One of Hollywood’s dirtiest little secrets is the call girl culture, and it seems to be getting more popular as the years progress (or maybe it’s just more publicized). High-priced prostitution is in and it looks like it’s not going anywhere. Hit the jump to read more.
Last week, TheDirty.com posted a story claiming supermodel and current star of “The Real Housewives of Miami,” Joanna Krupa, had been a high-priced escort who could make $10,000 a night. Krupa and her team immediately and vehemently denied the allegations, and threatened legal action. The story was removed from the site the next day.
Former Manhattan Madam Kristin Davis ran one the most successful high-priced escort services in New York, toting a client list with over 10,000 names until she was busted in 2008. She told FOX411 she did not recognize Krupa as one of the girls that worked for her over the years. But she did recognize her for another reason: Krupa was one of the models whose photos Davis cut and pasted from Maxim.com and others sites to lure customers.
“I used to steal her (Krupa’s) photos. I took her pictures off of Maxim,” Davis said. “Your turnover is really high, so you don’t invest in photos. I would match her up with a girl that looks like her.”
Davis, who served four months in prison and two-and-a-half years probation for promoting prostitution, also said high-priced hookers could bring in much more than the $10,000 rate reported by TheDirty.com.
“I would charge $3,000 an hour, four hours minimum usually, for a top model, with three calls a night. You do the math. It adds up,” Davis said. “The clients were head of industry, athletes, sport stars. You actually want to spend time with them. Girls actually enjoyed it. The mentality of the guy is very appreciative of the girl. The woman you see on the billboard in SoHo just walked through the door.”
It’s that kind of money that makes prostitution a lure for beautiful aspiring models and actresses waiting to get their big break in New York or Los Angeles. And Davis said that even for some already established models and actresses, the money can be too good to give up even once they are getting steady, high-paying legitimate jobs.
“A lot of my girls were top models … Victoria’s Secret, Ford Models,” Davis said. “Say Girl #1 got a L’Oreal commercial, after agencies and taxes, [her] $30,000 [fee] then turns into $20,000. These girls are not normal girls who shop at BeBe. Their lifestyle is outside of their means. That money lasts a month and a half. Some girls have cocaine habits, party a lot, and you’d be surprised, for some [$20,000 lasts] maybe a week.”
Davis said that former call girls have starred in Michael Kors and Gucci campaigns, to name a few high-profile gigs.
Tracy Quan, a former escort and author of “Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl,” now a Daily Beast writer, told FOX411: “I had friends [who were] actors, models, singers, aspiring directors and photographers; that whole world of entertainment, there is compatibility. They’re drawn to the escort world. There’s a sense of drama.”
Although Quan wrote a tell-all about her experiences, most escorts will never reveal their past involvement in prostitution. Davis said she has not and will never reveal names. “I used fake pictures to protect the girls on my website and never used real names. The moment they walked in the office we created a new name and that was how she was known from then on.”
President of Stars Model Management, Timmy Secor, said the ugly side of the beauty business leads some women into escort work.
“It’s the most brutal industry in the world. You’re not selling a car, a product; you’re selling yourself. No other business in the world is like this. It’s impossible to make real money. There are so many beautiful girls and so little jobs; so few people ever make a living at it.”
He added that impressionable model-hopefuls may be lured into the sex industry when their career stagnates. “It definitely happens. There are girls who go to the darker side of modeling; escort services. It happens. We don’t have anything like that here.”
