London's 'Belle de Jour' Is a Scientist Who Had Sex for Tuition Money

The jig is up. Belle de Jour, the former prostitute behind the popular column "Diary of a London Call Girl" and TV series "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" is really British research scientist Dr. Brooke Magnanti, 34. Dr. Magnanti gave the oldest reason for turning to the oldest profession -- to pay for her PhD.

She came forward now allegedly out of fear that an ex-boyfriend might out her. Not even her literary agent knew who she really was.

"It was time. I've felt so much guardedness and paranoia about remaining anonymous recently," Dr. Magnanti told The Sunday Times. "... I don't want this massive secret over me anymore."

But let's step back a moment -- Dr. Magnanti's story isn't anything we haven't heard before. Melissa Beech (not her real name), a college senior from a swanky suburb outside Philadelphia, has written about how a sugar daddy is paying for her schooling in The Daily Beast. Until last fall, a student alleging to be a call girl detailed her experiences at the blog Confessions of a College Callgirl. In the summer, a Knoxville, Tenn., media outlet interviewed a 19-year-old using escorting to pay for massage therapy school. (Stifle that laugh.)

The number of students having sex for tuition money has exploded in Europe, and experts believe it will continue to rise due to the rising costs of education. British researchers found this unusual trend in sex work has grown by 50 percent over the past seven years. In early 2008, France's education minister vowed to increase financial support after a freshman's diary and a book of interviews with undergrads exposed their experiences with prostitution.

It makes sense. There are few jobs you can work while going to school full-time that can truly help you pay for an education. (Read the claim by "Freakonomics" authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner that prostitution can get you the most buck for your bang.)

So since we've heard stories like Dr. Magnanti's before, maybe there's still an outcry because society still can't accept a woman using both her sexuality and her smarts. Why can't a smart cookie give up the cookie as a means to an end? Or maybe it's the fact that Dr. Magnanti went really far in her education that irks us. Commenters are hissing that she's somehow less, her degree somehow not as credible, because she paid for it with carnal currency.

The most shocking part of Dr. Magnanti's story may be that she didn't get exposed before now. With her revelation, maybe stereotypes of exactly what kind of woman engages in the sex industry will start to fall away.

And maybe the next time a highly educated woman admits she did the deed to get a degree, we won't judge her so harshly.

Shop and Save: How Comparison Shopping Can Slash Your Auto Insurance Premiums

Shh! Auto insurance companies have a secret, and not many of us know it: all car insurance is not the same, and comparison-shopping can slash your rates.

Nearly half of consumers aren't aware of all the discounts that can lower your premiums, according to a survey by LowerMyBills.com, a free online service that lets consumers compare rates on monthly bills and lower monthly expenses. The survey found that 79% of consumers feel they're paying too much for car insurance -- yet 45% don't know how to find the best coverage for their coverage and budget needs.

Kevin P. Foley, owner of PFT&K Insurance Brokers in Milltown, New Jersey, says he's not surprised that so many consumers pay too much for car coverage, or that few cash in on discounts. "Failing to shop around is the no. 1 mistake people make when buying insurance," he says, "and that can cost a consumer a lot of money."

Super-Sized Savings

Donna Johnson, once a devoted State Farm customer in Austin, Texas, had never considered shopping around for car insurance. Like most policyholders, Johnson says she didn't realize how much a few calls could save on her bottom line, and that she had no idea she'd save so much money without sacrificing coverage.

But once she did investigate other carriers, Johnson chopped her annual premiums down. "I priced three companies, and in one day, I saved $70 per month -- $840 a year," she says. Johnson says comparison-shopping alerted her to discounts that she hadn't been receiving. "I received a multi-car discount, one for safety features on my cars, and one for being accident- and ticket-free for a certain period of time."

Comparing rates can also give you peace of mind. It gave Gail Berg of Mountain View, California, a pleasant surprise: "I found out that my current carrier was cheapest of them all," she says. "It was nice to know for sure."

The Tricks of the Trade

In addition to double- and triple-checking about discounts, Foley suggests a few other tricks for pricing other carriers. "Some companies quote semi-annual -- not annual -- rates," he says. "Do your homework and get annual pricing, to make sure you're getting the best deal."

When you start comparing prices, Foley cautions against looking at just dollars and cents. "Use your current policy, limits, and deductible -- not your invoice -- to compare quotes."

He says you should also keep "underwriting information handy." That information includes the year, make, and model of each vehicle you want to insure, along with each Vehicle Identification Number; and driver's-license numbers for all drivers in the household.

Also know that there's no point in concealing any flaws in an applicant's driving record. "The accuracy of the quote depends on consumers being honest," Foley says. An agent will have to pull a detailed copy of your driving record before finalizing a policy, so trying to hide speeding tickets or accident claims will only slow down the process.

And bear in mind that a rate quote is only an estimate of what the insurance will cost. If an agent misquotes the premium and understates the rate, you'll still be charged the amount figured by the insurance company. To ensure that your bill will match your quote, ask the agent or carrier representative to submit a non-bound application for you before you commit to a policy. That will indicate the true cost of the proposed coverage.

Where to Look?

Asking family members and friends for recommendations is one way to find carriers to compare, but there are others. "You should also check your state's insurance department, to see if they produce an annual survey of insurance premiums for different scenarios, or to make sure the company is licensed to do business in your state," Foley says.

It's also smart to compare at least three different carriers, Foley says. "That will increase the odds you'll get the lowest rate possible."

Student Braves Controversy, Refuses to Recite Pledge

Will Phillips doesn't believe that describes America for its gay and lesbian citizens. He's a 10-year-old at West Fork Elementary School in Arkansas, about three hours east of Oklahoma City. Given his beliefs, he refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, specifically because that one phrase, "liberty and justice for all," he says, does not truly apply to all.

That did not go over well with the substitute teacher in his fifth-grade classroom.

The Arkansas Times reports that he started refusing to say the pledge Mon., Oct. 5. By Thursday, the substitute was steamed. She told Will she knew his mother and grandmother and they would want him to recite the pledge.

Will told the Times the substitute got more and more upset. She raised her voice. By this point, Will told the newspaper, he started losing his cool too, adding: "After a few minutes, I said, 'With all due respect ma'am, go jump off a bridge.'"




That got him sent to the principal's office. The principal made him look up information about the flag and what it represents. Meanwhile, there was the inevitable call to his mother.

At first, mom Laura Phillips told the Times, the principal talked about Will telling a substitute to jump off a bridge. When pressed, the principal admitted the whole incident was sparked by the boy exercising his constitutional right not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Phillips suggested an apology was in order -- from the teacher. When the principal said that wasn't necessary, Will's mother started venting to friends via Twitter. Those friends, in turn, told the news media. And what would have been a minor classroom incident has people throughout Arkansas and beyond choosing sides.

As for Will, he continues to exercise his right to remain silent. It can be rough at times, he and his family admit. He has his share of supporters, however, his critics are louder and nastier -- especially because he took his stand to defend gay rights.

"In the lunchroom and in the hallway, they've been making comments and doing pranks, calling me gay," he told the Times. "It's always the same people, walking up and calling me a gaywad."

Nonetheless, Will told the paper, he is sticking to his convictions. A reporter for the paper asked Will -- with all this talk about patriotism and the pledge -- what he thinks it means to be an American.

"Freedom of speech," he responded. "The freedom to disagree. That's what I think pretty much being an American represents."

His mother is proud.

"He's probably more aware of the meaning of the pledge that a lot of adults," Phillips told the Times.

Five Painless Ways to Cut Expenses

Trimming the home budget doesn't have to mean more macaroni and fewer cable channels. Here are five ways to smartly — and painlessly — cut your family's expenses.

Desperate Times, Thrifty Measures.

Since the recession began two years ago thrift has resurfaced as something of a national obsession. That's good. As a nation we had gone off the deep end in terms of debt-fueled consumption and low savings. Now, tough times are spurring a reversal. The U.S. savings rate, once around zero, has pushed upward to about 4% this year. We could do better, and plenty has been written about how to go about pinching more pennies.

You've probably seen a lot of this advice and found it either predictable, too painful to actually act on or insufficient to make much of a difference — things like shopping with coupons, buying energy-efficient windows and appliances, cutting back on your Starbucks habit, dropping the premium cable package (and maybe joining Netflix), having the house cleaner come half as often (and maybe picking up a broom), getting familiar with craigslist.com so you can buy more stuff used, going to the library, vacationing at home, quitting the health club (and jogging), turning down the thermostat (and putting on a sweater).

Minimize Investing Costs

Most folks don't think much about the cost of investing because they aren't active traders, and so discount brokerages offering $7 stock trades as an alternative to much higher full-service fees don't mean much. Yet odds are you have some money, maybe even quite a bit, tucked away in one or more mutual funds in, say, your 401(k) or an IRA and that you pay no attention to the recurring fees these funds impose on you whether you buy, sell, hold or, well, just go to sleep. These fees fly under the radar because they are deducted from your balance and typically minuscule next to the gain or loss in your portfolio. But make no mistake: you pay them, and the costs can be surprisingly high.

Thankfully the costs can also be chopped down fairly easily. The key is sticking with extremely low-cost index funds, where the annual expense may be as little as 0.2% of your balance as opposed to actively managed funds where the annual expense typically runs about 1.19%. What does that mean? On an account worth $100,000, your annual cost in index funds is a mere $200 instead of $1,190 with actively managed funds. So you'd save $990 a year by switching. But that's only the start. The money you save each year stays in the fund and grows. Let's say a low-cost index fund and an average-cost actively managed fund both grow 8% a year for 20 years. Over that period, you'd end up with $75,678 more with the index fund by virtue of the additional compound returns from lower expenses; the index fund would grow to $449,133 while the actively managed fund would grow to $373,455. That's more than $3,700 a year.

Rightsize Your Cell-Phone Plan

Eight in 10 cell-phone owners either pay for service they don't use or rack up regular and excessive overage charges — and, on average, they could save 22% a month or more than $400 a year without altering their calling habits, according to Tom Pepe, CEO of Validas, which advises small businesses and individuals how to pick the right cell-phone plan. Multiply that figure by the number of people in your family plan and you could be talking about way more than $1,000 a year. "The big problem is the invoice," Pepe says. "You just can't understand it." That makes choosing the right plan difficult. Meanwhile, plans offered by Sprint, Verizon and others are constantly changing, as are your family's calling, texting and downloading habits. So cutting your cell bill is like trying to hit a moving target — frustrating and seemingly impossible. For a small fee, you can get a full checkup and recommendations at fixmycellbill.com, a Validas website.

If you want to figure this out on your own start with an unlimited plan because the cost of minutes not included in your monthly package can quickly overwhelm the additional cost of a larger package. Monitor your bill closely for three months; scale back to a cheaper plan when you have a firm grasp on the minutes and services you really need. Overage charges are the single biggest bill buster; make sure you have enough prime-time minutes. Other simple ways to cut: consider switching to a prepaid (no monthly fee) calling plan if you are an occasional user, use your land line when at home to conserve prime-time cell minutes and stop downloading games and ringtones.

Rethink Your Insurance

You'll save 10% right away by raising the deductible on your car or homeowner's policy to, say, $500 or $1,000 from the typical $250. You shouldn't make small claims anyway; they may push your premiums higher. Keep an emergency fund rather than paying for a low deductible. Make sure you buy your auto and homeowner's coverage from the same insurer to get a 15% multiline discount. You can lower premiums further by adding storm shutters, reinforcing your roof or buying stronger roofing materials, or by adding smoke detectors, dead-bolt locks and a burglar alarm or a sprinkler system. You can save on medical insurance too by raising the deductible or switching to an HMO from a more costly PPO or POS plan.

"Raising deductibles to save on premiums makes the most sense for those who are healthy and have cash reserves to pay the increased cost in the event they have more claims than expected," says Kevin J. Meehan, a financial planner with Summit Wealth Advisors in Itasca, Ill. "Many pay for benefits they just don't use." This is also true of life insurance, where you may be able to save thousands of dollars a year in premiums by avoiding whole or universal coverage and opting for a term policy with a face amount large enough to retire all your family debt immediately and leave your spouse with an income stream for life.

Give Time, Not Money

This is no time to turn a cold shoulder on charitable groups that you've supported in the past. Like virtually all organizations and individuals, charities have felt the bite of the recession. They are receiving fewer and smaller contributions, and are cutting their budgets and their activities. If you've been blessed with stable and secure income in these rocky times, by all means keep giving. But if cash is short you can still support your favorite charity as before — by donating your time instead of your money.
A volunteer's time may not pay the rent, but it has measurable value. The Independent Sector, a think tank for nonprofits, estimates that a volunteer hour is worth just over $20. So do the math. If in the past you have given, say, to your church to the tune of $2,000 a year — give 100 hours of your time instead, or maybe 50 hours plus $1,000. You'll save $1,000 or more while maintaining your commitment and feeling good about yourself. One note of caution: the value of your time is not tax deductible, though any materials or supplies you provide while volunteering can be deducted.

Avoid Fee Creep ...

... and watch for unauthorized charges. Fees are going up across the services spectrum as companies look for ways to bolster revenue in a slow economy — and the worst part is that the increases typically are done so quietly you may not figure them out for months. The banking industry has been most aggressive on this front, having raised the price of just about everything from overseas charge-card transactions, ATM withdrawals and rewards cards dues to late payments, cash advances, overdraft protection, wire transfers and even insufficient card activity. It's all disclosed — in the fine print somewhere on page 98. Good luck with that. At the same time, sneaky marketers are finding ways to hit you with small monthly charges that often go undetected by cardholders for months, and once found can be difficult to stop.

You are most at risk when you accept a free trial for any product or service (it just keeps coming and you just keep getting charged) or agree to a monthly payment for, say, access to an online game that you get tired of but can't seem to cancel. Sometimes after successfully canceling, the charges inexplicably start again a few months later. Bank fees and unauthorized (or forgotten) recurring charges can easily cost you $1,000 or more each year. Your best protection is to do a line-by-line review of your charge-card statements every month, paying attention to each charge no matter how small (indeed, especially the small ones) as well as to the interest rate and fees you are paying. Don't assume a phone call to a merchant or service provider will end unwanted charges; you have to keep monitoring your statement and complain to the card company if you are unable to cancel a recurring charge.

Oprah Wards Off Attacks About Revealing Charla Nash's Face

Talk show guru Oprah Winfrey defended her decision to reveal the face of chimp attack victim Charla Nash on her show last week, revealing she considered blurring the image but decided against it.

"There was great concern as to how to show the face, whether to show the face, and how to do it," Oprah shared on friend Gayle King's Sirius Radio show late last week. "And I finally thought that she has to live with it. First of all, she wanted to show it, and she has to live with it, so how dare us think ... because we even considered, 'Should we blot out the face? Should you blur the face?' And then i said no, we're not gonna do that, because it's more important for us to not have to look at her than for her to be willing to show it? That's not right."

Janet Jackson Rips Michael's Doc: "I Think He's Responsible"

While many of her family members have danced around the accusation, Janet Jackson isn't hiding her thoughts on who's to blame for her brother's death.

Dr. Conrad Murray is at fault for Michael Jackson's premature passing, she says.

"He was the one that was administering," she tells ABC's Robin Roberts in an exclusive interview airing Wednesday night. "I think he is responsible."

The doc is still under investigation for the death, and has admitted to giving the icon the anesthetic propofol.
Placing blame isn't the only thing Miss Jackson is spilling in the rare sit-down.

"I couldn't believe it," she says, recalling June 25 and the moment she found out her brother was deceased.

"I was at my house in New York," she remembers. "You know, another day. Another morning. And I get a call...[my assistant] said, 'Your brother's been taken to the hospital. It's on CNN right now.' I called everyone...I spoke to Mother. I spoke to Tito. I spoke to my nephew Austin. I spoke to my sister La Toya.

"I told them to call me when they got to the hospital. And I remember thinking, nobody's calling me back, so I tried calling again, and that's how I found out that he was no longer."

Not surprisingly, she was shocked.

"It didn't ring true to me," she recalls. "It felt like a dream. It's still so difficult for me to believe."

The public memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, she says, gave her a bit of closure.

Janet was understandably less open about people's accusations that Joe Jackson was an abusive father.

"You have to keep in mind that I'm the baby," the youngest of nine siblings circumvents. "I think it's old-school. And that may extrapolate into, ah, being a little abusive. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Overall, 2009 has been a difficult and eventful 365 days for the pop queen.

"It's been a tough year," she says. "You have your days where it's just, really, it's hard to believe. And a day doesn't go by that I don't think about him."

Murray, for his part, hasn't had a great year, either.

Jackson's under-the-gun doc is due in court today for missing child-support payments.

His attorney Christopher Aaron says Murray was forced to shutter his medical practice and move as he received threats following Jackson's death. Because he has been unable to find work since, Dr. Murray will be asking the Las Vegas judge to allow him to make minimum payments for the time being.

Courteney Cox, David Arquette Back On 'Scream' Series

Courteney Cox isn't done running from masked serial killers.

The 45-year-old "Cougar Town" and "Friends" star says she's excited about returning to the horror genre in "Scream 4," the upcoming slasher sequel being written by Kevin Williamson, who wrote the first two films in the popular horror trilogy. Cox met her husband, 38-year-old actor David Arquette, on the set of the first "Scream" film in 1996.

"There are really only a few of us that survived," says Cox.

Cox and Arquette will reprise their roles as overzealous reporter Gale Weathers and bumbling sheriff Dwight "Dewey" Riley in the fourth installment, along with 36-year-old actress Neve Campbell, who starred as the series' heroine, Sidney Prescott. Cox shrugged off rumors that Weathers and Dewey would be killed off at the beginning of the film.

"They're probably back living in Woodsboro," Cox said referring to the small California town that was the setting of the first film. "I think that he's probably still deputy, and I've had a lot of kids. I don't know. I'm probably miserable, and then I'm sure a lot of murdering will happen."