Belle pursues a new, seemingly exciting business opportunity on the August 4 “Episode 8” of Showtime’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl, which also serves as the series’ first-season finale.

When an American film producer convinces the hooker she can make even more money than usual by joining a group of highly paid international courtesans, Belle gives the idea a shot. To her dismay, however, she soon learns that courtesans have to give up much more of their freedom to please demanding clients.

Belle works on her website in the first sneak peek after the jump called Real Life, and in the second, Your World, she has a not-so-breezy conversation with her mother.

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The July 28 “Episode 7” of Secret Diary of a Call Girl features a foursome.

That’s actually not the most distinctive part of the plot, however, because Belle ends up with an unusual “colleague” to help round out the group — the one and only Ben, who’s recently devoted so much effort to giving our dear hooker a hard time for pursuing her profession of choice.

In the two sneak peeks after the jump, Ben interviews for the odd job in Job Interview, and Belle gives him some reassurance in the clip Standard Practice.

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The July 21 episode of Showtime’s hit British import Secret Diary of a Call Girl gets downright scary, thanks to the darn Internet and hooker Belle’s determination to keep her expensive lifestyle intact.

When someone gives the prostitute a bad review online, the news spreads quickly, leading to a substantial decrease in her number of clients. The lack of work causes Belle to schedule clients she wouldn’t if business was fine, and she ends up meeting with a certified weirdo as a result.

Check out the second video following the jump, appropriately titled Just Go, to get an idea of just how creepy the situation becomes. The first video, For Me, features a conversation between Belle in Hannah form and Ben, who advises her to give having sex with men for money a bit of a break. Sounds like a plan.

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Uh-oh, guys! The July 14 episode of Showtime’s racy — or should I say “saucy”? — Secret Diary of a Call Girl is probably the one you’ve been hoping for all along.

When one of Belle’s regulars makes a request for a very special threesome, everyone’s favorite prostitute decides to get over her dislike of working with other women and welcome her fellow hooker Naomi into her client’s, I assume, gigantic bed.

Too bad, then, that just as Belle becomes more “sociable,” the new whore on the scene establishes better “rapport” with her client and steals him right away. It’s enough to make you almost feel sorry for the poor call girl.

There’s also some stuff about Ben in there, too, which you can preview in the second advance scene below.

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You know, I really wish somebody would give Secret Diary of a Call Girl’s episodes proper titles!

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, here’s what’s happening next on the July 7 episode of the hit new comedy: Belle isn’t too thrilled when she learns Ben is engaged and didn’t bother to tell her sooner, but that doesn’t stop her from seeking out help from a dominatrix in order to please an S&M-loving client.

A little Monday S&M to jump-start the week — nice. Two previews follow to get fans, er, excited about the next installment.

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Wow! This episode of Showtime’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl should remind us all of just how small our own problems are. When you live the life of prostitute Belle, life gets really tough.

For instance, during her latest all-night adventure in getting paid for sex, Belle decides to step out on her customer by hooking up with another customer … in the same hotel. But can she manage to satisfy Man #2, who seems tireless, before Man #1 wakes up and discovers she’s gone?

See what I mean? How will she possibly make it out of that situation alive and with her sanity intact? Check out the two clips below if you want a few hints.

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Following last Monday’s series premiere, it looks like Showtime has an undeniable hit in the U.K. hooker series Secret Diary of a Call Girl, starring former Doctor Who actress Billie Piper.

In the second episode coming up this Monday, Hannah/Belle scores a new client who takes her to a big-time party she’s long wanted to attend. Unfortunately, family obligations intervene, and when she has to meet her relatives unexpectedly, she’s also put in the position of having to explain why her appearance is so, well, slutty.

See exactly what I mean in the following clip from the episode — it’s a good one.

Secret Diary of a Call Girl airs Mondays on Showtime at 10:30pm EST.

Cable’s Showtime has a new comedy called Secret Diary of a Call Girl premiering Monday night at 10:30pm EST that stars former Doctor Who companion Billie Piper as a companion of a whole ‘nother kind.

The U.K. series already aired across the pond from September to November 2007, where it quickly gained popularity. Based on a book based on a blog — yes, a blog, and one hosted by Blogger at that! — anonymously written by a person who claims to be a London prostitute, the show follows her life and times as she mostly contentedly plies her trade.

In other words, the central character, 27-year-old college graduate Hannah Baxter aka Belle, is a relatively Happy Ho (they say “call girl,” but it’s all the same to me), not a drug-addicted one down on her luck getting knocked senseless by her pimp and johns everyday — that would be too depressing and realistic for a comedy.

I guess the fact that she’s all Billie Piper cute and whatnot also means viewers are supposed to relate to her better, kind of like Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw, but getting paid instead of just writing a column about her sexual exploits and hanging out with her talkative girlfriends all day.

Get a first look at the series in the sneak peek after the jump. Since the second and third seasons are already on order in the show’s country of origin, we can look forward to at least a couple more years of Hannah/Belle, as well.

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The 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday were a big deal because the event happened to be the first entertainment awards ceremony this year that had the full approval of the striking Writers Guild of America. In other words, the stars were out in full force since they weren’t crossing a picket line, and the fans and paparazzi were able to go crazy over the red-carpet arrivals. Ahhh, to be a worshipper at the altar of celebrity, which I should note I am most definitely not.

Now on to the winners for comedy listed first in each category below in bold and with an asterisk. The clear trend is everybody loves NBC and 30 Rock, which begs the question why the sophomore sitcom still doesn’t have higher ratings after all this very public and continuous acclaim. Hmmm. Maybe the comedy gods know and just aren’t saying…

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series

• Tina Fey, Liz Lemon/30 Rock (NBC)*
• Christina Applegate, Samantha Newly/Samantha Who? (ABC)
• America Ferrera, Betty Suarez/Ugly Betty (ABC)
• Mary-Louise Parker, Nancy Botwin/Weeds (Showtime)
• Vanessa Williams, Wilhelmina Slater/Ugly Betty (ABC)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series

• Alec Baldwin, Jack Donaghy/30 Rock (NBC)*
• Steve Carell, Michael Scott/The Office (NBC)
• Ricky Gervais, Andy Millman/Extras (HBO)
• Jeremy Piven, Ari Gold/Entourage (HBO)
• Tony Shalhoub, Adrian Monk/Monk (USA)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

• The Office (NBC)*
• 30 Rock (NBC)
• Desperate Housewives (ABC)
• Entourage (HBO)
• Ugly Betty (ABC)

Yet more awards news broke recently. On Thursday morning, the Screen Actors Guild announced the nominees for the 14th Annual SAG Awards, an event most notable because the winners are determined by the votes of actual actors.

Basic cable’s TBS and TNT networks will simultaneously broadcast the 2008 ceremony live from the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center on Sunday, January 27, at 8pm EST. Viewers can count on this telecast airing exactly as planned and free of any writers strike-related strife since the Writers Guild of America has already granted waivers to the organization for the use of clips and writers. The higher profile People’s Choice Awards, Golden Globes, and Academy Awards weren’t so lucky.

Before I indicate how the roster for television comedy shapes up, I’d like to give a special shout-out to the next Life Achievement Award recipient, Charles Durning. The 84-year-old Tony Award winner has appeared in an impossibly wide range of movie, stage, and television productions dating all the way back to the early 1960s, but younger TV watchers probably associate him most with the FX dramedy Rescue Me, where he plays Denis Leary’s hilarious father. I’m thrilled to see Durning honored in such a grand manner.

Now on to the comedy nominees…

2007 SAG AWARDS COMEDY NOMINEES

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series

• Christina Applegate, Samantha Newly/Samantha Who? (ABC)
• America Ferrera, Betty Suarez/Ugly Betty (ABC)
• Tina Fey, Liz Lemon/30 Rock (NBC)
• Mary-Louise Parker, Nancy Botwin/Weeds (Showtime)
• Vanessa Williams, Wilhelmina Slater/Ugly Betty (ABC)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series

• Alec Baldwin, Jack Donaghy/30 Rock (NBC)
• Steve Carell, Michael Scott/The Office (NBC)
• Ricky Gervais, Andy Millman/Extras (HBO)
• Jeremy Piven, Ari Gold/Entourage (HBO)
• Tony Shalhoub, Adrian Monk/Monk (USA)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

• 30 Rock (NBC)
• Desperate Housewives (ABC)
• Entourage (HBO)
• The Office (NBC)
• Ugly Betty (ABC)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries

• Ellen Burstyn, Posey Benetto/Mitch Albom’s For One More Day (USA)
• Debra Messing, Molly Kagan/The Starter Wife (USA)
• Anna Paquin, Elaine Goodale/Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (HBO)
• Queen Latifah, Ana/Life Support (HBO)
• Vanessa Redgrave, Woman/The Fever (HBO)
• Gena Rowlands, Melissa Eisenbloom/What If God Were the Sun? (Lifetime)