money back. She’s that good.
He-Man *and* Who Framed Roger Rabbit references Paul? Excellent work. Seriously, good work. Enjoyable and timely. Like someone before me has already requested; more of the same please. Cheers.
Lori Meyers used to live upstairs…
Not so much a “blogger’s code of silence” as common human decency, Paul. As chance would have it, I also knew GWAOTM before she was outed, and if BdJ’s life had been similarly smashed to bits as a result of any idle chatter on my part, I could never have lived with myself. And just to clarify, no amount of money could have persuaded me otherwise.
Superb piece, Paul. Just another illustration of how The Times is getting closer to The Sun in its desperate attempt to garner readers.
She is brilliant, humorous, generous, and crack a smile sometimes. This image of abundent emotions, abousoutly outpace her”HR manager, Monthly income over $10,000″ life sign image. Exprss your emotion, let yourself, the life change to a poetic picturre. A woman ~~~S*uga rloves~~c om like that always reversed all sentient beings, got the love of whole world man!
Am i the only one who noticed she still has the mark from her bra on her back?? No airbrushing or time to do the photo shoot correctly?
And the award for ‘thing that matters the least’ goes to….
In other news, your still a douche.. Let me explain.
It does matter because it makes the photo look unprofessional and rushed. If your head wasnt so far up your ass you may have gotten the point.
OK. Sorry for offending you – I realise my post was a poor one.
You forgot about Cringer, He-Man’s fearless friend.
As a casual observer, it seems to me that the British tabloids are 100x more ruthless than those here in the U.S.A. I’ve only visited the U.K. and not lived there, but it is something I immediately noticed on my first visit.
Anyways, great article here Paul.
“And if someone else won’t screw you, you have no choice but to do it yourself.”
… by reading tabloids. On both sides ot the pond…
Actually, Knight refers to the fact that Magnanti posed in lingerie for the photo shoot (because she was asked to). I thought that was pretty suspect when I read it. Not sure why she would agree to this — either she’s suddenly very publicity-hungry or the ST had her over a barrel. So to speak.
We find people who hide behind their online personae and monikers to be reprehensible cowards. And they never quite look like they do in their AdultFriendFinder profile picture.
Sadly, nobody is safe from vindictive exes out to make your life hell…
Mine had the audacity to post a review of my book online, claiming I cheated when it was the other way around. Thankfully I am not as high-profile as Belle but it did rattle me for a few days. Well done her for getting her story across in such an interesting, dignified way!
Nice post, Tolstoy, though I only made it up to the point where Napoleon invades Russia. Anyone want to give me the Cliff Notes version?
Guess reading is harder work for some than it is for others but just for you – Blogger, sex, anonymity, cover blown?
Better?
lol. name dropping comment made to insult another. interesting. just read it. i’m going to read it over a couple of times and let it settle. i’m also gonna reread sarah’s piece and steve’s. i usually read everything no matter how trivial or useful. suffer through text to get to the kernel. paul has a lot to say and a great way of saying it.
“As readers of my Emmy-award-winning book will know…”
Why don’t you put yourself over some more, lol.
awesome post!!!
Marketing of Secret is a very good technique in order to create buzz. If you want to get it right, it’s better to keep the secret for a certain amount of time and then reveal it. I think this episode will be very profitable for Magnanti too.
There’s a simple reason she agreed to out herself to the Sunday Times. The competing Daily Mail tabloid was about to out her (see The Guardian: http://bit.ly/hg6Wu). It’s quite common for people about to be exposed by one newspaper to choose doing so on their own terms in a competing title.
Bet she had a good day for unique visitors on her blog today.
Great post, once again. It’s a shame it gets so few reactions compared to previous week’s one.
Well, I hope some people will conclude from this story that research is slowed because of PhD’s difficult situations.
Could be the headline – ‘Tis Pity She’s A Success – Belle de Jour and the Impossibility of Anonymous Blogging’. Compare it to the Telegraph – ‘Belle de Jour’s father: I slept with 150 prostitutes’.
…at least she gets to go to her new book’s launch party now.
http://blogs.te...ite-for-toffee/
this is a brilliant piece by a literary critic about why she is a bad writer.
“Hell, even Mark Felt couldn’t resist outing himself as Deep Throat in his old age. The idea of dying before having the chance to say “I did that” was simply too much to bear and so he picked up the phone to Vanity Fair.”
Hardly. Felt stoically sat on this for 30 years and only let it out in extreme old age and with more than a little encouragement from family and reporters. He wrestled with conflicting motives involving serious matters; not quite the same as Dr M regretting missing her book launch party.
I didn’t say the thought process or timeline was the same – I said the core motive, and end result was the same.
how about the events in the middle? how come what has happened to her didn’t change the end result or dilute that core behaviour/sentiment/outcome? hahahah want to step in a time warp merlin and try to figure out this lady’s life?
“As readers of my Emmy-award-winning book will know…”
Can you say wanker?
I can, yes.
Can you say “BOOKS CAN’T WIN EMMYS YOU FUCKING HALF-WIT”?
+ 0.5
Touché!
ahahahaaaa. read my comment about the emmy up above.
that’s so original!!!!! burn!!! yo mama and all that shit. please roll over and screw yourself. either that or read “And if someone else won’t screw you, you have no choice but to do it yourself.”
YAAAAAWWWWNNNN