Oh, and then the New York Times revealed that New York governor Eliot Spitzer was "linked to" a high-class escort service. Things got kinda nuts from there! Go here for all of our exclusive and comprehensive coverage of the scandal that rocked New York for a week until it morphed into an excuse to post racy photos of an attractive young woman.
There were three basic threads to our coverage of the Spitzer thing. First, the scandal itself! The apology! Our controversial position! The muppet picture! The wife! Client 9! PR experts had no advice. He embarrassed the Jews. We sought solace in astrology, but Eliot resigned anyway, after a car chase. All in 3 magical days!
Second, the meta-media beat. We topped the tabloid headlines, we charted everyone else's headlines, and we analyzed the nutty behavior of the New York Times, the outlet that broke the story, then didn't call for Spitzer's resignation. Their Metro desk was the hero of the week, though their extensive coverage led us to ask when, exactly, the New York Timesbecame a tabloid. Or at least tabloid-y. Then we noted that they seemed a bit eager for crazy charges to be filed, which might justify the whole sordid mess. The mess got even sordider by week's end, by which point everyone's prurience was no longer even thinly veiled, and the whole thing became All About Ashley.
That would be Ashley Alexandra Dupre, alias "Kristen". She's the classy call girl who Spitzer met with that fateful DC night. We tried to find her on day one, and then thought we had. But the Timestracked her down for the interview and linked to her MySpace and set off another media frenzy. We helped with our DEFINITIVE GALLERY OF KRISTEN PHOTOS. And so much more on America's Newest Sweetheart, who is 22, or maybe 32. She is available for music videos.
MEANWHILE: That one lady we used to write about—Juliet something?—has toned it down a little. Thankfully, her good friends the Rambin sisters haven't. We're still not sure who they are but they spent the week doing various notable things.
Our own Hamilton Nolan waged an increasingly hilarious war on PR guru and man who doesn't know when to stay quiet Ronn [sic] Torrosian. It started with The Epic Ballad of Ronn Torossian and just got wackier from there.
Tom Cruise had the best birthday party ever ever EVER!
Lots of other things happened this week! We all made Facebook friends with the the Superdelegates, and Glamour fired their dudeblogger, and then Neel Shah bro'd down with the fired Dudeblogger, and then we actually read Vogue, and wept for the greatest reality show never, then some film students terrorized Kate Hudson with guns, Tim Gunn was not sad, a reporter hurt himself on YouTube, and the coolest old man ever sent a crazy email about how news is the new rock and roll.
