The anonymous blogger "Belle Du Jour" whose career as a call girl spawned the British and Showtime TV series Secret Diary of a Call Girl has outed herself. Apparently she wanted to do it because an ex-boyfriend threatened to do it for her. Her real name is Brooke Magnanti and she's a child health researcher at the University of Bristol. She worked as a escort for over a year while pursuing her Ph.D.

Thankfully, her university has said her past was not relevant to her current job. I wonder if an American university would be as supportive of such a decision, given the taboo of sex work and sex in general in the U.S.

On the other hand, now she can start publishing more books under her real name. If she makes enough (or possibly gets another TV deal), she wouldn't need to worry about who would hire her or not.