[Feefs]

I was (cough) working from home thismorning, and happened to have the tv on - in the background you understand. I was (not really) watching The Wright Stuff on Channel 5. It's got that journalist bloke, whose first name I've forgotten, but his surname is Wright and he's the one that interviewed Paul and Helen on Rich and Famous.

Anyway, it's on every morning and they discuss a number of issues that have been in the news lately. The final topic of the morning was "Strip Clubs - are they harmless fun, or seedy and degrading?" After a bit of chat where Jerry Springer (one of the panel) was saying they were fun and fine for consenting adults, and Lowri Turner saying it encouraged the idea that women could be bought, and some general bickering, Mathew (remembered his name) said - "in the audience we have Amma from BB, who used to be a lap-dancer. Is it degrading ...?"

Unsurprisingly, Amma said she wasn't degraded and it was a choice ... It was a bit strange, because I don't think Amma really did herself any favours by this appearance. In her attempts to defend her career choice, she managed to draw attention to the fact she'd dropped out of uni, her other job was really boring and it was the only things she could get at that time that paid as well. And of course reminded everyone that she used to strip. It would have been much better if she'd focused on things I've seen her say written in interviews about it being a stepping stone, and how she loves to perform, and now she's done some acting and singing etc.

She also let herself down a bit by taking ages to answer questions asked of her. In particular she hummed and hawwed over "how much money did you make?" She must have been asked this before, but it took about 5 minutes and lots of faces before guessing ".... on a good night .... on average ... if things have gone well ... in the region of ... about ... 3 ... 3 to 6 ... roughly .... between 3 and 6 hundred .... ". And that's the abridged version!

However, it perhaps shows that even if she couldn't be seen, getting her name in the papers for doing The Brits has reminded program makers that she is out there. It's just a shame she couldn't have used the exposure more positively, but perhaps she genuinely did want to defend the honour of lap-dancers?

[Kaz]

Thanks for that, Feefs...... just when you least expect it, an appearance by a BB housemate!

I remember Amma in the house saying she didn't think there was anything wrong with lapdancing - she even likened it to seeing topless girls on the beach. It was Elizabeth (who else!) who pointed out it was the fact that she was being paid to do it which made the difference.

Amma does seem to have a problem expressing herself when answering questions. I seem to recall she was quite stilted during her stint on BBLB with Dermot too.

I agree it would have been nice if she could have taken the opportunity to let people know that she has now moved away from that line of work and had done some acting and singing. However, the programme makers probably weren't interested in that information.

[Feefs]

You're probably right Kaz, the producers perhaps told her to keep to the topic, but Lowri Turner handed her a golden opportunity to talk about her ambitions and what new things she's been doing when she asked her why she didn't do it anymore. However, I think you are aslo right about Amma finding it difficult to answer direct questions that could be considered aggressive.

She's probably spent so much time in the past defending her choice of job, that autopilot kicks in, so she reels out the stock answers on the subject. It is of course very easy for me at home, and also as someone who got sent for media training by my company, to see her wasting opportunities. Every time she said 'I enjoyed performing', I was willing her to continue to say 'which is why I was thrilled when I was asked to act in Dream Team ...'

One thing I did notice was that even if some of the panel thought lap-dancing was degrading, no one seemed to think going on BB was. It was assumed everyone would know who she was, and her opinion was considered valuable. Apart from the question on money (obviously something she isn't comfortable talking about), Amma was clear and confident, and had good tv presence, so as well as an appearance fee, it was probably still a good opportunity to take.