Spitzer’s call girl Ashley Dupre walks runway at NY Fashion Week

Melbourne, September 17 (ANI): Ashley Dupre, the former high-class call girl at the centre of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal, walked the runway during New York Fashion Week.

The 24-year-old made the appearance at Bahar Shahpar’s fashion show, according to Jill Fehrenbacher at Ecouterre.

“It’s a rare rare thing when the tabloid world crosses into the world of eco-fashion, and one that might bring a little more attention to Bahar’s already-provocative line than would normally have been the case,” the Courier Mail quoted Fehrenbacher as saying.

Dupre was dubbed as an ‘informant’ during the scandal that saw the politician patronising a prostitution service that subsequently led to his resignation from the post of New York Governor.

Eighteen months after the storm, Dupre has been recording pop songs and wooing a record deal. (ANI)

Spitzer call girl Ashley Dupre wants to make a comeback

New York, September 14 (ANI): Ashley Dupre, the former high-class call girl at the centre of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal, is tired of hiding and wants a comeback.

The 24-year-old was dubbed as an ‘informant’ during the scandal that saw the politician patronising a prostitution service that subsequently led to his resignation from the post of New York Governor.

And eighteen months after the storm, Dupre, who is recording pop songs and wooing a record deal, is seeking to get her life back on track.

“Everyone likes an underdog story, and everyone likes a comeback. I’m the poster child for redemption,” the New York Post quoted her as saying.

Dupre, who is also working on a book she calls a “cautionary tale,” further laughed at the idea that she was after the limelight.

She added: “I didn’t ask for it, but now that I have it, it’s up to me to take advantage of this platform and do something amazing. I have a voice now.” (ANI)

High-priced hooker’s mum dismayed over ex-NY Guv Spitzer’s comeback moves

New York, Sep.2 (ANI): The mother of the high-priced hooker who famously serviced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has expressed dismay over reports that he may consider running for office again less than two years after the sordid sex scandal.

“Only in America,” Ashley Dupre’s mom, Carolyn Capalbo, told The New York Post.

While Spitzer is discussing the possibility of a run next year, Dupre-who was 22 when the self-described “steamroller” of Albany paid to play with her-is struggling to get back on her feet, said Capalbo.

“I really can’t blame him, but at the same time, my daughter’s having a rough go,” she said at the beach, near her home in Wall. “I can imagine she’s not happy about it.”

“He has more credibility than a 22-year-old,” Ashley’s mom said in disbelief.

Capalbo said her daughter had turned down lucrative offers to make a buck off of the scandal, including posing for nude magazines.

Less than 18 months after he left Albany in a prostitution scandal, Spitzer has held informal discussions in recent weeks about the possibility of making a bid for state comptroller or the US Senate seat currently held by Kirsten Gillibrand, sources said.

The hooker-happy Democrat has also discussed his own halfway-decent poll numbers in recent surveys, which have shown him more popular than Gov. Paterson, whose own numbers have tanked.

“He”s weighing it,” said one source.

But Spitzer hasn”t shown any interest in campaigning for the office he briefly held, sources said.

The sources stressed that Spitzer, who also served two terms as state attorney general before his landslide election as governor in 2006, has not engaged in any active discussions with political consultants.

Reached at his father”s real-estate firm, where he has been working since he resigned as governor last spring, Spitzer declined comment.

But a source close to him insisted, “It”s not true,” and two other close associates also insisted he was not interested in running for office again and was looking at a range of other options.

Spitzer quit in disgrace in March 2008 after he was unmasked in Manhattan federal court as “Client 9″ in a prostitution bust involving a major call-girl ring. He was revealed to have paid 4,300 dollars for a romp with escort Ashley Dupre, then 22. (ANI)

Eliot Spitzer claims he’s not like Mark Sanford

New York, June 29 (ANI): Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer says that he is not similar to South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.

Spitzer had resigned in March last year, after it was reported that he was a client of a prostitution ring under investigation by the federal government.

On the other hand, on June 24, 2009, Sanford resigned as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, when it was revealed he was in an extramarital affair with an Argentinian, Maria Belen Chapur.

And thus, at a lunch meeting with LMDC executive director Avi Schick at Solo in the Sony Building on Madison, Spitzer was overheard as saying that there’s a huge difference in what he did and what Sanford has done.

“I didn’t fall in love with any of them,” the New York Post quoted him as telling Schick.

Besides, Spitzer didn’t use any taxpayer money on his trysts, while Sanford is reimbursing the state about 12,000 dollars for travel expenses to Buenos Aires. (ANI)

Spitzers dine out publicly for the first time after his sexcapade

New York, May 8 (ANI): Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and wife Silda went out together Thursday night for the first time publicly since his involvement in a prostitution ring forced him to resign last year.

The smiling couple joined hundreds of Education Through Music friends and supporters at the eighth annual Children’s Benefit Gala honoring Grammy-winning violinist Joshua Bell.

The Spitzers arrived at the Waldorf-Astoria promptly at 6:30 p.m. and were warmly welcomed by co-chairwoman Karen Karlsrud and other guests, reports the New York Daily News.

They sipped cocktails and occasionally cast lovey-dovey looks at each other while shooting the breeze with folks, including Bell, whose music is featured in the upcoming Tom Hanks’ flick “Angels and Demons.”

After about a half-hour of schmoozing and posing for photos, the Spitzers left holding hands. (ANI)

Patrick Swayze to be honoured for dance moves

Washington, May 7 (ANI): Cancer-stricken Patrick Swayze is to be honoured with a dance award.

The star, who has been battling the deadly disease since the beginning of 2008, will receive the Rolex Dance Award at a gala in New York, reports Contactmusic.

Rolex Watch USA president Allen Brill says, “It is an honour to present the Rolex Dance Award to Patrick Swayze, one of the most recognisable American actors, dancers, and singer/songwriters of our time.”

Swayze, a three-time Golden Globe nominated actor, dancer, and singer-songwriter is best-known as the romantic lead in “Dirty Dancing” and “Ghost”, and for the “North and South” TV-series.

His first professional job was as a dancer for Disney on Parade.

In the 70′s, the Texas native moved to New York to further his formal dance training. He studied with the Harkness Ballet Company, and then the Joffrey, before joining the Eliot Feld Ballet as a principal dancer.

He later starred as Danny Zuko in the long-running Broadway production of Grease before his debut in films. (ANI)

Poll finds New Yorkers prefer hooker-happy ex-Gov. Spitzer to Paterson

New York, May 5 (ANI): New York’s hooker-happy former governor Eliot Spitzer has been preferred by a majority of state voters to be back in office than his beleaguered successor Governor Paterson, according to a new poll.

The latest poll from the Marist Institute for Public Opinion showed 51 percent of registered voters would rather have Spitzer in the governor’s mansion right now. Spitzer resigned in March 2008 following revelations he patronized high-priced prostitutes.

Strikingly, even though Paterson is the state’s first Black Governor, 53 percent of non-Whites said they would prefer Spitzer as the state’s chief executive, the Daily News reports.

The number of voters rating Paterson’s job performance as good or excellent plummeted to 19 percent, marking a seven-point drop since Marist last asked the question in March.

The poll showed 37 percent believe Paterson is doing a fair job and 40 percent believe he is doing a poor job.

Paterson, who publicly declared he would ask voters in 2010 to elect him to his own four-year term as governor, gets points for his work ethic. The poll showed 66 percent of voters say he’s working hard, but even that’s a drop from 77 percent in March.

Exposing serious weakness in his leadership credentials, 66 percent of voters said Paterson does not have what it takes to lead the state and 48 percent said he doesn’t get the critical issues facing New York.

A whopping 68 percent of voters said they disagreed with Paterson’s handling of the economic crisis and 71 percent don’t believe he’s changing the way Albany operates for the better.

Nearly seven in 10 state voters believe the state is moving in the wrong direction, making Paterson’s ambition of winning his own term very unlikely.

If former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, challenges Paterson next year, the poll shows Paterson would lose by more than 20 points. In the hypothetical match-up, Giuliani leads Paterson, 56 percent to 32 percent. (ANI)

NYT wins five Pulitzers

New York, Apr.21 (ANI): The New York Times picked up five Pulitzer Prizes today, the most of any publication.

Times reporter David Barstow won the Investigative prize for his report on the relationship between the Pentagon and TV military analysts.

The Times also won staff awards for Breaking News in covering the Eliot Spitzer scandal – which included as many as 25 reporters – and International for political fallout in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Art critic Holland Cotter won for Criticism, and Damon Winter took the prize for Feature Photography.

The St. Petersburg Times won two awards: National Reporting (for PolitFact) and Feature Writing (Lane DeGregory).

The Washington Post, after picking up six last year, took home one award – Eugene Robinson for Commentary.

Other awards went to the Las Vegas Sun (Public Service) Los Angeles Times (Explanatory Reporting); Detroit Free Press (Local Reporting); Mark Mahoney of The Post-Star, Glens Falls, N.Y. (Editorial Writing); Steve Breen of The San Diego Union-Tribune (Editorial Cartooning); and The Miami Herald’s Patrick Farrell (Breaking News Photography).

Newsweek editor Jon Meacham won the Biography award for his book “American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House.”

The rest of Letters, Drama and Music were as follows: “Olive Kitteridge” by Elizabeth Strout (Fiction); “Ruined” by Lynn Nottage (Drama); “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family” by Annette Gordon-Reed (History); “The Shadow of Sirius” by W.S. Merwin (Poetry); “Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II” by Douglas A. Blackmon (General Nonfiction); and “Double Sextet” by Steve Reich, premiered March 26, 2008, in Richmond, Va. (Music). (ANI)

Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer led normal family life after hooker scandal

New York, Apr 20 (ANI): Disgraced former Governor Eliot Spitzer revealed that he did not lose his tranquility and maintained normal family life even after the prostitution scandal because he wanted his family to make it through.

Spitzer’s, who was identified as Client No. 9, got rave reviews for sending his three daughters to school and into the public spotlight, while his scandal was making headlines.

“I just hoped beyond hope that they would be able to walk out the front door without the media being too obtrusive. I wanted to create a sense that, yeah, their dad had done something unforgivable, but we were still a family and we were going to make it through this,” the New York Daily News quoted Spitzer, as saying.

Spitzer revealed that his wife stood by him at the crucial time, as she could understand what he was going through.

“When you’re in the foxhole with somebody, and there are incoming mortars, that breeds a certain closeness because nobody else can appreciate what you’re going through,” Spitzer added. (ANI)

Proteas spinner Botha’s action similar to Lanka’s Murli, says Oz bio-mechanist

Perth, Apr.16 (ANI): A University of Western Australia bio-mechanist has said Proteas off spinner Johan Botha’s action is similar to Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan.

According to Bruce Elliot, Botha has an action that looks “not quite as different as Murali but heading in that direction.”

According to the Daily Telegraph, Botha completely overhauled his action after he was suspended in 2006 and has since emerged as South Africa’s leading slow bowler in limited-overs cricket. He now faces a fresh round of tests after umpires raised concerns about his quicker ball and his doosra during the fourth one-day international against Australia in Port Elizabeth.

Eliot said the South African would always catch the attention of spectators and umpires because he has a fixed bend in his elbow and his forearm extends at an unusual angle, both of which are more dramatically evident in controversial Sri Lankan Muthiah Muralitharan.

“It doesn’t mean he is guilty or not guilty … (but) it is always going to look a bit strange. He is not quite as different as Murali but he is heading in that direction,” Eliot was quoted, as saying.

Elliott’s laboratory initially deemed Botha’s off-break and doosra illegal but eventually cleared him after remedial work in South Africa.

Botha can keep playing until the results of new biomechanical tests are available, and South African management hopes he will be cleared before the Twenty20 World Cup in England in June.

If he is again found to exceed the 15-degrees permitted for elbow extension, he will be banned for the second time in his career.

Elliott believes it is possible to correct any glitches relatively quickly, but said it was crucial that bowlers were made to simulate match conditions in the laboratory. To that end, the International Cricket Council is moving to ensure testing procedures are consistent. (ANI)

Spitzer call girl Ashley Dupre: Yoga saved my life

New York, March 12 (ANI): Ashley Dupre, the former high-class call girl at the centre of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal, has revealed that yoga sessions have helped her find “inner strength.”

The 23-year-old credited yoga classes for providing her with the strength to face the tempestuous row that saw Spitzer’s resignation from his post of New York Governor last year.

“The past year has obviously been very difficult for me,” the New York Post quoted her, as saying.

“Yoga has really helped me turn it into a huge learning experience. I’m working hard to take what I went through and turn it into something positive. Yoga helps me focus,” she added.

The ex escort, who has been keeping a low profile since the storm, revealed she snubbed offers from Penthouse and Playboy saying she was “not the person that the media created”.

Hoping to pen a tell-all-book, she added: “I’d really like to tell my own story on my own terms. I’d love to be able to help people work through their own issues.” (ANI)

Judge for public release of Ex-NY Governor Spitzer’s wiretaps

New York, Feb.20 (ANI): A U.S. district judge said tapes of former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer making calls to a prostitution ring can be made public.

According to Fox News, a Manhattan judge has ordered the government to make public sealed documents about wiretaps in the Eliot Spitzer scandal.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff ordered prosecutors Thursday to release documents detailing calls on cell phones used by a prostitution ring whose clients included the former governor. The documents were not immediately released; prosecutors will have a chance to appeal.

The New York Times sued late last year to get the material unsealed. The newspaper has agreed to allow the government to withhold the names of 67 customers named in the documents.

Spitzer resigned last year after details were revealed of a tryst with one of the ring’s prostitutes in a Washington hotel.

Investigators had been looking into the governor’s affairs after noticing unusual activity — later shown to be payments to prostitutes — in his bank accounts. Spitzer was tracked using court-ordered wiretaps.

Court papers allege Spitzer paid thousands of dollars to use the services of former call girl Ashley Alexandra Dupre, and law enforcement officials have said the former governor had a February 13, 2008 tryst with Dupre, then 22, in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.

Spitzer allegedly paid for Dupre to take a train from New York to D.C. — a move that opened the transaction up to federal prosecution because she crossed state lines.

Spitzer, who was referred to as Client 9 in federal documents, was alleged to be a repeat customer with the Emperors Club VIP, a high-end prostitution service. (ANI)

Judge for public release of Ex-NY Governor Spitzer’s wiretaps

New York, Feb.20 (ANI): A U.S. district judge said tapes of former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer making calls to a prostitution ring can be made public.

According to Fox News, a Manhattan judge has ordered the government to make public sealed documents about wiretaps in the Eliot Spitzer scandal.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff ordered prosecutors Thursday to release documents detailing calls on cell phones used by a prostitution ring whose clients included the former governor. The documents were not immediately released; prosecutors will have a chance to appeal.

The New York Times sued late last year to get the material unsealed. The newspaper has agreed to allow the government to withhold the names of 67 customers named in the documents.

Spitzer resigned last year after details were revealed of a tryst with one of the ring’s prostitutes in a Washington hotel.

Investigators had been looking into the governor’s affairs after noticing unusual activity — later shown to be payments to prostitutes — in his bank accounts. Spitzer was tracked using court-ordered wiretaps.

Court papers allege Spitzer paid thousands of dollars to use the services of former call girl Ashley Alexandra Dupre, and law enforcement officials have said the former governor had a February 13, 2008 tryst with Dupre, then 22, in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.

Spitzer allegedly paid for Dupre to take a train from New York to D.C. — a move that opened the transaction up to federal prosecution because she crossed state lines.

Spitzer, who was referred to as Client 9 in federal documents, was alleged to be a repeat customer with the Emperors Club VIP, a high-end prostitution service. (ANI)

Spitzer prostitute ring chief gets 30 months in jail

New York, February 7 (ANI): The chief behind the high-priced prostitution ring, the involvement with which led Eliot Spitzer to resign from his post of New York State Attorney General, has been slapped with a sentence of 30 months in jail.

Mark Brener, founder of the Emperors Club VIP, which went down along with Spitzer’s resignation, could have faced a reduced prison term had the former governor not been a customer, according to Brener’s lawyer Murray Richman.

“This is obviously collateral damage from the Spitzer situation,” the New York Daily News quoted Richman as saying.

Brener, 63, swore in front of Manhattan Federal Judge Denny Chin that he would mend his ways once he is done serving his sentence.

He said: “I want to apologize to this court, my family and anyone else whom I may have hurt as a result of my actions.

“I am fully aware that what I did was wrong. … I know that I do not have any more time to waste and I will not violate the law again. I am humiliated by this entire incident.”

Spitzer announced his resignation after revealing that he was the ‘Client 9′ referred to in the legal papers of a prostitution ring under investigation by the federal government. (ANI)

Manhattan madam’s tell-all book reveals Spitzer’s dirty secrets

New York, Feb 6 (ANI): Kristin Davis, the madam known as Eliot Spitzer’s personal “Madam Butterfly,” has reportedly written an explosive tell-all tome which exposes the disgraced former Governor’s dirty secrets.

The busty woman writes in “The Manhattan Madam” that Spitzer, a client of her escort service, was “good for a call at least once a week” from 2004 to 2006 – when she cut him off as he liked it too rough.

The book is available online, reports the New York Daily News.

Spitzer meant “thousands of dollars of steady income for me and my ladies,” wrote Davis, “that is, until the complaints began coming in hot and heavy” about the client who gave the phony name “James.”

“James was getting rough and too aggressive with the girls – repeatedly pressuring them to do things they didn’t want to do,” she added.

The Manhattan madam also said Spitzer tended to obsess about a girl, would want to see her every day and was pushy and whiny with her.”

But his biggest problem, she said, was that he didn’t want to use a condom, and “he’d be a real weasel about it, too.”

“Eventually, this is what I told ‘James,’” she writes.

“‘I no longer feel comfortable with you as a client. You are blacklisted. Please don’t ever call me or my other phone bookers again. Thank you and good luck,’” she added.

She later dropped the ban. (ANI)

Recession bites Matt Damon starrer ‘Torso’

Washington, Jan 27 (ANI): Matt Damon’s newest blockbuster has been put on hold indefinitely because of the global economic downturn, according to reports.

The ‘Bourne Identity’ star was supposed to star in ‘Torso’, a new movie about U.S. lawmaker Eliot Ness.

However, Paramount Pictures has reportedly suspended the film over fears its big budget would be too costly in the current financial climate, reports Contactmusic.

The flick was to be directed by The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button filmmaker David Fincher.

A source tells Britain’s Daily Express, “Paramount are still keen to make Torso but don’t want it to be an expensive risk so are looking at ways to bring it in for less money.

“If they can’t make their sums work, other Hollywood studios may well step in.” (ANI)

Current cholesterol guidelines not effective, say US researchers

Washington, Jan 13 (ANI): US researchers say that the current national cholesterol guidelines are not effectively identifying the majority of individuals who will develop fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events.

Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, Eliot Corday Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Science at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said that while the risk of cardiovascular events increases substantially with LDL levels above 40 mg/dL, current national cholesterol guidelines consider LDL levels less than 100 mg/dL acceptable for many individuals.

He came to this conclusion after conducting a study, which found that nearly 75 percent of patients hospitalised for a heart attack had cholesterol levels that would indicate they were not at high risk for a cardiovascular event.

Specifically, these patients had low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels that met current guidelines, and close to half had LDL levels classified in guidelines as optimal.

“Almost 75 percent of heart attack patients fell within recommended targets for LDL cholesterol, demonstrating that the current guidelines may not be low enough to cut heart attack risk in most who could benefit,” said Fonarow, the study’s principal investigator.

Researchers also found that more than half of patients hospitalised for a heart attack had poor high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels, according to national guidelines.

The study suggests that lowering guideline targets for LDL cholesterol for those at risk for cardiovascular disease, as well as developing better treatments to raise HDL cholesterol, may help reduce the number of patients hospitalized for heart attack in the future.

“The study gives us new insight and intervention ideas to help reduce the number of heart attacks,” said Fonarow.

The study is published in the January issue of the American Heart Journal. (ANI)