Ashley Dupré aka 'Ashley Alexandra Dupré' or 'Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro' (born Ashley Youmans), was a 'singer' when she shot to fame... but at the beginning she had the usual '
broken home' upbringing that many of the girls shared in common. She had claimed later on her 'Myspace' biography, that she left home at age 17 to escape a broken family home and
abuse. This claim was challenged by her aunt, who said that "
She never had a bad life when she was growing up. She had the best of everything: bicycles, clothing, O'Neill surf boards. ... She was always dressed to kill and got everything she wanted" ... so you pays your money and take your choice. In 2004, at the age of 19, Dupré moved to New York City in pursuit of a music career, as a singer, and worked as a waitress at a dance clubs to support herself. She apparently developed expensive tastes around this time (including Cartier and Louis Vuitton consumer goods and
trips to Saint-Tropez, France), which she explained to friends were paid for by her guilty, but wealthy parents.
Dupré began singing professionally with a musician called Jerry Cooper who was also her boyfriend. "
She had this huge voice for such a little girl", Cooper told MTV, "
and so I just kind of went in and said 'Hey, come upstairs when you're done with this, and let's work on some songs'". She then claimed to have toured and recorded with Cooper's band, networking where she could, until 2005, when she formed a company named 'Pasche New York', to promote her music career. In the summer of 2006, she made an appearance in a music video for the song "Pop Off", performed by rapper Mysterious.
Speculation is that she may have earned between US$300,000 - US$1.4 million from the download sales of her singles on the web site 'Amie Street', but more conservative estimates said US$13,720. Dupré's music came to be featured in mash up 'YouTube' videos, blending her tracks with those of established artists. Dupré reportedly is now being represented by music manager Jerry Blair, who formerly worked for Mariah Carey, but any deal may have to await for her infamous reputation to lessen ..... OK no more teasing, as you can guess from the hints, she managed to get herself involved in a real humdinger of a scandal
At the age of 19, while she was working as a cocktail waitress at the Hotel Gansevoort in 2004, she also began
working as an 'escort' on the side, using the alias '
Victoria'. In 2006, Dupré changed her legal name from 'Youmans' to her stepfather's name of 'DiPietro', but continued as an
escort .... by now the escort agency was the 'Emperors Club VIP', and she was working under the alias '
Kristen'. So far, so getting away with it, but on February 13, 2008, she went to meet a trick at the Mayflower Hotel with New York ... it was New York Governor
Eliot Spitzer.
Even so, all may have gone smoothly, but the meeting was monitored by Federal Investigators, who had initiated a wiretap after his bank had reported dodgy cash movements (
as it turned out to the holding company for 'Emperors Club VIP'). The wiretap caught Dupré talking to the booker about other girls problems with Spitzer, but how she planned to '
handle' him. There were arrests made all round, but initially news reports and court documents did not identify the agency's clients, or the call girls by name. Then 'The New York Times' identified Spitzer as a client, and Dupré as the "Kristen" in the tapes ..... this revelation led Spitzer to announce his
resignation as Governor.
Dupré was reportedly offered US $1 million by 'Hustler' magazine to pose nude, and received offers from 'Penthouse magazine' and 'Vivid Entertainment' .... however pictures of her, taken on a public beach aged just 18 (
taken in 2003), circulated on the web as 'teasers' for a rather tame movie, which although legal in most countries, were not in some of the US states (
18 is legal in the UK and Europe, as well as in Florida with consent) ... this just added to the media interest. In April 2008, Dupré
filed suit against the web distribution company, alleging their exploitation of Dupré's name and image, and
seeking US $10 million in punitive damages, but in July of that year she decided to
drop the law suit after they released footage showing
her agreeing to be filmed
In December 2009, she abandoned any further pretenses of victim-hood and became a sex columnist for the New York Post, “
Ask Ashley”, and she then posed nude for the May 2010 issue of Playboy magazine. Currently she is believed to be teaming up with 'reality stars' Danielle Staub, Heidi Montag and Jake Pavelka for a reality show called 'Cafe Med'.
Then there were rumours of a sex tape ..... I have no idea if its true ... they look like her, and I have no reason to believe that they aren't
Quote:
"
I just don't want to be thought of as a monster," Dupré told the New York Times newspaper at the time. "
This has been a very difficult time. It's complicated."
Trivia:
- Shortly after 'The New York Times' published their profile of Dupré, her single "Move Ya Body" set a record for how fast it commanded the top price on the music-download site AmieStreet.com, reaching the site's maximum of US$0.98 per download in five hours.
- Another single, "What We Want", was played more than 3 million times on the Internet after the scandal erupted.
- The 'Village Voice' called her "the most famous hooker in America".
- Dupré was given legal immunity by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, for her role in the Spitzer scandal in order to testify at the court hearings related to the 'Emperors Club VIP' prostitution ring.
Pictures:
She has no thread, but there are the odd postings as part of various Pl*yboy threads ... they repeated pictures on all of those posts that I looked at, so no apologies for reposting a few illustrative copies here as well. I post the tape pics with no guarantee that they are genuinely her (just for comparison purposes!).
The Tape Pictures:
