Spitzer's call girl starts her 15 minutes of fame

BY GLENN GAMBOA | glenn.gamboa@newsday.com

March 15, 2008

For Ashley Alexandra Dupré -- the high-priced escort known as "Kristen" caught up in the prostitution scandal that brought down Gov. Eliot Spitzer -- the clock on converting her 15 minutes of fame/infamy into a music career has started running.

After an initial wave of interest in her music, especially the single "What We Want," led to radio airplay and online sales on Thursday, curiosity started to give way to indifference or even anger yesterday.

"The jury is in and the response has been extremely negative," said Sharon Dastur, program director at New York's influential pop station Z-100, which began playing "What We Want" on Thursday, but removed it from its playlist Friday. "The reaction was almost 95 percent negative."

Dastur said the station played the song because of its importance to pop culture, not because of its musical value. When the station was flooded with responses ranging from that song "makes me want to scratch my eyes out" to "I'd rather listen to the Paris Hilton album in its entirety than hear that song again," Dastur said she knew it was time to pull it after only six plays.

As for the online retailer Amie Street, where Dupré's songs "What We Want" and "Move Ya Body" are for sale, purchases dropped dramatically Friday. Neither song was in the Top 200 Friday, though the massive sales on Thursday led both songs to the top two spots for the week and the month.

Dastur said Dupré's future in music doesn't seem too bright, though "Nowadays, you never really know."

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