Spitzer Hooker Nabs Mariah Carey Manager [Ashley Alexandra Dupre]

Ashley Dupre is one step closer to her big dream of being a famous singer instead of the most famous prostitute to service former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. She totally got signed by diva Mariah Carey's manager! Well, her ex-manager, at least. Before a big falling out. But he stills reps this singer called Mika who maybe you've heard of. And according to one anonymous Daily News source, there's been "quite a bit of interest" from record labels in Dupre. Or, if you believe the other anonymous source, "every label passed." Ugh! Seriously, who do you have to blow in this town to get a straight answer about your record demo? [Daily News]

Hills Star Settles For B-List Presidential Event [Celebrity-industrial Complex]

Last week The Hills star Heidi Montag turned down an invitation to sit at MSNBC.com's table at the White House Correspondent's Dinner, reportedly because boyfriend/manager Spencer Pratt said the event, which includes top journalists and is attended by the president, wasn't "A-Listy enough." MSNBC awkwardly denied, then admitted that it had invited Montag. Well, it turns out Montag and Pratt condescended to come to the dinner (the picture at left was taken there), invited by the shameless celebrity panderers at Fortune magazine, according to Page Six:

...they managed to snag a last-minute seat at Fortune magazine's table.

And, of course, the fame-hungry duo from MTV's The Hills spent the night snaking their way through the DC after-parties. They hit the Bloomberg LP soirée at the embassy of Costa Rica, which was such a disaster, half the invitees couldn't get in.

Fortune? Bloomberg LP? Wait, neither of you is talking to Rupert Murdoch's Fox Business or Wall Street Journal, right? Please tell me I'm right.

[Page Six]

Times Hearts GTA IV [Grand Theft Auto]

"A... thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun. It... sets a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts... I will happily spend untold hours cruising Liberty City’s bridges and byways, hitting the clubs, grooving to the radio and running from the cops. Even when the real New York City is right outside." [Times]

Murdoch's Man At Journal A Big Ole Softie, Really [Robert Thomson]

The Times profile of Rupert Murdoch's man at the Wall Street Journal, Robert Thomson, reinforces much of what was already known about the newsroom leader. He is good friends with the News Corp. chairman, charming to coworkers, a proven news chief and has responsibilities at the Journal that have long outstripped his title of "publisher." But the Times story adds new information that makes it sound like Thomson will play good cop to Murdoch's bad cop:

...he is loyal, almost to a fault. One reporter said he “can’t say no.” And many former colleagues say he is not the type of manager who is capable of easily firing workers.

In fact, the prevailing theory as to why he never became the editor of The Financial Times is because the paper needed to trim its ranks after a hiring boom during the dot-com days, and Mr. Thomson was not seen as the right person to do that.

And already at the Journal, the Times reports, Thomson has announced an investment of $6 million per year for four additional pages of international news.

[Times]

Taking The "Double" Out Of "Double Entrendre" [The Gays]

"If I was lucky enough to find love, I thought, I’d better hold onto it. And part of me tried, but a bigger part of me wanted to pitch a tent in my favorite gay bar." [Times]

Vanity Fair Steals 15-Year-Old's Topless Virginity [Celebrity Science]

Miley Cyrus apologized to America yesterday for appearing in a Vanity Fair photo spread, her torso wrapped only in what appeared to be a bedsheet, her hair tousled, her lips painted bright red. Viewers of her Hannah Montana are mostly aged 6-14, and their parents worry this is just another attempt to sexualize their young kids. It's true there was something unseemly about the whole thing, in particular Vanity Fair gloating in its Cyrus profile that "the topless but demure portrait accompanying this article could be seen as another baby step, as it were, toward a more mature profile" and asking, in a caption, "Um, was Cyrus—or Disney—at all anxious about this shot?" But there's also something absurd about the outraged reaction to the whole thing, including allegations of exploitation by Disney and a parenting website suggesting readers burn Hannah Montana products in a bonfire.

Cyrus is hardly the first teenaged minor to adopt a sexual pose, however vague, in the media, and Vanity Fair is hardly the first glossy to run topless pictures of an underaged minor — the Times' T Magazine did that in December in a move staunchly defended by the editor of the main Times Magazine.

The difference between Cyrus and teen stars who have gotten away with this sort of thing is that Cryus is supposed to be making $1 billion annually for the Walt Disney Company by selling a wholesome image to younger girls.

A Disney spokeswoman called the Vanity Fair shoot "a situation was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines." As opposed to, say, a situation created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell a television show or the products advertised in them.

Cyrus seems to have no trouble appearing in sexualized pictures without Annie Leibovitz whispering in her ear, as at the Vanity Fair shoot (where her mom and other minders were present). Pictures surfaced last week of Cyrus exposing her bra and midriff and cuddling with a boyfriend. Not that the star should be ashamed of her tame teenaged experimentation.

This isn't about exploitation or morality. It's about, on the one hand, a move studio looking to preserve the profits that come from selling a particular character increasingly divorced from the actress who plays her, and on the other a set of parents freaked out about anything remotely sexual and unwilling to serve as an intermediary between the media and their children.

[Times]

(Images via Vanity Fair)

Savaging Matthew McConaughey For Fun And Profit [Clips]

From tonight's episode, here's Fox's Family Guy roasting actor Matthew McConaughey to a crisp. The character Stewie tells the perpetually shirtless McConaughey he hasn't made anything worthwhile since Dazed And Confused and "you need to go away." McConaughey takes this as a compliment on his ability to make lots of money on "terrible films." It goes from there. (Thanks to Gawker video wizard Richard Blakeley for the late-night find.)