Cindy Adams Regrets the ErrorA couple of weeks ago, back when Hookermania was in full effect, Cindy Adams wrote about how Ashley Alexandra Dupré, a.k.a. Spitzer sexer “Kristen,” was besties with a hooker called Natalia, whom New York once called the city’s No. 1 escort.
gossipmonger
Richard Branson Pranks Larry Page AwesomelyIvana and her fiancé seem to have some pre-wedding jitters, Tom Cruise and Sumner Redstone canoodle, and still more New Yorkers cop to encounters with Ashley Alexandra Dupre in our daily roundup of news from New York’s best gossip columns.
gossipmonger
Nobody Messes With Karl LagerfeldKarl Lagerfeld’s bodyguard protects him and Jay-Z from a pesky pap, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will get $10 million for their baby pictures, Spencer Morgan and Alexis Bryan probably will not, and more in today’s compilation of greatest hits from New York’s gossip columns!
intel
How to Be a Scandalite: Don’t Follow Ashley Dupré’s ExampleJust like a brand-new car, Ashley Alexandra Dupré’s earning potential has been steadily decreasing since Eliot Spitzer rolled her off the lot and into the spotlight two weeks ago today.
gossipmonger
Ashley Alexandra Dupré Continues to Haunt New YorkReal celebrities are riled by sightings of Eliot’s lady friend; Simon Doonan gets his own TV show and pretty people buy expensive homes in our daily roundup of the news from New York’s best gossip columns.
it happened this week
InfidelsFor another week, almost all politics was both local and sleazy.
Happy Hooker Xaveria Hollander Has the Utmost Respect for the Girls of the Emperors ClubAn astute historian of New York prostitution might have heard a small bell ringing in their head upon reading the name of the woman accused of arranging prostitutes for Eliot’s Emperors Club VIP: Tanya Hollander. You see, New York’s most notorious prostitute (and madam) ever, the Happy Hooker, was named Xaveria Hollander. Was it now a family business? We called the old girl in Amsterdam to check.
in other news
Ashley Dupré: Overachieving Ho?We suppose it was inevitable that Girls Gone Wild head honcho Joe Francis would get involved with the whole Eliot Spitzer mess. But even we couldn’t have predicted the depth to which “Kristen,” a.k.a. Ashley Dupré, had penetrated the promiscuity market. Imagine Joe’s surprise when, after he offered $1 million to Dupré to film her, a Daily News reporter called him and told him that she already starred in one of the GGW movies! Francis told the Post: “I personally remember Ashley. She was really at her peak back then. I’m glad I got to her before Spitzer — she looked a lot better at 18.” You can judge for yourself in the tabloid’s online photo gallery of Ashley from the movie (they’re pretty tame, nothing like the “very good shower scene that alone is worth the money” Francis describes). So let’s review. Ashley Dupré was a high-class call girl and, by the age of 22, had arranged for an expensive topless photo shoot for herself, and had gotten it on with another girl for the Girls Gone Wild cameras when she was 18. And you thought there was only one gifted go-getter in Room 871.
early and often
Oh La La! Les Frenches React to Le Spitzer ScandaleThe other night when David Paterson announced, in a rather blasé way, that both he and his wife, Michelle, had had multiple affairs during their marriage, we all (except the Post) basically shrugged. “I’m not shocked by anything a politician does anymore,” one gentleman, interviewed in front of the New Jersey T.G.I.Friday’s where Dina and Jim McGreevey had allegedly met their limo driver for their Freaky Fridays (or whatever they were called), told the CW. Cool, we said. We’re turning into France! But we may have overestimated the French’s tolerance for les liaisons. Today, the Sun interviewed New Yorkers of the Gallic persuasion about the recent spate of gubernatorial sexing, and while they were indeed laissez faire about affairs — “It’s a well-known fact that some of our politicians have extramarital affairs or an active sexual life,” Pierre Battu, the founder of something called French Tuesdays, yawned to the paper — using prostitutes is not okay, even in France. “The Spitzer case is a deep problem,” said Laurent Guerrier, a French headhunter. In France “it would have been a big thing also.” Especially because that Ashley Alexandra Dupré clearly did not know how to tie a scarf or make a cassoulet.
French Shrug At Paterson, Gasp at Spitzer [NYS]
Earlier: David Paterson Had an Affair! But It’s Okay Because His Wife Loves Him. And We Do Too!
company town
Who Is Bear Stearns’ Biggest Loser?FINANCE
• Joseph Lewis, the British billionaire who built up his stake in Bear Stearns last summer, lost about $1.6 billion this past weekend, approximately half of his entire fortune. Bear’s biggest investor, Dallas-based money manager James Barrow, whose firm had a 9.95 percent stake, also lost big — at least $750 million. Activist shareholder Bruce Sherman and departed CEO James Cayne each lost big on their 5 percent stakes, although Cayne might not care so much: He just closed on a $28.24 million Plaza pad and spent late last week playing bridge in a tournament in Detroit. [Bloomberg]
• Meanwhile, Bear’s “fire sale” is spreading like wildfire down the street, singing Lehman Brothers, among other top banks. [DealBook/NYT]
• And Barry Diller’s IAC is “sputtering.” [NYT]
in other news
The Spitzer Cycle Continues, With Or Without You Okay, just because you’re not as titillated by Eliot Spitzer’s trampage as you were last week, you still want to know what’s going on, right? Like, where the H is Kristen right now? Is Eliot Spitzer still chasing tail? And what’s going on with Silda? Is she recovering with her mom in a condo in Florida right now with a glass of iced Chardonnay and a Danielle Steele novel? Here’s what you may have missed over the weekend while you were too busy wandering around the East Village with green beads around your neck looking for a bar whose name began with a “Mc.”
• Federal investigators are looking into payment records to a Spitzer consultant named Kristian Stiles, who used to put a lot of travel, lodging, and entertainment expenses for the governor onto her own credit card and ask for reimbursement later. [NYT]
• The Times took this opportunity to chat with three high-end prostitutes about their jobs, and they wrote a story that included this gem: “Undoubtedly, their willingness to speak publicly came with unusually upbeat perspectives on prostitution, which for many women is devastatingly exploitative.” As they say, no one beats a happy hooker. [NYT]
in other news
Sirius Creates Media Circus in Microcosm With Client 9 RadioCan you not get enough of the Spitzer sex scandal? Is the minutiae of the governor’s trysts with hookers that has subsumed pretty much every media outlet for the entire week still somehow not enough? Do you feel that there are some important people, such as deposed publisher Judith Reagan, Wikepedia dumpee Rachel Marsden, and Dennis Hof, owner of Nevada’s Moonlight Bunny Ranch, whose full opinions have not been given their due? Then, friends, we hope you subscribe to Sirius Satellite Radio, which has just announced the creation of Client 9 Radio, a station fully devoted to news and opinion about Eliot Spitzer sex scandal. In addition to the aforementioned pundits, Client 9, which will air tonight and be hosted by Court TV’s Vinnie Politan, will also air the opinions of esteemed figures like John McCain, Alan Dershowitz, and “private eye Vito Colucci.” But most important, they will provide a forum for you, the listener, to join “this national conversation.” So go forth, citizen gossips! Let no crevice go unexplored.
in other news
Kristen Is Rich
Last night, Ashley Alexandra Dupré, a.k.a. “Kristen,” told the New York Times she was worried about paying her rent in the fancy Flatiron district building in which she lives. But in fact, in the less than 24 hours since that interview took place, Dupre’s personal wealth has increased considerably. The two songs on her Amie Street profile, which each cost 98 cents, have reportedly been downloaded more than two million times, and according to that site’s business model, Dupré should receive 70 percent of the total profit. Plus! Playboy and Penthouse are both reportedly interested in setting up photo shoots. “We’ve already discussed some options,” Penthouse publisher Diane Silberstein tells Radar, adding that they’d pay in the “high six figures.” Book publishers, however, are dragging their feet. “I don’t think it’s worth anything,” HarperCollins publisher Jonathan Burnham tells Portfolio today, making us want to wrap our hands around his neck and administer a light throttle. “There’s no story there.” Seriously? Does no one remember for instance the best-selling Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, soon to be an HBO series with Darren Star? Hookers are so hot right now.