Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Flash in the pan


It's a short pop culture shelf life for both Ashley Alexandra Dupre and Elliot Spitzer.

The call girl formerly known as the ex-New York governor’s pay-for-playmate was offered $1 million to appear in a non-nude pictorial for a new magazine owned by reality porn king and Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis.

But the proposal was pulled when a quick check of the Girls Gone Wild video archives found seven reels of Ashley super-freaking in a bisexual romp during a Miami video shot in 2004. She was celebrating her 18th birthday.

Now a sample of the vintage Ashley footage is on line – and the full video is yours for $4.95. That’s $4,297.05 less than Spitzer shelled out for 2.5 hours. And Rogers saved himself a cool million.
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Spitzer probably believed he was buying into an exclusive club featuring the finest women money can buy. Now he knows that she was one part party girl and one part opportunist and could’ve gotten what he wanted for a couple of beers and a ‘lude.

Spitzer’s old news, too. His successor David Patterson and his wife Michelle confessed to numerous infidelities during a rough patch in their marriage and Jersey gov Jim McGreevy, who’d previously outted himself, topped Spitzer by admitting to a three-way with his wife Dina and his aide and driver Teddy Pedersen.
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Spitzer’s already so yesterday on the political sex scandal circuit.

It was front page news when the identity of Spitzer’s enigmatic call girl Kristen was revealed. We learned that Ashley/Kristen was an aspirant blazing Hip Hop and R&B wannabe singer. She logged over three million hits a day on her MySpace page before it was taken down. Her cyber-friends included real-life stars Madonna, Whitney Houston, and Amy Winehouse.

After she racked up those numbers I’m surprised My Space owner News Corp. didn’t do a social network for hookers – MyFace-or-YourPlace.

It must’ve p.o.’ed Madonna and Whitney. In their prime it cost five to ten grand per station to get airplay on a hit radio station. Here’s Ashley. Spitzer shells out a mere $4,300 – and she’s getting out-of-the-box morning drive play in New York, L.A., and Chicago – and no one got a dime of it except the Emperor’s Club’s lawyers.

Two of Ashley’s songs were posted on Aime Street, a download site for indie musicians. By last Thursday they were sampled over 200,000 times and the company upped the price of her downloads from twenty cents to ninety-eight cents.

As a singer, Ashley shouldn’t give up her night job.

It looked like she’d be in the same league with upscale sex scandal Sidney Biddle Barrows or – if she could sing and act - Vanessa Williams. Now she has about the same cache as Jessica Hahn. A celebriwhore.
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The best she could do was a has-been governor. She's no Monica Lewinsky.
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She’s not even in the same league as Donna Rice, Paula Jones, or Gennifer Flowers.

Since Ashley was pimped by a Madame, she lacks the indie cred of former blogger babe Jessica Cutler aka Washingtonienne, whose daily updates kept readers current with her paid Capitol Hill trysts with Bush appointees and other Republican heavies. She scheduled her appointments while working out of Ohio Senator Mike DeWine’s office. For the record – DeWine claimed he knew nothing. He thought all those GOP VIPs were dropping by to say hello to him.
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When outted, Culter did a Playboy spread, wrote a book, but she faded fast and ended up broke.

Pop culture can be cruel.

And that brings us back to Ashley. Now instead a million bucks from Girls Gone Wild, she’s down to one B-list offer. It’s to promote the Queens-based Georgi brand vodka for a low six-figure sum. She’ll endorse the brand on the backs of buses as the Georgi “butt girl.” Get it?

From high cost to bus exhaust.

Butt girl. She may as well take it. She’s already yesterday’s girl.

Nineteen years before Ashley was born, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote these lyrics: Who wants yesterday's papers/Who wants yesterday's girl/Who wants yesterday's papers/Nobody in the world/Seems very hard to have just one girl/When there's a million in the world.

Ashley, we hardly new ye.
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23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joe Francis knew how to work the media. I don't believe that he didn't know Ashley/Kristen had already done a Girls Gone Wild video. I bet he knew and made the offer deliberately to get the publicity so he could recind it publicly and get millions of dollars in free advertising for the Girls Gone Wild video. It is the best marketing plan for something with a limited shelf life. He played the media like a fiddle.

Anonymous said...

I agree with your assessment of Ashely's popular culture status. It has already hit bottom with Eric Stapelman, the chef and owner of Trattoria Nostrani in Santa Fe who bragged about leaking nude photos of Ashley. If he is trying to build business for his restaurant I feel sorry for this low life. No self respecting woman will do business with his restaurant and it will be a long time before this guy gets lucky with anyone other than an STD riddled whore. Shame on him.

Anonymous said...

Ashley and Spitzer are already off the front page in the New York papers and replaced by Patterson and McGreevy. The Times did a story on the hotel Spitzer was schtupting Ashley at. Spitzer goes down in history as a horny dumb bastard. Patterson and McGreevy are far more interesting to read about.

Anonymous said...

WHERE DID YOU GET THAT PHOTO OF AMY WINEHOUSE? Thats what I want to know.

Anonymous said...

Here is your next celebriwhore. This time it involves Donald Trump's vodka. A 17-year old named Chanell Hallett was serving cocktails at the Trump Vodka VIP Lounge at Super Village wearing nothing but body paint just before the Super Bowl and now she is selling her story to the highest bidder on how she got there and who she did while there.

What a sick world. Bring back Jerry Springer. You must be missed.

Anonymous said...

I am a PD & morning man. Our consultant (who hates your guts by the way) e-mailed me dozens of Ashley jokes and bits attached with a note telling me that "this story has legs". Thank da Lord I followed your advice not his. Ashley is over. Spitzer no one cares about. No wonder my consultant hates you. You don't know me but I am a fan and subscriber and love your blog.

Anonymous said...

Never mind Amy Winehouse. Where did you get that bag lady photo of Whitney Houston?

Anonymous said...

Spitzer has to feel like an ass.

Anonymous said...

I can remember sex scandals all the way back to Profumo and Christine Keeler but this one takes the cake. Spitzer shells out four grand for some girls gone wild slut? What a loser. There must be something in the water in New York/New Jersey. The new governor of New York definitely sets an example and everything they say about Jersey must be true.

Anonymous said...

Georgi is rot gut vodka. In the same league as Popov. It shouldn't even qualify as 'well'. Some quasi-hipsters think its cool. The same ones that think Pabst is a good beer. A bottom shelf hooker for a bottom shelf brand. Makes sense to me.

Anonymous said...

The Amy Winehouse photo is from the April issue of Easy Living magazine in the U.K. It's a promotion to raise breast cancer awareness especially among younger women. I did question Amy being a pin up for good health. Then again if anyone can represent cleaning up a lifestyle it's Amy.

Anonymous said...

Gorman get back to covering radio.

Anonymous said...

Between the Buttons. One of the best Stones albums. I pulled it out and put it on. I had not heard that song since I bought the CD twenty years ago. You are right. It should be Ashley Dupre's theme song.

Anonymous said...

I thought Joe Francis was still in jail but it looks like he may be going back: http://www.meetjoefrancis.com/

Anonymous said...

I believe it will be a short popular culture shelf life for these new political sex scandalists too. Most have lost faith in their elected officials. I just read that in Cleveland, Ohio a convicted murderer was elected to its city council and that others running against him were convicted drug dealers and robbers. There used to be laws against convicted felons holding public offices. These days they are probably the only ones that could effectively run a city. It is the steady decline and fall of a once great nation.

Anonymous said...

Gorman not everyone agrees with you. ABC TV is rushing out a bews special on prostitutes: http://ca.biz.yahoo.com/ap/080319/tv_abc_prostitution.html?.v=1

Anonymous said...

You mention that Washingtoniene's clients were Republican but you never identify the Democrats who get caught with their pants down by their party affiliation. Me thinks you are bias.

Anonymous said...

TO the person commenting about ABC's prostitution special. That was in the planning before Spitzer got busted. They moved it up to take advantage of the recent events. Even ABC knows that in another month (when it was originally scheduled) this whole happy hooker thing will be as dead as ellito Spitzer's career.

Anonymous said...

Does radio even get what popular culture is? There is more to life than American Idol.

Anonymous said...

John,

I just read your book not long after discovering your blogs. Though I did not grow up in Cleveland I heard a lot about WMMS from my buddies in college and got to hear some cassette tapes of what you sounded like.

You still retain your knowledge and interest in popular culture and I don't know why more radio stations today don't adopt a format that plays music in that respect rather than strict adherence to certain formats. It seems worse today than any time in the past.

My beef with internet radio is that it is not portable yet. Satellite radio was good when it started, Now I hear the same songs on all the formats and the same jokes repeated on the comedy channels.

I don't mean to ramble on. I want to thank you for writing the book on how to make a great radio station and appreciate your blogs.

Simon Roth

Anonymous said...

John. I found your blog to be a bit sexist which is not like you as a rule. Why did you not mention some of the men or johns involved with the women you listed? Prostitution exists because it provides a service men want.

I found your "two beers and a 'lude" line offensive. Ashley was the same person whether she chose to explore her own sexuality or sell it.

Anonymous said...

Not exactly proper reading for Easter weekend

Anonymous said...

How in the world did Paula Jones get on your list of babes who went down willingly? I don't recall her copping to having a voluntary relationship with the 'bag-in-chief. That was Monica and Gennifer.

Seriously, try having your second drink after wrapping the blog. Or just stick to radio.