Billie Piper may be heading to Hollywood, if The Sun is to be believed. In what seems to have been an actual interview, Piper told TV Biz that ITV's Secret Diary of a Call Girl is in the early stages of getting a movie treatment.
The series, based on the pseudonymously-posted blogs, books and Telegraph column of 'Belle De Jour' (named after the 1967 Catherine Deneuve film, and later revealed to be academic scientist Brooke Magnanti) is about a university-educated professional struggling to make ends meet (fnar) in London, and resorting to the life of a high-class escort to earn a bit of extra location allowance. Cue much "romping". Piper is currently filming its fourth series, beyond which, she says, "I'm not sure it has legs, so we're trying to develop a movie."
That might sound like wishful thinking, were it not for Secret Diary's surprise success in the US, where it's broadcast on the Showtime network. Executives looking for the next Sex and the City have been taking notice of what the New Yorker called "an eight-episode blast of summer heat" (although they had trouble with Piper's accent), and clearly like what they hear in Belle's Carrie-Bradshaw-type voiceover.
We're saying it just might work, although the potential pitfalls - US version of quaint London; Holiday on the Buses style transplanting of Belle to New York - are legion. Tread carefully, Billie...