I admit it. All this Ashley Dupre (or whichever alias you prefer) coverage is a bit on the seedier side of news. But she is now officially a part of American history that will never go away, so she, for the historical record, must be documented so that in a hundred years, history students look back and go “holy crap!”
Or whichever teenage expletive keeps them out of Mom-trouble in 2108. That it’s kind of trashy is just a bonus.
Update: The New York Post just posted pics. Hmmm. Tattoos on her shoulder, hand, forearms, and belly. Not artsy, pretty tatts, but prison tatts. Well, what do you expect on a Governor’s wages?
Documenting, though, is kind of difficult when it’s not very clear who exactly Ashley is. It’s worse when documenting the Web/Social Media developments in association with Ashley, when there could be countless posers, and where news outlets change their stories more than an Idaho Senator.
She seems to have a MySpace profile, which was in constant flux and spoof yesterday, and a Facebook profile, which was set up just yesterday, and now even a personal blog which I’m calling BS on because it’s just a little too entertaining and bombshell-dropping.
There’s no real way to validate any of it. But the search sure is fun.
Offline historians would have a hard enough time verifying the woman in the flesh, much less the pixilated version. Her hooker-handle was Kristen. Then we find out her name is Ashley Alexandra Dupre, who was born Ashley Youmans, only to learn she has a much more Italian stage name, Ashley Rae Maika DiPietro, headshots available.
And one report says she might be 32, not 22, at least according to public records for Ashley Youmans. It’s going to take a while to get to the bottom of her…well, longer than it used to anyway.
It’s only compounded online where anybody can be anybody and nobody can really tell for sure. The excepted wisdom is that the address of her MySpace page is this: http://www.myspace.com/ninavenetta. Yesterday though, that page was continuously in ownership flux, and spoof pages appeared on MySpace as well.
Though MySpace never got back with us about that, one anonymous commentator (the elusive Ashley?) explained that MySpace red flags went off when the page went from few page views to millions over night. Always sensible with its reactions, MySpace deleted it, which left that address open to a number of brand new one-namers like Barry, Johnny, Brandy, and Nina.
That last name brings attention back to the address. Why does Ashley Whatshername’s MySpace profile URL point to yet another name?
The original MySpace profile was restored, suggesting the social network validated that at least the traffic was legitimate.
All this attention has been good for her, if you don’t assume she’s also humiliated or that her humiliation isn’t outweighed by her new fame. Her previously free songs on Amie Street, which offers download prices based on popularity, skyrocketed to the cap of 98 cents faster than even recent Bare Naked Ladies tracks.
Nice choice of artists for comparison from Valleywag, eh?
Speaking of Valleywag, and by guilty association Gawker, they are the chief suspects behind the recent appearance of Ashley’s brand new blog, entitled “High-Class Hooker With a Heart Of Gold.” Not because anybody tipped us off but because it looks like something they’d do.
The blog is very Fake Steve Jobs in its sublime, hilarious pseudo-reality. On it, Ashley (or maybe in this case, Nick?) posts the texts of email requests for interviews from major news outlets, brags about her two million downloads, as well as offers from Penthouse and Playboy. All of this makes it sound like she is now very comfortable being known that way and is giddy about cashing in. The best posts – ingenious if created and hilarious if true – involve revelations that Spitzer liked her to call him “Mr. Governor,” and was more of a Shar-Pei than a Pit-bull.
It’s good enough that this guy bought it, anyway.
But the biggest tip-offs are the copious mentions of Valleywag and Gawker there, to which “Ashley” links among the gazillions of sites and posts popping up around the Net. Hmmm. Fishy.
The most recent post reveals a $10,000 offer from Digg-founder Kevin Rose to come spend the night…which is either way too good to be true or monumentally stupid. I’m going for the first one, and that makes it very clever.
Still, how does one trace it back to someone associated with Valleywag or Gawker? Well, you stretch it till it nearly breaks. The blog design came from Bill Israel, who follows Jason Kottke on Twitter, who follows Andy Baio, who follows none other than Valleywag’s Nick Douglas!
Score!
Or not. The truth is, at the end of the day, it’s not worth investigating too thoroughly, unless you’re the official historian that will be going mad trying to get it right for the books (or ebooks), and who will not be able to rely on the Internet for that true reflection of reality.
