Britain: Nauseated by his own odours but inspired by crowds of teenage girls, American showman David Blaine is just days away from completing a 44-day starvation stunt inside a Perspex box that has both fascinated and infuriated Britons.
The handsome, 30-year-old New Yorker appeared languid but cheerful yesterday - raising a hand to groups of girls shouting "We Love You, David!" as he lay stretched inside his box dangling from a crane beside London's river Thames.
"This last week is the tough part - I can feel it getting really hard," Blaine told viewers watching 24-hour "reality TV" coverage of his bizarre ordeal, due to end on Sunday.
Blaine, who says he has only been consuming water via a tube since entering the box on September 5th, has been complaining he smells of sulphur and has repeatedly said what he most longs for is to bathe and clean his teeth.
The illusionist has also shown signs of delusion, dreaming of worms in his stomach and describing feelings of claustrophobia where the Perspex walls "feel like they're crushing my skull apart".
Thousands of Britons gather day and night at the box to taunt, laud or simply ponder Blaine. His enemies - who deride him as an American upstart doing a pointless stunt - have sought to keep him awake with fog-horns and drums; and have attacked the box with golf balls, paint and rotten eggs.
Displaying a peculiar cruelty that has intrigued high-brow commentators and sociologists, the anti-Blaine camp has also tormented him by waving odorous fish-and-chips, hamburgers and other food at him.
Women have mockingly bared their breasts, men their buttocks. One woman ran totally naked under Blaine on Monday.
"It's not big, it's not clever, it's a grown man in a plastic box," sniffed one British website "dedicated to keeping David Blaine awake for 44 days and nights" (www.wakedavid.co.uk).
Despite such vitriol, sympathy has grown for Blaine and most people crowding under the box on Tuesday spoke up for him.
"They are all probably ugly and jealous," 16-year-old Suzannah Dickson said of Blaine's detractors.
She and two other friends, all there "because he is very good-looking", won a wave from Blaine. - (Reuters)