What a difference a day makes. Here we were yesterday, bemoaning the lack of serious discussion of prostitution in the media following the Spitzer Shocker™, and what do we find today but a few really interesting and thoughtful attempts to explore the state of prostitution in this country! Not that we're gonna cover those just yet. We gotta get all the goofy and sleazy stuff out of the way first. Like for example, the quest to uncover "Kristen" -- who it turns out is actually named Ashley and is kind of cute (see above) -- and her madam. Shall we begin?
-- Let's cut right to cherchez-ing la femme. The prostitute named in all those indictments as "Kristen" is really named Ashley Dupré and she's apparently having a really hard time with this so please no one bug her. The first definitive picture that we saw of her was the above screengrab on PageSix.com, and within a few hours the New York Times had an interview and pics from her MySpace page. She's a 22-year-old who, according to the Times, just want through a breakup, spent time in an abusive home, looks up to her brother, and is trying to get a music career going and hooking on the side. Oh, and sometimes she gets sleepy.
Ah look at her. Seriously, guys, if even part of her story is true, we are totally crushing on her, so if we hear of you being even the slightest bit mean to her, we will personally jump out of your computer screen and strangle you with your mouse cord.
-- Meanwhile, New York's Daily Intelligencer tips us off to the fact that Kristen/Ashley's madam, Tameka Lewis, a.k.a. "Rachelle," lives just a few blocks from us in Clinton Hill but has yet to turn up -- despite being staked out by the MSM. Rachelle, if you're reading this: we've got a Wii and Tofutti Cuties if you need a place to crash.
-- The New York Post totally ripped off NYC blog Gothamist by publishing -- without credit -- a Photoshopped gag image submitted to the site's "We Can Haz Spitzer Photoshop?" contest. Our favorite was the other Spitzerpimp, actually, which was a little less cut-and-pasty.
-- Oh, and best headline we've seen thus far on the story comes from Fark, posted some time yesterday morning: Spitzer will pull out within the hour, or around $4900 from now.
See ya in a bit with a more grown-up exploration, promise!