Eliot Spitzer Prostitute to Give 1st TV Interview

The New York Daily New reports that Ashley Dupre, the prostitute made famous by the Eliot Spitzer scandal, will give her first television interview to ABC's Diane Sawyer. The interview will air Friday.

According to sources cited by the Daily News, the interview will not focus on the Spitzer scandal, but rather, on Ashley's story.

"People who think this is all about Eliot Spitzer are going to be disapointed," an insider said. "Diane has done extensive reporting on prostitution. This is another chapter in that reporting."

The interview, first noted at gawker.com, is expected to take up two parts of the hour-long "20/20" next Friday.

Calls and e-mails to Dupre went unanswered. Her attorney Don Buchwald said he had no comment.

Since Spitzer resigned, Dupre has largely remained out of the limelight. She was photographed on the beach in Sea Girt, N.J. over the summer, and popped up in occassional gossip page mentions.

I'm glad that Sawyer will focus more on Ashley's story, which is far more interesting to me than that of the man who exploited her.

As my regular readers know, I have a bit of a soft spot for Ashley, as well. When the story first broke, I was struck by the venom with which people trashed her, matched only by the vigor with which they excused Spitzer's actions.

Plus, she's a Jersey Girl from around my way, who tried to make the best of a rotten hand. Sptizer was just a powerful guy paying her to have sex with him and keep quiet about it.

Although I tried to piece together some of what she was feeling at the time, I will be interested to see what the experience and the notoriety have taught her. The fact that we've heard so little about her since then seems to speak well of her.

Tommy Christopher co-hosts "Unusable Signal",on BlogTalkRadio, Tues through Thurs at 10pm, and Fri, and Sat at 11pm. (Eastern) Click here for the Unusable Signal homepage.