Erotic Star

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Pole position, by Keith Austin - 19th March 2007
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)

Bessie Bardot says there's nothing smutty about her new show, despite the title.

In the finale to the 17th season of The Simpsons, Marge and Homer play relationship counsellor to baseball player Buck "Homerun King" Mitchell and his pole-dancing-addicted wife, Tabitha Vixx. The first session, in the Simpsons' living room, prompts this exchange:

Tabitha: "Oh! Your standing lamp is dirty. Let me polish it."

Bart (on his mobile after seeing Tabitha dancing around the lamp): "Cancel all my appointments."

Whether you'll want to cancel all your appointments when new adult reality show Erotic Star kicks off on Foxtel's Arena on Saturday is neither here nor there. The point is pole-dancing has been "done" on The Simpsons. It's arrived.

Or has it? When Home and Away wants to make the point that a character's life (Martha McKenzie, played by Jodi Gordon) is spiralling out of control, they have her enter the supposedly seedy world of pole dancing.

It's a dichotomy that wasn't lost on former model, author and businesswoman Bessie Bardot, the host and co-producer (with husband Geoff Barker) of Erotic Star.

"There is a fine line between being overtly sexual," she says, "but also making sure everyone feels comfortable watching it. I was constantly alert for that. I was always keeping in mind how things were being filmed ... I wanted to be involved in a show that was great TV, but not exploitative, and really kept an elegance about it. Just because it's about exotic dancers doesn't mean it has to be smutty."

Erotic Star, based on a British series that aired last year, is about the search for Australia's "most sensuous performer" and has all the hallmarks of the genre - challenges, performances, judges and evictions - but with the addition of women in hot pants and high heels.

"We did the pilot but really didn't expect to hear anything until we got a frantic call saying they wanted it in three weeks. So we shot eight episodes in eight days in a beautiful beachside house in Manly. It was full-on but, from a producer's point of view, it was fantastic because we had to make it in real time. The girls didn't get a chance to practise in between the challenges. It was exactly how you would hope a reality show would be filmed."

Anyone hoping for a cheap thrill, however, is likely to be disappointed. One of the first girls to go was described by Bardot as too sexy.

"The point was to make an international reality show about the hugely popular pole dancing and the resurgence of burlesque ... so we're looking for a true performer," Bardot says. "Someone who has those burlesque qualities, the amazing costumes, with wit and character coming through ... just being able to wiggle a little bit or table dance was definitely not good enough."

And it's not as easy as it looks. Just watching some of the girls' routines is exhausting. And for evidence that it's not just about a pole and a girl in her knickers dancing around it, watch the Sofia Coppola-directed pop video for the White Stripes' version of I Just Don't Know What To Do with Myself. It features a pole-dancing Kate Moss, who couldn't have done a worse job had she been wearing hobnail boots and a poncho.

So did Bardot herself think to give it a go? "Well, not until the show, and I only tried it when nobody was around. All the crew and the girls were on a break and ... well, I'd seen one of the girls jump upside down on the pole and do this beautiful slow slide around the pole. Of course, I failed miserably. Couldn't even get up on it. It looked incredibly unglamorous, so my ego was a bit bruised. It takes incredible strength. I'm not that strong and not that flexible.

"These girls are like elite athletes. They have to train, learn their choreography. This is their career of choice, not because they got into a bad situation through dependency on substances. Some people are like that but not these girls. Their parents know about it and are proud of them. I think it's good for people to know you can't put them all in one basket."

And who knows where it will all lead? Guess what Anna Nicole Smith was doing when she caught the eye of 85-year-old J. Howard Marshall II in 1991.

Erotic Star premieres on Arena on Saturday at 11.30pm.

Poles apart from Idol, by Annie Lawson - 22nd March 2008
(Credit: The Age)

Annie Lawson reports on the new reality television series that uncovers - literally - hitherto unaired talents.

JUST when you think the reality television genre has explored every possible permutation along comes another format to test the boundaries of classiness.

Trinity, Candice and Brooke, who prefers her porn-star name Beebee Brannon, are among the 10 dancers competing for the title of Australia's most talented Erotic Star, which screens on Foxtel's Arena Channel this week.

Another contestant, Ettiene, a 27-year-old from Bondi Beach, whose favourite pastime is sex, confesses early on in the series that she's scared of heights, which is surely a problem for an aspiring pole dancer. Rival Claudia tastefully admits: "I've had plenty of moans and no complaints."

As is the way in the brutal world of reality TV, contestants are booted off each week for failing one of the many challenges that spice up this eight-part series. There are dance-offs, a James Bond-themed show, and even surfing and beach volleyball skills to master.

World champion ironman Guy Andrews, Ken Done's son, Oscar Done, and body painter Tim Gratton appear as guest judges.

Although it reads like a smutty stripfest to attract voyeuristic viewers, the show's host, Bessie Bardot, insists this is not the case. Instead, she says, it's about resurrecting burlesque - a risque form of dance that blurs the lines between art and stripping, as well as capitalising on the popularity of pole dancing.

"The point of the whole show is based around the hugely popular pole-dancing phenomenon and to revive the lost art of burlesque," she says.

"If people think it's going to be T and A, this is the wrong show. Occasionally you'll see one of the girls topless, but that's all you'll see. It's absolutely not gratuitous."

In fact, there is loads of T and A, and after the dance-off in the second show, one of the judges admits: "I felt uncomfortable watching it. To be honest, I felt like a voyeur".

Bardot, who has made a living out of talking and writing about sex and relationships, aims to debunk the seedy image of the erotic dancing profession.

"It's easy to jump to conclusions that girls who are professional dancers somehow haven't done what they wanted in life or have perhaps been involved with drugs and alcohol, but it's not the case," she says.

That the contestants include a mother whose husband is serving in Iraq, and an English virgin, demonstrates that it's not all about sex, drugs and pole dancing, she argues.

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