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Eliot Spitzer

sex trade

Flyover-country cops want Yahoo to pay them to police its Internet "crack house"

There's money to be made in combating the sexual exploitation of children online, if not in the actual exploitation itself. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning believes internet companies, not taxpayers, ought to be funding the fight. Bruning (pictured here with "Miss Heartland" Rachel Seidel) addressed the Nebraska Crime Commission this week, telling tales of how he created a fake teenage girl to solicit men on webcams to whip it out for an audience they never anticipated — state cops and senators. Says Bruning, "We had state senators about throwing up in their breakfasts, but we wanted to make a point and I think we did." But who will be picking up the check for his educational services? He wants Yahoo, among others, to do so: More »

hooker drama

New York media writing "Melissa Gira Grant" over and over in its notebook

Yet another Manhattan paper, the alt.weekly The Village Voice, leans heavily on our own sex trade reporter to examine Eliot Spitzer. Voice writer Tristan Taormino argues that by hiring out instead of getting a real mistress, Spitzer was minimizing the impact on his marriage. Part of what you're paying for in a hired girlfriend experience: She won't get drunk and call your wife. Plus, Melissa adds, she won't let you get too crazy over her: "Sex with clients is very different from sex with people I am in a relationship with. I had to cut loose a client who was becoming too close and relying too much on me." Yeah, I had a Web contractor like that once.

web 3.0

Ashley Dupre nude pictures make semantic Web slightly less obscure

Larry Flynt is willing to pay Ashley Alexandra Dupré — the call girl who had something to do with what's-his-name from New York — $1 million to pose for Hustler. Imagine how much the Orlando Sentinel's website would have made from publishing Dupré's Girls Gone Wild photos back when Britney Spears hadn't yet made her cameo on CBS and Dupre still dominated the news cycle. With the right timing, it would have been bigger than Lindsay Lohan taking it of for New York magazine. But the Sentinel's loss can be your gain, "semantic Web" startups. The newspaper obviously blew it. The reason? More »

online video

Ashley Dupre's "Girls Gone Wild" video hits the Web, ruins everything

It was once such a heartwarming story. New Jersey local girl Ashley Alexandra Dupré goes to the big city, meets a few friends, records a hit song, and makes good. Now, posting the above video to the Web, an alleged rapist will profit off all her hard work, one $29.95 subscription at a time. Must the Internet turn everything tawdry?

ashley alexandra dupre

CNN's blow-by-blow of Spitzer girl's MySpace and Facebook profiles

Mallory Simon works for "the most trusted name in news." But she's working hard to make CNN also the most trusted name in news feeds. Simon gives CNN.com readers every detail of when and how Eliot Spitzer's call girl, Ashley Alexandra Dupré, changed her MySpace and Facebook profiles last week. But at 1,000-plus words, Simon overstays her welcome. Instead of paying writers by the word, why don't we pay them to leave? The 100-word version, below. More »

jackpot

Ashley Dupre makes $204,000 from Web music sales

Ashley Alexandra Dupré, the call girl whom Eliot Spitzer knew as "Kristen," sold her song 300,000 times on online music store Amie Street. The site, a Jeff Bezos investment, sold the songs for $0.68 on average, putting Dupré's total around $204,000, the New York Post reports. Update: Amie Street's charts indicate Dupré's songs have been merely listened to 419,718 times, suggesting the Post's numbers might be off a bit. Either way, throw in a $1 million offer from Hustler, an ad campaign for something to be called Vodka #9 and a movie deal, and Dupré stands to make between $2.5 million to $5 million from the Spitzer scandal.

How not to hit on a hooker "No worries hang in there...i single if your interested." — Mike Marra, commenter on Ashley Dupré's Facebook wall, indicating why some women might prefer $4,300 dates to old-fashioned romance.

Spitzer girl's Facebook profile is probably fake too, but likewise, do we care? Below, a most thorough impersonation of Eliot Spitzer's call girl turned chanteuse, Ashley Alexandra Dupré on Facebook. Why should MySpace have all the fun?

online video

PageSix.com Spitzer girl video could be its "firecrotch" moment

Ever since TMZ.com ran its infamous "firecrotch" video — the one in which an oil-heir pal of Paris Hilton slagged Lindsay Lohan — the Time Warner-owned Hollywood gossip site has been on a pageviews tear. TMZ.com slaps News Corp.'s PageSix.com around every which way when it comes to visitor traffic. But TMZ doesn't have video of the walking, talking, leaning sensation that is Ashley Alexandra Dupré, now do they?

social networks

Facebook users waste no time making Eliot Spitzer escort groups

There are already 13 Facebook groups about Ashley Alexandra Dupre, the object of New York governor Eliot Spitzer's paid-for affections. Some are supportive, some are complimentary, and some are ridiculous. Among the more amusing group names are "Ashley Alexandra Dupre is the next American Idol", "Ashley Alexandra Dupre (Ashley Youmans) was in my Class!" and "I don't care WHO or WHAT she did, Ashley Alexandra Dupre is effin gorgeous!!" And Facebook is worth $15 billion? Just sayin'. See the full list below. More »

ashley alexandra dupre

Call girl beats Barenaked Ladies, Radiohead singer

Sorry, Thom Yorke. it appears a critically acclaimed career as Radiohead's front man isn't enough to outsell Eliot Spitzer's call girl on the Web. Ashley Alexandra Dupré, also known as "Kristen," considers herself something of an R&B artist. She sells her music on Amie Street, a New York-based music site in which Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos took a personal interest and later had his company invest in. It sets its pricing based on the principles of supply and demand. The more a song sells, the faster its price rises. So when Amie Street flack Zane Groshelle confirmed that Dupré's single, "What We Want" rose to 98 cents "just as quickly if not more quickly" than Barenaked Ladies and Thom Yorke, the market's message is clear: She knows what we want.

domain names

Dozens of Spitzer domain names snapped up

In a modern-day gold rush, many Eliot Spitzer-related domains have been registered since the news broke about his involvement with pricey escort services. We're not sure how many of these are going to be worth anything in a few months when this is all over — but there's nothing we like more than a good scandal. Some of the best domains: spitzerforvp.com, spitzerisscrewed.com, spitzerperpwalk.com and, of course, spitzerswallows.com. Classy. Get the full list after the jump. (Photo by AP/Stephen Chernin) More »

department of corrections

What Slate got wrong about Internet prostitution

"Did Eliot Spitzer get caught because he didn't spend enough on prostitutes?" Slate contributor Sudhir Venkatesh deserves credit for reporting that Spitzer's alleged $4,300 date was not premium pricing. But his generalizations are far too broad for such a diverse industry as Web-powered prostitution. Were I his editor, I'd have sent back these redlines: More »

clips

Eliot Spitzer's call girl sings, sort of

Eliot Spitzer's alleged call-girl — Ashley Alexandra Dupré, a.k.a "Kristen" — can sing. Whether she should? Less clear. Here's the single from her MySpace page, "What We Want."

sex trade

Governor's sex scandal may jump start call girl's singing career

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's downfall could be a good thing for the girl who serviced him. Ashley Alexandra Dupré, known to Spitzer as "Kristen, has put her songs on Amie Street, a startup that prices songs according to their popularity, were free this morning. Now they're up to 37 cents each. It's unlikely they'll hit $5,000 a pop, but it's good to know market forces play as much a role in her future career as in her old one. [SAI]

your privacy is an illusion

Alleged Spitzer escort's MySpace page

Meet Ashley Alexandra Dupré, the prostitute known as "Kristen" New York governor Eliot Spitzer reportedly visited as Client 9. She's an aspiring R&B singer from Long Island, the New York Times reports. Her MySpace page and photos, below. More »

eliot spitzer

How IT helped bust New York's governor

"What really snared Spitzer was a money laundering investigation flagged by suspicious activity reports (SARs) that banks have to file with the Treasury ... The prostitution ring that counted Spitzer as a customer was investigated due to some shady bank accounts, checks and wire transfers with big totals ($39,000, $400,000 and others).
— ZDNet editor in chief Larry Dignan explains SARs in more detail.

eliot spitzer

Three things you can learn from Client 9

Let's be clear: Today's takedown has nothing to do with stopping prostitution. It's about bringing down the governor of New York. There are three things you need to know before tonight's cocktail-party chatter. Most people will get them wrong — and that's the way the media wants it. More »