Going Public

The exposé of the double life of Georgina Baillie has now gone mainstream with the Mirror reporting that she works as a £110 an hour dominatrix.

Her sordid secret was revealed after a client told how she spanked and whipped him during wild sessions at her London flat.

He described how she dressed in bondage gear to humiliate him for his perverted pleasure. During one meeting she offered to smear peanut butter on her body so he could lick it off. She also bent him over her knee and thrashed him – branding him “pathetic” and mocking the size of his manhood. Details of other services she provided are too depraved to publish in a family newspaper.

Illustrating the story with a selection of photos (not this one) taken from the Satanic Sluts site, the Mirror quotes extensively from the man in his 30s who wishes to remain anonymous "for obvious reasons". He thinks it "unbelievable" that she should complain about the antics of Ross and Brand while she "earns money by dressing as Mistress Voluptua and humiliating me as her sex slave". A non sequitur if ever there was one: though the Mirror is surely heaping more humiliation on poor old Andrew Sachs by reporting these salacious details - and hinting at worse.

I say "salacious" because the Mirror's reportage is couched in the tone of titillating disapproval with which the tabloids continue to report S&M activities (and haven't they had a great year). Thus we have "Miss Whiplash", "sordid", "wild sessions", "his perverted pleasure", "depraved", "humiliation". Those in the BDSM and fetish communities who hoped that in the wake of the Max Mosley affair there would be more public understanding and acceptance of their way of life should perhaps take note.

Oddly, the report includes a quote from Max Clifford, who says, "It sounds as though she’s been a very naughty girl." Not the sort of thing he would be saying if he didn't want the story to come out.

The Mail, meanwhile, has details of another Myspace page, in the name of "Mistress Voluptua", which gives further details of her services. "Greetings unworthy creature, welcome to my dominion," it begins: the worst sort of clichéd dominatrix-speak, if you ask me. "Worship me in a fully equipped dungeon". Always fully-equipped, these dungeons. How much equipment do you need to be fully equipped? Can anyone enlighten me?

The Heresiarch wondered if the page might be a hoax - Myspace isn't the way most professional dominatrices tout for business. But no, the last login was recorded back in August, well before the Ross/Brand broadcast. Is she still in the dungeon business? And was it any more than a brief, possibly abortive, foray? Intriguingly, the Mail also describes the bondage pictures shown in its report, taken from a photo-shoot in 2006, as "newly released". They have been accessible on the web ever since the story broke, so in what way were they released? Did the Mail hacks stumble upon them, or was their attention drawn to them by Mr Clifford?

Baillie and Clifford are certainly playing a double game here. The Mail draws its readers attention to Popbitch, which yesterday offered readers a peek at some stills of a lesbian porn video in which Voluptua took part (see my earlier report for details). But it does so obliquely, merely suggesting that "Baillie may have some other secrets, yet to come to light." They have come to light. UPDATE

When she took the Sun's money for her kiss-and-tell, Georgina Baillie must have known that these skeletons (or perhaps we should say zombies) would come rattling out of her cupboard, dragging chains of which Jacob Marley might have been envious. And although changes have been made to her "official" MySpace page - and still more to the Bebo site that appears under her own name - these attempts have been distinctly half-hearted. What's she up to? Did her genuine desire to speak up for her grandfather overcome her common sense? Or does she fancy herself as a British answer to Sasha Grey?

Whatever is actually going on here, there's certainly a huge contrast between Miss Baillie's erratic behaviour and the dignity and discretion shown by the four women who testified on behalf of Max Mosley a few months ago.