lauren and lily

I just remembered there was something I was meaning to blog about, but being in Florence I can't watch the BBC iPlayer to get the source material I need (it's only available in the UK). Happily, however - and this is testament to how useful a medium blogging is - I note that Alex over at his The Fantastic Hope blog has transcribed the conversation, between Lauren Laverne and Lily Allen on the latter's BBC3 chat show, so I can just piggy back off his hard work. Here's the conversation:

ALLEN: Peter Stringfellow is a nasty man.
LAVERNE: Yeah.
ALLEN: I mean, respect to his trade and what he does.
LAVERNE: What do you mean respect?! Respect to what? Respect to the lapdancing trade? Yeah it's really important to respect that! Do we?
ALLEN: I like it.
LAVERNE: Do you? Oh my god.
ALLEN: When I signed my record deal I went there.
LAVERNE: Did you? To Stringies?
ALLEN: I got quite into it. [coquettishly] I liked sitting there while they gyrated in front of me.
LAVERNE: I'm sure it's very nice; they look like very pleasant girls.
ALLEN: Yeah yeah, it was fun, umm [turning to the camera as if to say 'moving on...']
LAVERNE: But yet, a little bit sad isn't it, really? The thing is...
ALLEN: A lot of girls do it to fund their education...
LAVERNE: Nah, do you know what Lily? That's fucking bollocks, right, cos even if they spend the money on that, it's one of those things that, it's one of those lies that blokes try and sell you that, you know: 'you've got the power, cos like, you're getting the money for it'. Frankly, if you're being paid to be naked, you've not got any power in that dynamic. It's not a good thing. It's a bad thing.
ALLEN: [holding up her hands, perhaps realising she sounds slightly ridiculous] But I think it's a woman’s right to sell herself. If there's a market for it, why not?
LAVERNE: [magnanimous, but clearly utterly appalled by this stage] Let's do this on 'Loose Women'. For now, back to the show...

It's hardly necessary to make a comment on this, I think, although I'm sad to say that because I like Lily Allen and am slightly embarrased that she's taking this line.

Alex, however, has no qualms in telling it like it is:

"If Lauren Laverne personifies alternative music past: funny, articulate, principled, politically aware [Laverne, remember, memorably labelled The Spice Girls 'Tory scum' back in 1997] , then Lily Allen epitomises with horrifying exactitude the present state of the musical-cultural landscape: a place in which consumerism, fashion, self-objectifying sexuality and a kind of reactionary Burchillian brattiness have come to define the public persona of a girl who initially promised something a lot smarter and more creative."