But Hannah's no media original. Never mind the prostitutes that came before (hello, Julia Roberts in those PVC boots) or after her (as you read this, 90210 guru Darren Star is working on a tart-with-a-heart series for HBO). Call Girl also has a Sex and the City/Carrie Bradshaw aftertaste that I hope it spits out more often than it swallows. Think about it: Single girl, loves sex, lives in an expensive city in a great colorful apartment with a double-sided walk-in closet and a dazzling array of clothes, which she finances with one of those jobs no one really believes exists. For Carrie, it's being a columnist who can buy designer shoes. For Hannah, it's being a call girl who likes it. And that's where it gets a bit...well...toothy.
Call Girl had U.K. critics spitting tacks over its Zen depiction of the world's oldest and most controversial profession. Happy hookers with a university education who ''choose'' to go into prostitution are so rare that some skeptics don't even believe Hannah's real-life counterpart, pseudonymous Belle de Jour author Belle de Jour, exists. (For clarity, let's refer to Piper's character as ''Hannah,'' and author/blogger Belle de Jour as ''Belle,'' from now on.) Her identity still is the London literary world's most-guarded secret. There's speculation that Belle's blog was created by a group of writers, that she's a man, that she wasn't really a prozzie. But obviously she/they/he know a lot about French literature and cinema — Belle's nom de plume is from the eponymous Joseph Kessel novel-cum-Luis Buñuel film — and has a fantastic turn of phrase: ''Escort, hooker, prostitute, whore, I don't mind what you call me. That's just semantics.''
The question I can see being asked about Hannah in the States is the same one inspired by Weeds' Nancy Botwin: Why doesn't she just get a real job? I, for one, don't know (and don't totally believe Hannah's protestations that she always likes the sex). But finding out the reason is much more psychologically interesting to me than not having this show at all. And if there are women like Hannah who choose this line of work, don't their stories deserve to be told as much as anyone else's? And as for whether or not Call Girl truly glamorizes prostitution, I'm on the fence. Sure, her flat is phat. She's beautiful and disease-free. She hasn't been attacked by a john — yet. But who would truly want to live like that? For one, any woman will tell you that having sex that often is a cystitis nightmare. Plus, even if Hannah seems contented, read between the lines and you'll know she's amiss.
NEXT: Service men
