Fame of Spitzer call girl grows By JAKE COYLE, AP Entertainment Writer Thu Mar 13,
NEW YORK - The collateral consequence of scandal often is newfound celebrity, and for the 22-year-old call girl involved in the Eliot Spitzer scandal, prospects are rising.
The prostitute identified in court papers as Kristen is an aspiring musician named Ashley Alexandra Dupre. Her identity was only first reported Wednesday, but already her fame is skyrocketing.
Curious about the woman so integral in the New York governor's downfall, many have flocked to MySpace to view her photos, music and biographical information. That material was removed Thursday after over more than 5 million visited her page.
Dupre's page had portrayed her as a New Jersey native who left a broken home to pursue a music career in New York. Court papers allege that Spitzer paid thousands of dollars for her services with the Emperor's Club VIP.
"I have been alone," she wrote. "I have abused drugs. I have been broke and homeless. But, I survived, on my own. I am here, in NY because of my music."
Dupre had also posted two songs at the music sharing site Aime Street, which allows musicians to earn a 70 percent cut of download fees, which are determined by their popularity. The songs, "What You Want" and "Move Ya Body" are dance-pop tunes a la Britney Spears.
On "What We Want," she sings: "I know what you need/ Can you handle me?"
As of Thursday evening, the songs had been listened to by some 200,000. Downloads were selling for 98 cents each, though "What We Want" had previously been selling for less than 20 cents. That song was also making it onto the nation's radio airwaves.
"After the first play, a lot of the reaction was negative," said Sharon Dastur, program director of New York's Z100 (WHTZ-FM). "But after the second play, it became, `Play that song again,' and `Hey, that song's not bad."
Major labels would be unlikely to sign Dupre, but in the past smaller labels have taken a stab at capitalizing on such notoriety. Koch Entertainment profited by releasing an album in 2004 by William Hung, the "American Idol" castoff who horrendously sang "She Bangs." (Koch declined to comment Thursday on interest in signing Dupre.)
Susan Ferris, general manager of Los Angeles-based indie label Long Live Crime Records, thinks Dupre is unlikely to win a recording contract.
"Would it get her foot in the door here? There would probably be a morbid curiosity," Ferris said, noting that Nicole Narain, the Playboy model who Colin Farrell sued in 2005 over a sex tape, submitted music to the label that she sampled but deemed "god-awful."
"It's the train-wreck syndrome," said Ferris. "Out of complete curiosity, sure, I would put (the tape) in. Would I then sign her if I didn't think she was great just because of the controversy? No, not at all."
Dupre has not responded to requests for an interview by The Associated Press, and her lawyer, Don D. Buchwald, has declined to comment. The New York Times, which first reported Dupre's identity, quoted her as saying: "I just don't want to be thought of as a monster."
Publishers also would be interested in her story for a book, said Eric Kampmann, president of Beaufort Books.
Beaufort last year published O.J. Simpson's "If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer," but Kampmann said he would not pursue Dupre's story since "up until now, she had no story."
"There's just kind of this prurient fascination that neither the press nor the public can get their eyes off of," said Kampmann, who compared the situation to Amy Fisher's and Joey Buttafuoco's. In 2004, iUniverse published Fisher's book "If I Knew Then."
Following the scandals of former President Clinton, Gennifer Flowers published a memoir in 1995, and Monica Lewinsky made inroads into the entertainment industry, hosting a short-lived reality TV dating program called "Mr. Personality" in 2003.
There is one surefire avenue for Dupre to cash in, should she choose to: adult men's magazines. Penthouse and Hustler are already knocking on her door.
"We would love to have her in the magazine," said Diane Silberstein, president and publisher of Penthouse Magazine Group. "We would even consider offering her a cover. We think we could also be very helpful to her in her music career."
Hustler Publisher Larry Flynt sounded doubtful about his chances, though, suggesting that by the time Dupre starts talking, she may be too big a media phenomenon for a simple magazine spread.
"She is no doubt going to do a book. There will probably be a movie," he said. "I think she is going to have so many offers coming in that it will probably be wishful thinking just to get in the door."
Okay...I am more than elated that SPITZER IS GONE!!! But now we have to watch Paterson. I don't know anything about that guy.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Both parties say that Patterson is much easier to work with and is willing to compromise on issues in order to resolve the problem unlike the way Spitzer was. Time will tell.
I think of this not as a Republican vs. Democrat issue. The fall out will of course be political, but there are enough bums to cover all political parties. It could have just as easily been a Republican Governor at the Mayflower Hotel. No, sadly, I consider this another tear at the fabric of our "civilized society" in general. The betrayal by someone so many people placed their trust in. Most importantly, his wife. I pity the roughly 20% of the people who do not think he should resign. This event is a testament to the mans character, honesty, and integrity. None of which he apparently has, in my humble opinion he is unworthy of representing the state of New York or me. It really is too bad, I thought he did a great job as Attorney General.
I couldn't have said it better, Rene. No matter what glee some will take in this man's downfall, the fact is it has nothing to done with party and we all lost when he turned out not to be who we thought.
Keep wives out of public confessional By STACEY MORRIS First published: Saturday, March 15, 2008
Dear Famous, Powerful Men Who Bust Out of Their Marriage Vows and Get Caught:
I know what you're thinking, but keep reading. I haven't picked up my pen to condemn you, but to make a request: Please drop the tactic of using your wife as a raincoat when it's time to deliver that rote apology at the podium. There's the saying: We come into this world on our own and we go out alone. But why is it when famous, power-hungry men begin their post-sex scandal freefall, you can't hold a press conference without your wives super-glued to your side? Here are a few reasons why swallowing the bitter pill of public admission with no one at your side is an idea whose time has come. Attempt to think about your wife for a moment. (I know, this is going to require you to focus on someone other than yourself, but go with me on this.) Why should she have to face the flashing bulbs, rolling cameras and millions of curious eyes that belong on you? In the long run, her presence will be about as helpful to your damaged reputation as an adhesive bandage to a gushing flesh wound. And more importantly, leaving her out of the press conference equation would be a tangible gesture of compassion, the first step in your uphill climb to try to repair your marriage. Put plainly, it's simply too much to ask of your wife. And it makes you look sort of ... weak. Why not also drag your mothers along while you're at it? Witnessing yet another wife, her face drained of life and color, standing there stiffly, is something we should be evolving out of at this point in our history. And, frankly, the whole production doesn't seem to carry any magical power to restore your pre-scandal luster. As a noninsider, I have no idea whether Silda Wall Spitzer did it out of genuine love for her husband, was talked into it or chose it out of knee-jerk compassion in the heat of the moment as the clock counted down to air time. Of course, it's a personal choice. And she may well have felt it was the right thing to do. But since it's probably not the last sex scandal we'll see in our lifetimes, all I'm suggesting is, let's have a Plan B for the hurting spouses. And no questions asked if they want to take it, although the Mrs. Spitzers of the world (savvy and educated in their own right) can handle the heat. But what's so wrong with a woman in Mrs. Spitzer's position being honest about her feelings at the time, even if they were disgust and anger? I'm not advocating grabbing the microphone to turn the air blue, but red-lighting an outdated obligation would be a far healthier alternative to playing along if it isn't what she wants to do. There's also something profoundly wrong with the weight of reparation being on the shoulders of the betrayed. Leave her out of it. Don't even put it in the realm of consideration -- and that goes for all of your spinmeisters.Some have argued that women like Mrs. Spitzer and Dina Matos McGreevey (ex-wife of former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey) do it for the sake of their children, to demonstrate a unified front. It sounds good in theory, but if there had been a unified alliance in the first place, there'd be no press conference. Time will tell whether Mrs. Spitzer forgives her husband or decides kicking him into the next time zone is the best course of action. To say that an extraordinary amount of hashing out lies ahead is an understatement. Which is exactly why she should have been spared this insulting and unnecessary spectacle. After all, it's heaping amounts of hubris that got you fellows to the apology podium in the first place, so what could be more therapeutic than following through without assistance? And lest you think I'm harping on an issue already fading into old news, consider The Associated Press story last June announcing Hustler publisher Larry Flynt's offer of $1 million to "anyone who can provide proof of an illicit sexual encounter with a high-ranking government official." If that's not enough to scare a philanderer into Ward Cleaver-hood, I don't know what is. But in case we're subjected to another of you falling from grace, Americans in general have had enough of the grind. We're tired of seeing someone who had no part in the unseemly deed paraded out like a prop to help cool that hot water you chose to simmer in. So do whatever you need to do to make the evolutionary leap: Give yourself an aria of a pep talk in the mirror, memorize key passages from Emerson's "Self Reliance," or make it a party and call in the trifecta advisory team of Dr. Phil, Judge Judy, and Nanny Jo Frost. If they can't get you tap-dancing down that yellow brick road of integrity, no one can. Hopefully a light bulb will at last go on, somewhere deep within your egos. It will illuminate the fact that you're about to make the most difficult speech of your life -- and taking your wife along for the ride is not an option. Stacey Morris is a Queensbury writer.
http://www.dailygazette.com Spitzer career falls fast as scandal uncovered Colleagues, family, public stunned by revelation BY MICHAEL GORMLEY AND AMY WESTFELDT The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Eliot Spitzer was ready to tell someone his secret. It was a rainy Sunday morning and the governor had just returned home to his Fifth Avenue apartment after a night out in Washington’s political spotlight. He had spent the last five hours driving home through a fierce storm. In a day of Manhattan public appearances that Friday, and glad-handing with the media at a Washington dinner on Saturday, the law-and-order Democratic governor had let on to no one the bombshell revelation that would shock the nation: The governor of New York, the “Mr. Clean” ex-prosecutor known for fighting corruption and taking the moral high ground, was going to be outed as a client of a $5,500-an-hour prostitution ring. Shortly after passing through the glass doors of his luxurious high-rise building a little after noon, Spitzer faced his wife of two decades, Silda. He would tell his sweetheart from Harvard Law School first: He would soon be named publicly in an investigation of high-priced call girls. After a few hours alone, they broke the news to their three teenage daughters. One day later, he would be a disgraced governor. Spitzer’s secrets began to unravel last year. In an office building at Hauppauge on Long Island, Internal Revenue Service agents received a tip from banks of something strange going on with Spitzer’s bank accounts, authorities said. His money transfers seemed suspicious, and they were setting off all sorts of red flags, officials said. The case was referred last fall to federal prosecutors, who came to believe that Spitzer may have spent tens of thousands of dollars transferring money between accounts to pay for prostitutes, said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the case’s sensitivity. The first public hint of Spitzer’s downfall was dropped in a federal court in Manhattan on March 6. Four people were charged with running a global prostitution and money-laundering ring called Emperors Club VIP. This seemed different from the run-of-the-mill prostitution bust. The prosecutors assigned to the case were headed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office public corruption unit, which generally looks at cases involving public officials. None of the prostitution ring’s clients were named, but the 47-page document detailed the ring’s dealings with 10 of them — identified only as Clients 1 through 10. On pages 26 through 31, “Client 9” — who law enforcement officials say is Spitzer — was caught on a wiretap on Feb. 12 and Feb. 13, ordering a tryst with a prostitute at Washington’s Renaissance Mayflower Hotel. “Yup. Same as in the past, no question about it,” Client 9 told a booking agent when asked if he had sent cash to the same place as he did in the past, the court papers say. When told he would be meeting the prostitute known as “Kristen” Client 9 said, “Great, OK, wonderful.” Later, he couldn’t remember what Kristen looked like and asked the agent to remind him, the papers say. “An American petite, very pretty brunette, 5 feet 5 inches and 105 pounds,” the booking agent, Temeka Rachelle Lewis, said on the recorded call. Court papers said Spitzer paid the call girl $4,300 in cash. He spent the next morning on Capitol Hill, doing an early television interview on CNBC and testifying before Congress about a crisis in the bond insurance market. Three weeks later, Spitzer got the news that he was in trouble. On Friday, March 7, a federal official told him that a complaint against the call-girl ring had been filed and that he was implicated. Spitzer learned about it sometime between smiling for cameras as he doled out $5 million to downtown small businesses and attending a forum about the future of education in America. It wasn’t clear if he read the complaint or the five pages that outlined Client 9’s trip to Washington. But on Saturday, March 8, Spitzer hopped a plane back to Washington for the 123rd annual Gridiron Club dinner, a party for journalists and political personalities. The governor, in white tie and tails, was at the top of the event’s A-list. He spent the night mingling with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, filmmaker Ken Burns and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Spitzer appeared to be in a good mood, watching President Bush in a cowboy hat singing a parody about the “brown, brown grass of home” back in Texas. He chatted cheerfully with Teamsters president James Hoffa Jr. and several others, including John Daniszewski, the AP’s international editor. “It seemed like he didn’t have a care in the world,” Daniszewski said. During the dinner, a Spitzer aide received repeated cellphone calls from a New York Times reporter wanting to speak with the governor. The reporter, Danny Hakim, wouldn’t tell the aide why. Spitzer’s staff assumed the call was about the “Troopergate” scandal that had so damaged the first year of his term, in which two ex-aides were accused of using the state police to compile records to embarrass state’s top Republican, Sen. Joseph Bruno. The governor said nothing. On Sunday, March 9, the morning’s rain, high winds and snow canceled his flight home. Spitzer took a long drive back to his Manhattan apartment with his state police security detail. After breaking the news to his family, Spitzer told his closest advisers, Lloyd Constantine and Richard Baum, to get to his apartment as soon as possible. He called them around 7 p.m. The small group huddled at his home until midnight. Spitzer thought his career was over, said aides, all speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions. Constantine and Spitzer’s wife urged him not to resign right away. “He thought he should resign from the very beginning,” one aide said. “It was really family and others’ suggestion that he should hang on.” Monday morning, the pain was sinking in. Spitzer’s sister Emily, an accomplished attorney, visited. A half-dozen personal and political advisers were told. So was Michele Hirshman, a criminal defense attorney and his former deputy attorney general. His public schedule was canceled, until early afternoon, when Spitzer — aware the Times was close to posting a story about the probe — scheduled a 2:15 p.m. announcement at his midtown Manhattan office. At about 2 p.m., the headline that flashed across the top of the Times’ Web site said it all: “Spitzer linked to prostitution ring.” More than an hour later, a pale, watery-eyed Spitzer took his wife before national television cameras, bit his lip and apologized. He didn’t say what he was apologizing for, or what he would do next. He left the microphone after a minute. He was back in his apartment a half-hour later and didn’t leave for two more days. It took less than an hour for the first Republican to call for his resignation; others soon talked of impeachment. No Democrat came forward to defend him. By Tuesday, more details had seeped out. A law enforcement offi - cial said Spitzer was a repeat customer of the Emperors Club, paying up to $80,000 over an extended period. Serious criminal charges were possible: soliciting sex; violating the Mann Act, the 1910 federal law that makes it a crime to induce someone to cross state lines for immoral purposes; and illegally arranging cash transactions to conceal their purpose. The public humiliation grew worse by the minute. Spitzer remained secluded in his apartment, talking occasionally to a defense team that included I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s attorney, Ted Wells. Hirshman spent hours with federal prosecutors learning more about the case. Spitzer and family, holed up on Fifth Avenue, hardly ate or slept. Silda Wall Spitzer stopped telling him not to resign, aides said. A small number of Democrats urged him to fight on. “If the public is fine, he’ll stay,” one Democrat said on Tuesday. It wasn’t. One poll said 70 percent of the state wanted him to resign. Several staffers, particularly women, were outraged. Some, true believers who had endured 14 tumultuous months of his first term, said the news was as traumatic as if their own spouse had been snared in the ring. By Wednesday morning, it was almost over. A macabre motorcade, this time broadcast live on national television, carried the Spitzers back to midtown Manhattan, to the same conference room as two days ago, this time packed with more reporters. Spitzer was ready. Calmly reading from prepared remarks, without his trademark rapid-fire bravado, Spitzer ended his career. By noon Monday, Lt. Gov. David Paterson would assume power. Silda Wall Spitzer, dark circles under her eyes, stood a few inches farther from him than on Monday. The closest person to Spitzer and the first to learn of his secret stared blankly into space. “It wasn’t real to me,” one close aide said, “until I saw her face.” LOUIS LANZANO/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer exits his Fifth Avenue New York City residence Wednesday with his wife Silda on their way to the press conference at which he announced his resignation.
Let's see him be the 'judge' of his daughters significant others.....they will always have in the back of their minds the thought of "they always do this", no man will be 'secure' with them......in an uncivilized society it would just be a 'bump' in the road now it is a giant mountain with a 'sacrificial table' for future 'offerings'.....
The little Bathsheba can now tell her poor sad story to Playboy while being (allowing herself] to be exploited via the center fold....and in America that would be considered-----"Good for her",,,,maybe she can explain it to Mr. and Ms. Spitzer's daughters.......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
It goes without saying that we are all in total shock over what Eliot Spitzer has done. It will take a while for New Yorkers to recover from this unfortunate situation. Many insensitive speculations have been made by some media as to why Silda Sptizer is standing by her husband. Many women, including myself, can say that we would never stand by our husband if that were us. Do we really know for certain what we would do if we were in that exact same position — a governor’s wife, and a mother of three girls, in the public spotlight? We can’t imagine what she is going through. Many opinions in the media have been completely uncalled for. A commentator on one of our local news channels said that maybe the reason Silda is standing by Eliot is because she doesn’t want to give up her limo rides and fancy lifestyle. Another said that Silda has to take these remarks and comments because this is what she signed up for being in the public eye. Are some of the media blind to this woman’s pain that we all saw on TV this week? I’m positive that the hand Silda has been dealt isn’t what she signed up for as a wife or as the wife of a governor. What Silda Spitzer is going through is incredibly personal and incredibly painful, and it’s heartbreaking to watch her go through this. For those in the media who have expressed concern and support for Silda — thank you. For those in the media who have shared their sarcastic and insensitive opinions with us, please just stick to reporting the true facts to the public and stop speculating on feelings that you know nothing about. MICHELE BIANCO KOESTER Glenville
Isn’t it fascinating that as soon as the [former] governor dramatically reminds us of what we should already have learned from J. Edgar Hoover Jim Bakker, Mark Foley, Larry Craig and others — namely, that over-the top righteousness often masks a guilty secret — then a bevy of public figures with Schenectady’s own Assembly mi nority leader [James Tedisco] near the front of the pack, scrambles to draw attention to themselves by mounting competitive displays of — over-the-top righteousness. WAYNE SOMERS Delanson
In the name of total disclosure, I believe the names and addresses of all the proprietors, prostitutes and patrons of the Emperor’s Club VIP should be published in all the major newspapers of the country. This is the one good weapon law enforcement has to prevent these businesses from operating. GEORGE J. VIELKIND Schenectady
In the name of total disclosure, I believe the names and addresses of all the proprietors, prostitutes and patrons of the Emperor’s Club VIP should be published in all the major newspapers of the country. This is the one good weapon law enforcement has to prevent these businesses from operating. GEORGE J. VIELKIND Schenectady
This is the one good weapon 'the people' have......it is the sheeples peoples media......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
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