Luke quit his hotel job so he was obviously looking for a career change. Even before the show he said he'd like to do some media work and be a celebrity chef. One of his friends said so on BOTS and it caused some surprise because people didn't think he was that ambitious.

All the biggest celebrity chefs have their individual special selling points then you get the B-listers who fill the cookery slots on This Morning, Saturday Kitchen and so on. Luke could easily fit in with that circuit provided somebody helps him get in there. Hopefully the chef's agency he's signed up to will give him some good experience. I don't know a lot about the food industry but I imagine being a development chef would give him the skills to compile recipe books or invent new products for supermarkets, if he wanted to do something less in the spotlight.

It's the type of work he can do where his gender issues are of absolutely no importance so he can be Luke Anderson, chef/food writer/whatever, who just so happens to be transgendered. Compared to all the other high profile transsexuals I can think of, that in itself would be a massive step forward.

Thanks.

I think housemates who actively DON'T want media work are extremely rare; but yes, these days they pretty much seem to accept that the chances are not very high. I do quite like the stuff he has been used for, eg the North Wales Pride and yesterday's Rough Trade guerilla art project; presumably there is not much money in them, but they are refreshingly uncheesy.



Presumably he had to. It is one of the big challenges of doing BB, and presumably why they have so many people who don't have much of a job beforehand. Obviously I hope it will work out well for him, as it seemed to in the end for Aaron last year.


Yes, true. If you had a child who wanted gender reassignment and was finding the whole thing difficult you would not really want to point at Lauren Harries and say - "see - it will all turn out well in the end." She looks odd and seems slightly nuts. Sometimes being an ordinary, popular person is the best thing to be.

I'm pretty sure Luke would love some work in the media but think he's grounded enough to know that going on BB only ever gave him a small chance of that. What it has done is given him the opportunity to do stuff which he would never have had the chance to participate in like the foodie show next year and a platform to educate people about what it's like to go through gender reassignment.

I think there's a huge difference between people who just want to be famous and those who want to do media work because they have something to offer, whether it be the ability to think on your feet and be amusing, a skill or specialist knowledge. Many of the BB contestants fit into the first category, in my opinion Luke fits into the second so I wouldn't see him as desperate for fame but he would be correct in thinking that he has something to offer. It's a shame that the likes of Amy Childs or Mark Wright seem to be attracting media interest whereas BB contestants with more intelligence and more interesting personalities are not.

I wonder what his interviews are for today, he doesn't seem to be giving much away so I presume it has something to do with the story he is doing with Becky for a magazine, as that is supposed to be kept secret.

Yes, true. Amy Childs has the disadvantage of having the most hideous speaking voice ever broadcast, and still I hear it emerging from my tv.

Becki, I hope, not Becky. Otherwise my feelings would be mixed to say the least.

i'm not doing very well re. Aaron. First of all I post some not very enthusiastic stuff on here and he suddenly pops up, then every time I go onto facebook I find my words "I was not a fan" apparently in font size 50 and find that he has been in that thread as well. I'm going to set up my own forum and only allow myself to join so I can post what I want without anyone seeing.

I do feel sorry for all the intelligent, articulate, down to earth, fresh faced people of Essex. I'm sure they're in the majority really but if I was one of them I'd be horrified at the caricature that's always portrayed of the county. Just as I hate it when us Midlanders are always portrayed as boring and stupid. Equally I'm sure not everyone in Derry is a troglodyte although the evidence for that is thin on the ground recently.

Aaron's sudden appearance round here is bizarre! My first instinct was that it was a hoax although now I'm prepared to believe it's real. Everyone's being very polite to him, isn't it a DS tradition for it to have turned into a row by now?

At the risk of sounding like I'm talking about the FB-ers behind their backs, I wondered what your opinions were of the way they pile in on the Twitter trolls? Obviously if people say nasty things to Luke or Becki they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it but I'm not convinced it's our job to get involved. Luke's wit and Becki's feistiness make them more than capable of fighting their own battles, in my opinion. But by standing back would it seem like we don't care he's being abused? I do believe that as supporters, FB friends and trans-allies we have a part to play in spreading a message of tolerance but it's not in my nature to slag off a total stranger, no matter how horrible they've been to someone I respect.

I love how the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster handle their hate mail. If you're not familiar with the "Church", it's a spoof religion making a very serious point about the dangers of religious indoctrination in American fundamentalist Christian schools. Unfortunately sometimes people get an irony bypass, totally miss the message and send them outraged Emails. Rather than shy away from the abuse, the website posts it for all to see and their members hit back with some very witty retorts.

There's a massive debate to be had about the power of hate speech. I'm just not convinced that mouthing off at Twitter trolls is the best way to do it.

The only time I ever go to Essex is to Epping Forest, which is gorgeous and surrounded by incredibly expensive and beautiful Victorian houses. But I rememer John Peel, who lived in Cambridgeshire but often had to work in London, saying that even though it made his journey twice as long he refused to enter Essex.

He started off sounding REALLY paranoid, but now that he has broken the ice he seems to be quite enjoying it. There are some pretty hostile posts, but they are outnumbered. I don't think people are usually that rude to housemates who come on here unless the housemates are rude themselves; Lea came on for a couple of weeks, and people were pretty nice to her.


:[/quote]

To be honest, it isn't really the way. These people are desperate for attention, and there we all are giving them attention. I reported one and got what was obviously the stock reply back saying please don't acknowledge such tweets, just block the person, or you will encourage them. BUT if Luke and Becki ask for help we can't just ignore them or it would be hurtful, which takes priority imo over the fact that actually I don't think it is the best way to go.

A website of shame sounds like an amusing idea, but probably more for a group than an individual.

Yes I meant Becki and not the other other one . Becky is the way I spell my name. Luke has just confirmed on facebook that he is doing an interview for the Leader and beyond magazine. Don't worry you haven't been nasty about Aaron, it could have been much more awkward .

I agree val, responding to twitter trolls isn't really necessary nor does does it help in any way and it just provides them with the attention they crave but it's too tempting sometimes and I've been guilty of it myself on many occasions .

I can't see anything on facebook? Is there a magazine called The Leader and Beyond (which sounds odd) or are there two separate interviews? Now that I have written it, I want to subscribe to The Leader and Beyond. It sounds intruiging.

It's two separate interviews, the leader which is his local paper and beyond magazine which I presume is this http://www.beyondmags.com/

Oh thanks. I can't pin down Beyond magazine at all, with its features on Judi Dench and Paloma Faith. Has anyone ever read it? The Leader is our local paper as well, not to be confused with the Shopper, which is our local rubbish free paper. So I'm glad he's in the Leader and not the Shopper.

Hmmm. Aaron on the agent:


Probably the same this year.

Well, from saying Aaron was my favourite I posted that they were tied for first place then I find Aaron has been lurking plus he ignored the couple of questions I posted so all in all I'm in a major huff

I understand why they do it but I'm not sure it's the best way. You run the risk of being tarred with the same brush although I totally understand why they get angry .... some of the comments are just unbelievable, do these people not realise Luke and Becki are flesh and blood human beings with human feelings not cartoon characters? I can't understand that level of hatred for someone you've never met and who has never done anything wrong to you. My concern is that one of the Luke supporters may go too far in defending him and get banned themselves which could reflect badly on Luke although as I say I know why they feel angry.

Sometimes there's no pleasure in being proved right in your suspicions. Doesn't Aaron say the agent is paid by Richard Desmond too - totally explains why they haven't found Luke much proper work. At the risk of sounding paranoid I'm convinced they want to bury this year's BB to avoid criticism for not dealing with all the bad behaviour, racist comments etc (note for once I'm not just concentrating on the man from Derry) strictly enough.

Awww. There's a lot of luck in these things. It's like those twitcams where every time I manage to type a question Luke (or someone else of previous occasions) starts playing their favourite music track of something.

Yes, you might be right.

I have fans! http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/9950/dstweets.jpg

Does this mean that my efforts to be polite but firm in my questioning of Aaron is working? Since they are unable to call me a troll they are reduced to jeering at me for being too polite. Lovely people anyway.

May I take this opportunity to say that although I know Aaron wasn't your favourite you have always been fair to him, acknowledging his contribution as a housemate unlike some who can't see any good in him. I wouldn't call you a sycophant but I do wonder if you are beginning to thaw a little towards the lovely Mr AA-M

Thanks. Mixed feelings. I respect him for coming on here and giving very frank and interesting answers to the questions. (I started off very softball because he sounded so depressed, but you can see that as he cheered up I got a bit more forceful).

I am genuinely a bit disconcerted though by his honest answers. Especially the one about Mark; I was so startled by it that I got him to repeat it to make sure I had not misunderstood him. I always thought the most endearing thing about Aaron was his real, touching affection for Mark; he cried when he left, and wore a shirt with his face on for every eviction. And here he is saying, unmistakably, that although he liked Mark he was pleased when he left because it increased his own chances of winning. And in conjunction with several other occasions when he has cheerfully admitted to pretending things he didn't in fact feel (and the fact that they have not stayed friends afterwards, though they are not enemies) I think the whole thing was one big act: he thought it made him interesting or poignant or likeable to pretend a big bromance with Mark. For all I know, Mark didn't give a damn, but I find it a bit off-putting.

I must admit it is spiking the guns of those detractors (I was never one) who thought it was very shocking that he should have played a game; every time they imply that he lied or pretended, he says that yes, he did, and is proud to have taken the others in.

I think I prefer my housemates....fluffier....

To be honest, I'm beginning to wonder how much is real and how much is just him winding people up.

Very true. It's livened up a dead forum though.

He does seem to be saying one thing one minute and something slightly different the next plus one minute it was total game playing from beginning to end (apart from Faye) and the next it was only certain bits.

If it's giving him a bit of a laugh winding people up at this time when he's not been well then good luck to him.

Hmmm. A lot of posts have been pulled (not Aaron's). Good.

Well, that is a frank answer - he was being honest. Aaron said all along that he was there to win and I see nothing wrong in that! He was upset when Mark walked but he didin't force Mark to leave and Aaron was right, it did improve his chances of winning because at that time Mark was very popular.

and one particularly nasty poster has been banned.