Ms. [Jade] Goody, who has two young sons, learned she had cervical cancer last August, on camera, as she appeared in the Indian version of “Big Brother.” The cancer has since spread to her liver, bowel and groin; on Friday, her doctors told her there was nothing more they could do. And then she told the British public.
“I’ve lived my whole adult life talking about my life,” she explained on Sunday in The News of the World, one of the media outlets that have bought the rights to her end-of-life story. “I’ve lived in front of the cameras. And maybe I’ll die in front of them.”
This is reality television carried out to its most extreme, grotesque conclusion, one not even envisioned in the film “The Truman Show” all those years ago.
Read on. There’s much, much more. I’m inclined to agree with those who say she has seized control of her life for the first time:
Ms. Goody’s publicist, Max Clifford, said that his client had three reasons for wanting to die in public: to earn money to leave to her children; to keep busy through the horror of her last days; and to alert young women to the need to have regular tests to detect early signs of cervical cancer.