Billie Piper is piping HOT on "Secret Diary of a Call Girl"

Right. Showtime is taking provocative to whole new heights this season. Californication will make you blush and cackle with laughter in the same breath, but sweet "Belle" in Secret Diary of a Call Girl shows the strange and surprisingly intriguing side of professional whores. The show is based on the true diary of a former London-based call girl.

I will say it now: Human trafficking is heart-wrenching and despicable, hooking in general, is great joke material, but often alienating and life wrecking, but we are dealing in fantasy and soft camera lenses here. So bare with the concept before you get all Nancy Grace on me. The story is of a 27 year old Hannah, whose professional name is "Belle" (played by British actress Billie Piper). The show dives into all sorts of London in a "Sex AND the city" type of way.

A far cry from her pop music attempt and young-marriage to a Chris Evans (He was 35, she was 18), she brings a tangible maturity and aire of self-sufficiency. As the show splits through her two lives, Billie finds a plausible way to infuse the role with both feministic qualities (I shite you not!) and the pain of a secret life.



Her duplicity and ability to compartmentalize is astonishing. She has two closets, two areas of her condo, and everyone of her friends and family believe she is a night-legal secretary. ( to explain the good money and strange hours). Billie has a way of pulling you into her seemingly intimate situations with her affability. She resembles the girl you would have fallen in love with in high school, doing very bad things. She makes frequent eye-contact with the camera, specifically at poignant or quirky moments of her loneliness or a bizarre client request.

Another way the show keeps you interested past the strange sex parties, the man who wanted to be a horse, the moonlighting she does at a hotel while one client is sleeping, threesomes and dominatrix, is her friendship with her ex-boyfriend who is now her best friend. He keeps it real. They jog together,go to her mother's for sunday lunch, discuss marriage, love, sex and life with the casual informality of close friends.

It is certainly not for everyone. If you are a little faint at sexual awkwardness or worse, witnessing complete inhibition, keep watching "Wife Swap" or "TLC". There is something about Billie Piper's body. Not the typical rail-thin model body, she carries an absolute confidence in her small breasts and wide hips, she is stunningly beautiful and somehow...the cutest, most lovable hooker you ever did see.

Take a peek. Be naughty. If nothing else, it is a sure-fire way to spruce up your Monday night. (SHO,Mon: 9:30CST)