Spitzer in Mind, the D.C. Madam Makes Her Case | Newsweek Periscope

CRIME
The Many Faces of Amanda
Barbie Nadeau 7/14/2008 12:00:00 AM
The nine-bloom yellow bouquet for Amanda Knox included a simple note. "Happy Birthday," it said. "I hope that justice prevails soon." The circumstances surrounding the gift, though, were anything but. Knox, a Seattle native who turned 21 on July 8, has spent the last nine months in Italy's Capanne prison. The flowers came from her former boyfriend Raffaelle Sollecito. Knox and Sollecito enjoyed a passionate relationship before they were arrested in connection with the Perugia murder of British student Meredith Kercher. Just days after Kercher's body was found last November in the villa Knox shared with the victim, security camera footage showed the couple buying lingerie in a local store, with Knox giggling and telling Sollecito, "Afterwards I'm going to take you home so we can have wild sex together." But once the two were arrested, lawyers for both sides said they had broken up and each hinted the other was to blame for slitting Kercher's throat—reportedly during a session of extreme sex.
FACT CHECK
Wisconsin Judgment Day, the Sequel
Viveca Novak 3/21/2008 12:00:00 AM
SummaryIn this second of our "Court Watch" series, we return to what's become a racially charged campaign in Wisconsin to replace Louis Butler, the only black justice on the state Supreme Court, with a white, business-backed lower court judge, Mike Gableman. We look at two ads that attack Butler and find both to be misleading.
SOCIETY
On Top of the World?
Arian Campo-Flores 3/15/2008 12:00:00 AM
Ashley Alexandra Dupre seemed to have come so far. As she recounted in a cloying, cliché-filled bio on her MySpace page—that may or may not be true--she battled bouts of drug abuse and homelessness before cracking into the music scene and pursuing her dream of becoming a singer. "I live in New York and am on top of the world," she wrote. She recently recorded a track called "What We Want" and settled in to a $3,500-per-month studio outfitted with imported tile and stainless-steel appliances in a posh Manhattan building. But according to authorities, Dupre, 22, led a secret life as a high-end hooker who went by the nickname "Kristen." She might have continued turning tricks in obscurity were it not for the misfortune of linking up with one alleged client in particular: New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
POLITICS
‘Dude, These Are Men’
3/11/2008 12:00:00 AM
If anyone can offer any special insight into the Eliot Spitzer scandal, it's Heidi Fleiss. The former Hollywood madam—who once ran a call girl business that served clients like actor Charlie Sheen and who served 21 months in federal prison after being convicted of tax evasion—says she is not surprised by the New York governor's alleged link to a prostitution ring. "What's the mystery?" she asks. "If the guy wants to get laid, he wants to get laid."Fleiss now lives in Pahrump, Nev., about 80 miles west of Las Vegas, where in 2005 she announced plans to open Nevada's first brothel for female customers. She's vague about why that hasn't happened, except to say that she's now in talks to go into business on that front with Dennis Hof, owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch near Reno, which was the focus of the HBO show "Cathouse." Meanwhile, Fleiss has opened a laundromat called Dirty Laundry in Pahrump. Last month she was charged with DUI and drug possession and is awaiting trial in that case. Fleiss spoke to NEWSWEEK about the Spitzer case. Excerpts: NEWSWEEK: Does it surprise you that someone as high-profile as the governor of New York would get in trouble like this?Heidi Fleiss: Of course not. Dude, these are men. They think about sex 98 percent of the time.
Spitzer Gets Spitzered
Daniel Gross 3/10/2008 12:00:00 AM
The stock market may be battered, the dollar may be plunging, and the economy may be tanking, but there's a bull market in schadenfreude on Wall Street this afternoon. Even as the Dow was on its way to notching another triple-digit loss, whoops of joy erupted from the dispirited trading floors today on news of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's disgrace. Spitzer, who rose to prominence as a scourge of Wall Street, uprooting corrupt practices, coming down hard on bad actors and establishing a new moral order, was laid low by reports that he had been involved in a prostitution ring.
Notes on a Scandal
Howard Fineman 3/10/2008 12:00:00 AM
I had been told that Eliot Spitzer was a total, remorseless animal. The white-collar defense lawyers, Albany politicians and New York reporters I knew said so, and there was plenty of evidence of his ruthlessness and extreme self-regard in his track record as attorney general of New York state. Yet when I met him and traveled with him as he campaigned for governor, I swear that I detected something vaguely melancholy and rueful about the guy. It made me wonder. Now I know why.