March 12, 2008
It's a whorehome
Josh Levin in Slate:
On Monday, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer apologized for failing "to live up to the standard I expected of myself." The standard he failed to meet: completing a full term without making the acquaintance of high-priced call girls. According to a criminal complaint (PDF) filed in U.S. District Court, Spitzer paid $4,300 for a night with "Kristen," an escort from Emperors' Club. Like any 21st-century escort service, Emperors' Club has a storefront on the Web—as of Tuesday morning, visitors to emperorsclubvip.com are informed that the site "has been disabled." Thanks to Google's cache feature, however, it's still possible to peruse the site's nongraphical elements. The membership guidelines, the promotional materials, and the model profiles are all still there for the browsing, offering a rare glimpse at the secrets of operating today's brothel for the well-to-do.
Ingratiate yourself with the target audience. "Catering to the most financially elite social circles in the entire world," the site's welcome page begins, "Emperors Club is the elite recreation venue and private club for those accustomed to excellence." Apparently, those accustomed to excellence do not, as you might expect, demand copy written by native English speakers. ("When seeking an evening date, a weekend travel companion, or a friend to accompany you to your next business or social event, our Icon Models are paramount preference.")
Build a feeling of community, but also exclusivity. For its members, Emperors' Club isn't a whorehouse. It's a whorehome—a full-service institution that matches "customers with the ... finest concierge luxuries."
More here. And also this: "Why Is Prostitution Illegal?"
Posted by Abbas Raza at 05:21 AM | Permalink
Comments
Amnesiac Billary and Ferraro's, the last one, of the real estate deals, perhaps will now shut up! As Billy boy's memories are rekindled.
Or maybe, they will not, as they are above black men seeking office. --- MLK not included as he sought not the presidence of the USA.
The tragic thing is that at the time of the "Sins of the Fathers" both men had teenage daughters.
A field day for armchair psychoanalysts and neuroscientists --- never shy of finding their own explanations to all.
Maybe, and while they are at it, they can explain why planet Venus' orbit rotates counterclockwise --- sunrise West and Sunset East.
Posted by: Felix E. F. Larocca MD | Mar 12, 2008 6:44:29 AM
Of course Venus rotates counterclockwise. It is the planet of love, and we all know that "the course of true love never did run smooth".
Posted by: Jared | Mar 12, 2008 12:46:22 PM
Will aguy109 blame Spitzer's wife for making him do it? (as he did in explaining why my husband drove our car into standing water?) Well, someone else has already done it.
Posted by: Ruchira | Mar 12, 2008 1:01:52 PM
Why is prostitution illegal? The only answer I can come up with is it gives your enemies something with which to frame you (and also, of course, something with which you can frame your enemies)
Posted by: Jared | Mar 12, 2008 1:26:35 PM
I've always found it strange that pornography is legal while prostitution isn't. As far as I can tell, there are only two differences between prostitution and pornography: 1) how many people profit economically from the sex; and 2) whether or not it is filmed or photographed and made available for the rest of the world to enjoy.
In prostitution, only the prostitute and her pimp or agency are paid; in porn, all actors are paid, as well as a number of additional involved parties such as the producer, the director, the distributor, etc. In prostitution, the involved parties keep their act a secret; in porn, the involved parties publish their act for all to see. Such is the strange line between illegal and legal.
Apparently, Eliot Spitzer would have acted in the confines of the law if only he'd filmed his infidelity, sold it as 'porn' on the internet or in any perfectly legal adult video store, and made a nice chunk of change off it. His only 'crimes' here were that his involvement with his 'Kristen' didn't make him any money, and that he didn't film their sex and show it to the world.
Posted by: ghostman | Mar 12, 2008 4:31:29 PM
Ruchira, I hope you realized that my earlier remarks were meant to satyrize the tedency of men (including myself) to find convoluted reasons for blaming their wives for their own idiocies! (now you're going to say: "How dare you imply that I was foolish enough to marry an idiot!" and so it goes on ....) I kissed the bumper (=fender) of a Fiat the other day, but my wife was not in the car with me, so I can't blame her for that.
As for Spitzer, everyone knows that his biggest crime was getting found out. I was very pleased when Bill Clinton successfully rode the storm of the Levinsky scandal: it showed that the US public had matured and was able to get its priorities right, in spite of the fact that a lot of the media were sanctimoniously calling for BC to resign.
Why do people cheat on their spouses? Because the sex drive does not have an OFF switch, while moral inclinations certainly have one.
Posted by: aguy109 | Mar 12, 2008 7:14:01 PM
How does "buyout" work? If the "model" doesn't want to be "bought", what guarantee can the company make to the "client"? Alternatively, if the "model" does want a private relationship with a Very Rich Man, what prevents them from doing so without paying a fee?
One assumes the "models" have employment contracts with the company, but surely such terms would not be enforceable in court?
Posted by: Sagredo | Mar 12, 2008 7:54:53 PM
Thanks, aguy. Rest assured I got what you were doing - with satirizing, I mean.
There is much to debate as to why Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer or any other powerful male in a public position takes reckless risks as also whether prostitution should be a crime. In Spitzer's case though, it goes beyond mere sexual morality and libido. He is also a hypocrite, a far greater transgression in my mind. He clearly believed or pretended to believe that prostitution is a crime. He busted prostitution rings, put people behind bars and spoke with withering contempt for the practice. Yet he found it perfectly permissible to indulge in it himself. He enforced the rules (fair or not) for others and considered himself above them.
Posted by: Ruchira | Mar 12, 2008 8:14:28 PM
This "buyout" thing is very interesting. Now, I'm not up on American law (I'm just a simple Canadian) but I know that you folks had a big war to abolish slavery so I naively assumed that indentured servitude got dealt with too.
Maybe it's like all that legal stuff surrounding professional athletes. Yeah that's gotta be it.Of course the buyout might not be about releasing an "employee" from contractual obligations so much as not releasing a potential trophy wife's work history.
Why is prostitution illegal? That's easy. It's illegal because it's against the law. Everybody knows that.
Seriously now, (I promise I'll try to be serious) I've always thought it odd that if a liberal gets found in a brothel it's viewed as a setback and a betrayal but when a conservative is caught out it's an affirmation of the base nature of humanity and often reinforces the more punitive and pessimistic side of that political philosophy.
Posted by: Pete Chapman | Mar 12, 2008 9:12:22 PM
I like that.
But then you went and spoiled it all by saying something stupid like "why is prostitution illegal?"
Perhaps it's because of our history with slavery? Prostitution, not unreasonably, is defined as a variant of human trafficking, as indeed it is to those many women who are trapped within it. Even if some are voluntary, many are truly enslaved and of course organized crime profits greatly from it.
And it's hardly fair. Allowing those with money and power to exercise those at the expense of the downtrodden; to find pleasure in discovering the price at which a desperate woman will part with her virtue and self respect may fly elsewhere, but here, for now, I hope, we still strive to a more humanitarian standard.
Posted by: Carlos | Mar 12, 2008 9:15:29 PM
In Yiddish one might say: "Spitzer shpritzed a little too freely with his shpitz".
Posted by: aguy109 | Mar 13, 2008 3:50:11 AM
Now that we have all seen a photo of Kristen, it is clear that Mr. Spitzer is guilty - of bad taste.
Posted by: Jared | Mar 13, 2008 9:54:23 AM
Only the lobbyists. - New York Lt. Gov. David Paterson on being asked if he knew any prostitutes
Posted by: Dave Ranning | Mar 14, 2008 11:44:52 PM
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