Between stalking Eliot Spitzer at his apartment building and debating whether the media can use Ashley Alexandra Dupre’s photos without permission, we’ve lost sight of one of the most important facets of the scandal: Diane Sawyer got a green light to talk about prostitutes on network TV.
The ABC anchor had been hoping to air her special on paid sex, but the network refused to give her the go ahead for Prostitution in America: Working Girls Speak, about Dennis Hof’s Bunny Ranch whorehouse in Nevada.
No longer: Call girls are suddenly relevant again!
With an air date set for Friday’s 20/20, Sawyer’s project is a go. All it took was the resignation of a governor — Heidi Fleiss and Deborah “D.C. Madame” Palfrey, alas, just weren’t enough.
The New York Post was all too gleeful to share a stash of Ashley Alexandra Dupre photos last week. Then, over the weekend, it issued this notice to web publishers: “First, if you linked to our photo gallery Friday of Ashley ‘Kristen’ Dupre, thank you. Second, we wanted to let you know that our rights to those photos expired tonight so the link no longer works. We apologize if this causes any problems for you.”
Who gets to claim rights to Dupre’s photos? The media at large might argue: nobody. The girl’s connection to Eliot Spitzer makes her newsworthy, as do photos of her; they’re not just pretty visualizations of who was doing “unsafe” acts with the ex-governor (as of today!), but what they offer as photo evidence is worth talking about, making the pics themselves newsworthy.
In the case of the Post, the snaps were taken by photographer Wesley Mann; he licensed them to the tabloid. But do they hold newsworthy value? Absolutely: The photos themselves have become the news story.
But in a blanket argument, Dupre’s attorney Don Buchwald says he’ll go after anyone who published photos of her, even those taken from her MySpace page. He argues: “While the circumstances surrounding Governor Spitzer’s resignation are newsworthy, some publications, in violation of journalistic norms, have used the occasion of Gov. Spitzer’s political misfortunes as an excuse to exploit Ms. Dupre’s persona for commercial purposes.”
The Associated Press, meanwhile, isn’t agreeing. Says the wire service in a statement: “The Associated Press discussed the photos obtained from the MySpace page in great detail and found that they were newsworthy. We distributed the photos that were relevant to the story. Those photos did not show nudity, nor were they explicit.”
Funny, because isn’t this the same Associated Press who routinely goes after publishers who run their photos without permission, no matter how newsworthy the pics?
Because it’d be silly to usher in the weekend any other way, here’s a video “Superfreak” montage of newly infamous Ashley Alexandra Dupre and all of her media coverage.
Eliot Spitzer’s call girl Ashley Alexandra Dupre is popping up everywhere. There are those Charlie Sheen rumors, but here she is on the set of a music video for rapper Mysterious’ single “Pop Off.” Watch her walk! Watch her put her arms around him! After the jump, watch her play the cello!
CONTINUED »
While the Eliot Spitzer beat reporters work to suss out the rest of Clients 1-10, another big name is being brought into the mix: Charlie Sheen. The reformed sitcom star, known for his drug binges that daddy Martin had him arrested for, allegedly enlisted the services of Spitzer’s very girl, a then 19-year-old child of privilege Ashley Alexandra Dupre, for a $20,000 romp. Jason “King of all Pimps” Itzler makes the accusation that Dupre worked for him, under the name Victoria, at call girl agency New York Confidential, and dressed up as a cheerleader for her trysts with Sheen. For obvious reasons, the actor’s publicist, Stan Rosenfield, calls the allegations bullshit. (So do much of the media.)
Either way, this can’t be good for Sheen’s just-announced endorsement deal with Hanes.
And for the kicker: On Tuesday night, Conan joked, “Not surprisingly, clients 1 through 8 were Charlie Sheen.”
Ashley Alexandra Dupre won’t be the only PYT cashing in on the publicity the Eliot Spitzer scandal is offering up.
Her “friend” – not after today! – Jennifer Delvalle is shooting down claims Dupre grew up in a tragic home and endured a childhood of abuse; if Delvalle’s version of events are to be believed, the former Spitzer call girl was a child of privilege and never suffered at the hand of her parents. But still, Delvalle insists, “To know Ashley is to love her.”
Offering up a brief bio of the girl, the NY Sun reports: “Ms. Dupre’s father left the family when she was very young. Soon after, Ms. Dupre’s mother, Carolyn Calbalbo, married a dentist, Michael DiPietro. Ms. Delvalle said Ms. Dupre’s brother, Kyle Youmans, a rebellious young man, always harbored issues about his own father and often fought with Mr. DiPietro. When Ms. Dupre was 17, Mr. Youmans packed up and moved to North Carolina.”
Says Delvalle of her dear pal: “She was destined to become famous somehow.” And if Dupre’s insistence on keeping online her MySpace page, where you can listen to her crappy demo, is any indication, she’s still on that tract. Whether she takes up Hustler or Penthouse’s offers to pose for the magazine will hammer the nail.
This Tumblr blog, though a decent round up of press coverage is not actually authored by Eliot Spitzer call girl Ashley Alexandra Dupre. This MySpace profile, however, is.
With 25 reporters on the beat, the Times had better be the ones to find out Kristen’s real identity. And not only did they, but they’ve also found the MySpace page of the 22-year-old Eliot Spitzer call girl, where you can listen to her portray a poorman’s Pussycat Doll.
Her name is Ashley Alexandra Dupre, n??e Ashley Youmans. A New Jersey Native, she’s friends with Madonna and Whitney (online only!), and agreed to speak on the record with the newspaper last night. Which might have been a foolish move, especially if she’s expecting Extra to pay $100,000 for the first exclusive interview.
As you might imagine, all is not well with Dupre. “She was worried about how she would pay her rent since the man she was living with ‘walked out on me’ after she discovered he had fathered two children.” And … not after he discovered she was sleeping with New York’s governor, who fathered three children?
Client 9 might not be taking questions from the press, but his alleged favorite call girl, Kristin, is.
Like the ambitious gal that she is, Kristin is willing to sell her story to the highest bidder. And if reports are to be believed, tabloid show Extra is the top bidder with a $100,000 offer, or only $20Gs more than Eliot Spitzer has blown on prostitutes in the past decade.
Or, look at it this way: Depending on how many “diamonds” Kristin supposedly had at Emperors Club (they range from three to seven), her services could’ve cost a john anywhere from $1,000 (for just an hour with a 3 diamond gal) to $3,100 (the hourly rate of 7 diamonds). Or, on the “day-to-dawn” rate, a 7 diamond girl costs you … $31,000. Kristin will make more than three times that for just a couple hours of her work, and no splitting it with her pimp this time. Just her agent.
Update: She’s been outed.