Please check out Melissa Gira Grant's postings on this topic at ValleyWag.com for the inside scoop on this story. Having worked in the profession herself, Melissa clarifies the erroneous "$3000-$5000/hour" rate many newspapers are mistakenly reporting. She claims that these kinds of payments made to escort services such as the Emperor's Club are not hourly rates for prostitutes, but simply retainer fees allowing folks like Client 9/Spitzer to rent the services of a worker like Ashley Alexandra Dupre for a specified period of time, like say, the entire weekend as opposed to a single night. She would then be available to him at any time during the contracted period, rather than for specified hours or times where he might have a conflict and be unable to meet with her.

This makes far more sense from a business standpoint than the misinterpretation of the fee you quoted, which only perpetuates the myth of the $5000/hour hooker.

Whether you agree with her choice or not, Ms. Dupre was merely working at the world's oldest profession. Governor Spitzer's claim to fame was his moral standing and his integrity which was apparently not as great as he would have had us believe. Ms Dupre did not take Eliot Spitzer down; Mr Spritzer did that all by himself.

signed: one very disappointed New Yorker

As any consultant knows, not all hours are billable.

At least the escorts are mostly straight forward about their services. Politicians and CEOs have been screwing the rest of us for all of eternity.

I propose a new measure of compensation out of this sad mess. As SteveH notes, corporate executives have essentially been doing the same thing, so I propose we use the same measure.

The unit of measure will be the Kristen, which is deemed to be $4,000 per hour. So, assuming that a business executive making the 2006 average of $15.2 million a year actually works 1,650 hours that year, then he (or she) is making 2.3 Kristens. This unit of measure is much easier to manage than the 7, 8 and 9 digit obscenities, and will remind us each time we use it that these executives, like hookers, are in the business of screwing their customers...

Steve Jobs salary should be measured in ipods, not diamonds - diamonds are so 1990's.

whats the deal with partial feeds? I would actually read most posts if I didnt have to leave my feed reader.