there's a strange kind of chemistry between us

As we discovered yesterday, if there's one thing that we know about scientists, it's that they are godless killing machines and cold-hearted pitiless genocidal maniacs. It turns out some of them are also high-class prostitutes; well, at least one of them is; well, used to be anyway - specifically Dr. Brooke Magnanti, a research scientist in a Bristol hospital, who has recently revealed herself to be notorious sex blogger Belle de Jour.

So far, so meh, well, plus maybe a little bit of prurient interest in joining the dots between the bright and high-powered scientist in the lab coat and the high-class hooker in the suspenders doing a bit of light bondage with paying clients.

What's arguably more interesting is how the papers have responded - the original revelations were in the Sunday Times, and there was also a fairly baldly factual and non-judgmental piece in the Guardian. Needless to say the Daily Mail prefer judgmental to non-judgmental (they describe the Sunday Times article as "remarkably uncritical"), and just plain mental to either. So they went with the story of the ex-boyfriend who Dr. Magnanti says was partly the reason for her revealing herself (i.e. she was concerned he would spill the beans) - apparently his name is Owen, and he is in the army. Therefore, by the Mail's unassailable logic, he is one of Our Brave Boys and immune from criticism. And what a tear-jerking story of seduction and abandonment he has to tell:

Meanwhile, Owen rattles around the house by the coast he bought for Brooke in the hope this would be where they would start married life together. All he has for company is the cat they both used to dote on.

The cat! Won't somebody think of the cat? And meanwhile she, the Dirty Bitch, is off selling her stories of guilt-free rogering to the papers like the Filthy Whore that she is. Which makes her No Better Than She Ought To Be, I shouldn't wonder.