How celebrity TV manipulates our responses - and grief

The two made up and Goody agreed to appear on an Indian version of Big Brother, which Shetty hosted. Ironically, she was first told of her cancer during that show as the cameras rolled and the lens zoomed in to capture her reaction. Shetty has also been among those to pay tribute to her.

Since then a usually private battle had become very public, with Goody inviting cameras to film both her daily treatment and her wedding last month. She had, by all accounts, raised public awareness of cervical cancer to an unprecedented level. Her dying days were as much a media circus as her healthy ones. She could have invented the term "famous for being famous".

So how can someone with no other claim to fame than ignorant remarks on a tacky reality TV show so affect a nation? Sure, it serves to illustrate people's obsession with celebrity but it's more than that. It also shows how we can feel more connection with someone we've never met than people we've known personally for years. Who will ever forget the world's collective grief at the death of Princess Diana in a Paris car accident in 1997?

I felt little sense of loss when Diana died but before you write me off as heartless, I'll confess to being teary-eyed at the premature death of soccer legend Emlyn Hughes, whose Liverpool team I'd never even supported. The point is, TV is expert in manipulating our emotions - you control the TV button but it pushes yours back in ways you can never expect.

What does it say about life in the 21st century? People live their lives through others, a second-hand existence you might say. To you and me, reality TV might epitomize everything that is bad about people's values. On the other hand, it transformed a no-hoper who started her life with nothing into one who was able to inspire the same kind of adoration as Diana, who started her life with everything.

Is that so bad?