Introducing Ashley Alexandra Dupre

Extra may have offered "Kristin" $100K, but it was still The New York Times that broke her identity along with photographs by employing a combination of shoe-leather reporting and MySpace surfing. Let this be a cautionary lesson to all of you that may want to post personal information and photographs online if you are involved in something illegal, like prostitution. What the Times reporters found: Her name is Ashley Youmans but she is known as Ashley Alexandra Dupre, she's from New Jersey, is 22, and is into her music. She even owns an entertainment company called Pasche New York, but apparently it wasn't enough to pay the bills when the man she was with walked out on her, leading her to a job in the escort business. (This is also a cautionary tale about trying to live in this city on no money.) According to her MySpace, she comes from a broken home, has gone through abuse, suffered drug addiction and been broke and homeless before. You almost can't blame her for not wanting to go back to that.

What I find the creepy part of the Times article isn't that she's around my age and slept with guys for money, or even that they insult her "amatuerish" music, but the quote from her mother at the end: "She is a very bright girl who can handle someone like the governor," Ms. Capalbo said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "But she also is a 22-year-old not a 32-year-old or a 42-year-old and she obviously got involved in something much larger than her."

She can handle someone like the governor? Ew.