So now the world knows who Belle de Jour is. That she isn't the creation of well known authors, the fantasy of perverted men or even worse, Toby Young.
No, she's the living, breathing Dr Brooke Magnanti (cancer expert by day, escort by night), who has now had her face plastered over newspapers in most corners of the world.
There seems to be no end to the fascination with prostitution and women writing about their sexual experiences. That's what made Belle (or Brooke) into one of the most successful bloggers on the web and turned her into one of the first bloggers with a book deal.
During the last few days there have been a lot of articles written about Brooke. Newspapers and blogs have analysed everything from why it's wrong to glamourize prostitution to if it's still possible to stay anonymous online.
There's not much that can be added to the debate. Except maybe that prostitution has always been around and that the women who do it have always been glamourized. Books about women selling their bodies have always sold well. And the combination of anonymity online and sex has been the foundation of the web from the start.
But to me it seems like Belle's story was actually over before all of this happened.
What we're seeing now is just the reality TV continuation of it. The interest in Belle would have faded, unless something happened, something like Dr Magnanti outing herself. I'm not suggesting that she's done it just to fan the flames. Going public must have been difficult and humiliating, but also something that she has probably prepared herself for during a long time.
The way she's outed herself makes it seem like she's had a lot of control over the process. Either that's an image she's chosen to portray or it's actually the case. According to her interview she also seems to have had a lot of control during her days as an escort and over her anonymity, hiring lawyers and concealing the money trail from her publisher.
A lot of the stories that have been written about Dr Magnanti lately have questioned if she really enjoyed what she did, if she really had control over her outing, if she really will survive the media craze that will follow those nice, but sexy pictures of her in The Times. Is it so hard to believe that this woman actually chose to have sex for money, enjoyed it, wrote about it, managed to stay anonymous and then skillfully chose to go public?
She will now earn a lot more money. Her next book will sell well. She will probably be invited to lots and lots of talk shows. And the tabloid media will dig around in her past. I get the feeling Dr Magnanti is quite prepared for all of this and hopefully she can continue doing exactly what she wants in the future. Which I suspect is writing best-selling fiction, since she's got a novel coming out in 2012.