Their one point in common is what happened in suite 2806 of the Sofitel, when a naked Mr Strauss-Kahn emerged from the shower, found the maid preparing to clean the room, and seduced her (his version) or forced her (hers) into giving him a brief blow-job.

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"You can get room service, you can get maid service, there's a restaurant and a bar downstairs, there's even little cafes and coffee shops, " says Patel.

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The next day a maid found Bebb-Jones in another hotel room, with a "self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head", according to details of the court documents reported in the local newspaper, the Daily Sentinel, in 2010.

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They ate tiny sandwiches and cakes in her grand drawing room, while Hattie explained that a maid's role was her only realistic future on the screen.

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His lunch, which he ate on his own in an enormous, empty dining room while reading a book under the absentminded gaze of the elderly maid, and the black-and-white gaze of his deceased wife looking out from photographs in ornate silver frames, was light: soup and a small portion of fish and mashed potatoes, some of which he would allow to go cold.

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