Joe Francis
Gossip

Looks like the entertainment world's Sultan of Sleaze has gotten his hands on a new girl ... to help manage his busy schedule, that is.

Holly Montag, the older sister of Heidi Montag from The Hills, has been hired as the personal assistant to the Girls Gone Wild CEO.

She's been at it since his release from jail in March.

"His last assistant quit," said an insider to the New York Post. "And Joe aggressively sought out Holly Montag to work for him."

Another source said of Holly and Joe, "She's running his life."

Holly Montag with The Hills' Heidi Montag.

Francis - who is preparing to do battle on Celebrity Apprentice next season, and might also appear on The Hills this season, rumor has it - told the Post, "Holly is fantastic, probably the best assistant I have ever had."

You can read into that however you want.

Either way, Spencer Pratt is probably psyched about this arrangement. Not because he cares about Francis, but because Holly is out of his hair.

Former N.Y. Gov. Eliot Spitzer thought Ashley Dupre was hot enough to fork over $4,300/hour and a career in politics for. We'll soon get a chance to see why.

Now that Ashley Dupre dropped her lawsuit (for $10 million) against Joe Francis and Girls Gone Wild, the sleazy entrepreneur says he's now got him "the green light" to release her crazy skin show from Spring Break 2003.

For those who may have forgotten, Francis offered Dupre $1 million to bare all for his videos and mags as soon as the Spitzer call-girl scandal broke. He then discovered that he had file footage of her when she was 17, natch.

Joe says he's got footage of Ashley Dupre in "some very interesting sexual situations." Maybe he and Eliot Spitzer can meet up and compare notes.

Follow the jump for some still photos of Ashley Dupre nude from the Girls Gone Wild vault. Odds are this is just the beginning of what Joe's got ...

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Ashley Alexandra Dupre, the highly overpaid hooker at the center of the call girl scandal that forced the resignation of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, has officially withdrawn her $10 million lawsuit against Joe Francis.

The suit, originally filed in April, claimed that Ashley Dupre's name and image had been exploited for profit by the Girls Gone Wild founder.

"Ms. Dupré wants to eliminate all negativity from her life and focus on the positive," her attorney, Richard C. Wolfe, said in a statement.

"She has prospects for many exciting new projects coming up this year and is looking forward to starting a new chapter in her life."

The lawsuit alleged that Ashley Dupre was duped into signing a release form and exposing her breasts for Girls Gone Wild cameras in 2003, when she was just 17.

THG NOTE: There was no doubt about her consent in going topless for the New York Post (above), once her tryst with Eliot Spitzer was exposed, however.

Joe Francis asserted that Ashley Dupre gave her consent on video when the footage was taken, and provided his camera crew with ID that showed she was 18. Francis later released video clips that supported those assertions.

Lawyers for Girls Gone Wild sleazebag Joe Francis have subpoenaed Ashley Alexandra Dupre, a.k.a. Eliot Spitzer's hooker, to testify under oath, on video, about her shady and sordid dealings with a prostitution ring.

Following her rise to fame as Spitzer's call girl du jour, Dupre filed a $10 million suit against Francis after GGW offered her $1 million - and then rescinded the deal after they found video of her in their vaults.

Ashley Dupre, 23, had partied with Joe Francis and the GGW gang while she was a teenager, years ago, in Florida. Naturally.

Ashley Alexandra Dupre vs. Joe Francis: Do we have to pick a side?

Lawyers for Girls Gone Wild plan to grill Ashley Dupre on a litany of topics.

Their goal is to prove that her previous use of fake names, fake IDs, fake web sites and much more will damage the shady lady's credibility.

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Is Audrina Patridge ready to go wild - Ashley Dupre syle?

It doesn't look like it. Even though her modeling past includes racy nude pictures, it appears even a big money offer from Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis to model for his company isn't enough to entice The Hills star.

Joe Francis reportedly tried to talk business with Audrina Patridge at this night's five-year anniversary party for Dolce restaurant in Los Angeles.

He didn't get far.

"Tell her I'm legit," Francis was overheard repeating to mutual friends, trying to get Audrina to take him and his offer seriously.

As legit as a man who videotapes drunk, topless teen girls, and faces felony charges in multiple states at the same time can be, anyway.

On another note, the buzz over Patridge's arrival at the club matched the intensity of what much bigger stars usually generate. The paparazzi could not get enough shots of Audrina and boyfriend Justin-Bobby.

That took a whole 12 hours.

She may be engaged, but The Bachelor winner Shayne Lamas â€" who got a ring last night â€" isn't saving everything for future hubby Matt Grant.

She's appearing on the cover of Girls Gone Wild magazine. Classy.

In a sizzling six-page photo spread, Shayne Lamas, 22, reveals details of her time on the ABC reality show. She admits that she jumped on board The Bachelor in order to seek true fame and racy photo spreads love.

"It's what every girl wants," she says in the chat, characterizing her fiancé, Matt Grant, as being "very casual [and] respectful of women."

One day after winning The Bachelor, Shayne Lamas is cashing in!

Girls Gone Wild sleaze-bag publisher Joe Francis says Lamas' appeal is easy to sum up: "Shayne has a genuine ‘girl next door' quality," he said in a press release.

"And she also happens to be very hot."

Don't expect to see Shayne Lamas nude, though. Her Girls Gone Wild photo spread, while sizzling, features no naked pictures. Probably no o-faces either.

Earlier this year, Joe Francis offered Ashley Alexandra Dupre $1 million to appear in his soft-porn films  after she was unmasked as Kristen, a hooker frequented by New York Gov. Spitzer, who resigned in disgrace.

Now, in a (Girls Gone) Wild twist, Joe Francis is offering Ashley Dupre $1 million again - this time to drop a $10 million lawsuit against him.

"She should keep in mind, it's considerably more than the Governor of New York paid her, and our activities aren't illegal," Francis told the Daily News, adding that Ashley Dupre has "zero" chance of winning her lawsuit.

"It is incomprehensible that Ms. Dupre could claim she did not give consent to be filmed by Girls Gone Wild, when in fact we have videotape of her giving consent, while showing her identification," Francis said.

Ashley Dupre is a bad, bad girl. Joe Francis ain't much better.

"She's seeking $10 million for topless photos taken in front of a room full of people, including ... multiple crews we had in the room. These images were taken in public places and they contain no sexual contact."

Ashley Dupre has sued the sultan of sleaze for allegedly getting her drunk and "tricking" her into disrobing for the cameras on a 2003 vacation in Florida - then using the footage in a video series without permission.

If you had to pick (extremely dirty, morally bankrupt) sides here, who would you back in this battle: Joe Francis or Ashley Dupre?

Ashley Alexandra Dupre, the New Jersey hooker at the center of the New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer scandal, filed a lawsuit Monday against Girls Gone Wild owner Joe Francis for exploiting her name and image for profit.

The suit seeks more than $10 million in damages.

In legal documents, Ashley Alexandra Dupre claims Girls Gone Wild reps came up to her while she was vacationing in Florida in 2003 and offered her alcohol before inducing her to expose her breasts and sign a waiver.

All while she was underage at just 17. Classy organization.

Since 2003, when this occurred, Girls Gone Wild has illegally exploited the name of Ashley Dupre - or so her lawsuit claims - as well as her picture, voice and likeness in a number of "deceptive advertising campaigns."

Joe Francis - who was willing to pay Ashley Dupre $1 million to pose naked for his videos before realizing, y'know, she already had in 2003 - had no comment.

The multi-millionaire bag of sleaze was just released from a Nevada jail last month, and continues to face federal tax evasion charges in that state.

He is currently fighting separate charges in Florida for allegedly filming underage girls in Panama City. Joe Francis has claimed that the girls in question lied about their age and that he is therefore not liable.

Ashley Dupre, who turns 23 this week, has not appeared publicly since the Eliot Spitzer scandal broke and it was revealed that she exchanges sex for money at a staggeringly high rate - thousands of dollars an hour!

Follow the jump for a thumbnail gallery of all our Ashley Dupre pics - from racy Girls Gone Wild shots to MySpace candids innocent H.S. yearbook photos ...

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Thanks, as always, to People magazine for this great collection from the week in celebrity quotes. Here are some highlights ...

"He's really big."
- Kimora Lee Simmons, on boyfriend Djimon Hounsou's Hong Kong billboard

"I'll go to a soccer game or whatever the girls are doing, then go home, have dinner with my wife [Demi Moore], watch a little A&E."
- Ashton Kutcher, on his typical day

"Sometimes you just do really feel like an ATM machine with a wig on it."
- Mariah Carey, on fame

"She's got a potty mouth."
- Dancing with the Stars pro Fabian Sanchez, on Marlee Matlin

"Can we have sex and then go shopping?"
- Britney Spears' first line on How I Met Your Mother

"Let me think about it."
- Carrie Underwood, after learning she would be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry

"If he had asked me to make peanut-butter sandwiches for the catering, I would have said, 'Crunchy or smooth?'"
- Renée Zellweger, on what she'd do to work with George Clooney

"Sometimes you just do really feel like an ATM machine with a wig on it."
- Mariah Carey, on fame

"It's kind of like finding a winning lottery ticket in the cushions of your couch."
- Joe Francis, on discovering old footage of Ashley Alexandra Dupre

"I have a deeper agenda in this life than to make people giggle at breaking bones and shoving things up my butt."
- Steve-O

Ashley Dupre, a.k.a. Spitzer Girl, went crazy in Florida for "Girls Gone Wild," as we reported earlier (and as Joe Francis was willing to pay $1M for her to do, before realizing he already had mucho archive footage of her).

That's funny enough, but it gets weirder (and skeevier). Ashley may have been underage when she was filmed naked on the "Girls Gone Wild" bus.

Her lawyer, Don Buchwald, says Ashley Dupre was born April 30, 1985, and the footage was shot between March 13 and March 20, 2003, making her ... 17!

Ashley Alexandra Dupre was a girl gone wild... at age 17.

But "Girls Gone Wild" CEO Joe Francis says even if she was 17, Florida and Federal law permits her to be filmed in any state of undress ... as long as she consents and there is no "sexual contact." Joe says (he would know) there was none.

However, in a statement, Joe Francis says GGW has a "corporate policy" not to use girls under 18, and thus has "delayed the release of [Ashley Dupre] nude footage on the Internet and are investigating the matter."

Somewhere, Eric Stapelman is smiling. Not just because he likes nude photos of hot girls, but because Francis is certainly shadier and more disliked than him.