"Kristen": Another Young Girl Losing Her Soul in Pursuit of Celebrity

One amazing thing about New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s stunning fall from grace is how the prostitute he hired for $4000 is so quickly becoming a celebrity! "Kristen" was identified by the NY Times as Ashley Alexandra Dupre and interviewed just three or four days after the story broke, the same day the Governor resigned from office.

Why be interviewed? Why acknowledge being on hire with Governor Spitzer? Why not remain the anonymous "Kristen" from the Emperor's VIP Club?

The answer? Why miss this extraordinary chance to become a celebrity! What reason did she give the NY Times for doing the interview? “I just don't want to be thought of as a monster.” And her proud mother chimed in too, “She is a very bright girl who can handle someone like the governor.” Already Penthouse and Hustler are making competing offers to photograph her. Her ten seconds of fame have begun!

Let's have a reality check. "Kristen" was/is a prostitute. She's made some pretty desperate choices to end up where she is now. She aspires to be a singer, but that takes money. She left “a broken family” at age 17, having been abused, and has used drugs, “been broke and homeless.” She says she's “learned what it was like to have everything and lose it, again and again.” These quotes are taken from "Kristen's" interview and her webpage. A little odd how she doesn't mention how she became a high-priced hooker to pay for the life she was trying to live and the career as a singer she was trying to launch.

Sorry, but I just don't buy the Pretty Woman glamorized version of prostitution. It's a desperate life. Last night, Good Friday, 20/20 aired a two-hour special on “Prostitution in America.” Only one girl out of the hundreds of interviews even remotely claimed to be happy with what she was doing. One of the working girls interviewed actually suggested that she was "jealous" of "Kristen" because now she's found a way out. I doubt it. It's only liable to make her life worse, especially if she sells herself to the porn industry. Anyhow, after two years of research and interviewing working girls, Diane Sawyer concludes: “Be it glamorized prostitution with high-end escorts, poverty stricken street hookers or legal working women in the sex trade, these women all share some things in common. Sexual abuse at a young age, broken homes and addictions to drugs and alcohol all lead women to pursue lives that aid them in getting money any way they can.” They desperately try to find some way to make it in the world, but end up losing their souls.

It was very sad to hear all these girls from all walks of life being interviewed. They had been damaged and in desperation were trying to make money to make a better life for themselves. Jesus said, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Matthew 16:26) Almost 100% of those interviewed agreed that the personal toll of becoming a prostitute was too high a cost. Likewise, I say to "Kristen," the cost of celebrity, if it involves losing your own soul, is too high.

And the men who hire these women, are they not also forfeiting their souls for a little pleasure? I don't know, but to me it seems like you would have to be pretty obsessed with the prostitute to pay $4000! "Kristen" represents a fatal attraction for Eliot Spitzer. Do you remember who shot J.R.? Yep, Kristin (Shepherd), his wife's scheming sister and his mistress. Why'd she shoot him? Because she was mad at J.R., being pregnant with his child but tossed aside. She was a near-fatal attraction for J.R. What's gone wrong when men so obsess over a woman to the point of committing acts which jeopardize their lives? Acts which are costing them their souls? Why run the risk of being publicly exposed and ruined? Personally, I suspect it's sexual addiction as marked by the incredible inability to stop. Surely Governor Spitzer would've stopped, if he could have, since he himself was the motivating force behind the investigation of prostitution rings in New York state. Anyhow, I digress—see my earlier post "Stunning Fall From Grace."

To conclude, a fitting thought for Good Friday or Dark Saturday: pleasures and pursuits in this life which cost you your soul cannot be worth it. You not only have to live with the choices you make but you must live with the person you become. Then there's the consequence in the life to come.... Celebrity isn't worth it. I've been too close to becoming a "soul-less" man myself, so it is in sympathy and understanding that I say how sad it is to see "Kristen" on the front page of the NY Times (and Toronto Star!), another young girl losing her soul in pursuit of fame.

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Fatal Attraction
2 Samuel 13 is a very telling account of sexuality gone wrong. King David's son Amnon can not stop obsessing over his own sister, Tamar, not until he crosses the line. What can we learn from this passage of Scripture to help us face a world in which perversion is no longer something not talked about, but rather one of the biggest, fastest growing markets on the Internet? What's gone wrong with sexuality? Why can't some men stop, even when the attraction is fatal?