LOS ANGELES — A $1 million offer to the call girl linked to former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was rescinded because she’d already shot footage for “Girls Gone Wild.” Now it might be the video maker who will lose out.
The company said Wednesday the woman may have been 17 when the footage was filmed, and the video’s Internet release will be delayed.
“Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis originally reached out to Ashley Alexandra Dupre, now 22, offering $1 million for her to appear in a non-nude spread for his company’s new magazine and a chance to join the “Girls Gone Wild” tour bus.
But on Tuesday “Girls Gone Wild” employees found archived footage of Dupre filmed in 2003, and Francis retracted the offer.
In a statement Wednesday, Francis said he had received an e-mail from Dupre’s attorney Don D. Buchwald saying Dupre may have been 17 in the videos shot in Miami and not 18 as Francis had first claimed.
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Calls and e-mails to Buchwald were not immediately returned.
“All nude images of Ms. Dupre were taken in public places and contain no sexual contact. In Florida, where Ms. Dupre was filmed, the law allows even women under the age of 18 to be filmed nude with their consent,” Francis said.
He added that “Girls Gone Wild” has a “corporate policy” not to use individuals under the age of 18 in their videos. Given this policy, the company delayed the release of Dupre’s footage on the internet, Francis said. The company was “investigating the matter” and “will make our decision shortly,” Francis said.
Messages left for Ed Griffith, spokesman for the Miami-Dade County state attorney’s office, were not immediately returned.
Francis returned to California last week after being sentenced to time served and fines in Florida in a case involving the filming of underage girls. He still faces trial on federal tax evasion charges that carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
By midday Wednesday, Dupre was still depicted on the “Girls Gone Wild” Web site, with a free sampling on the front page of her dancing in a bikini and the rest available with a $29.95 monthly subscription.
“It’s kind of like finding a winning lottery ticket in the cushions of your couch,” Francis told The Associated Press — before he was e-mailed by Dupre’s attorney.
According to a “Girls Gone Wild” press release Tuesday, Dupre visited Miami in 2003 to celebrate her 18th birthday. After fighting with a friend and getting thrown out of her hotel, Dupre found a nearby “Girls Gone Wild” bus, the company said.
She signed legal papers and spent a full week on the bus, filming seven full-length tapes which included nudity and same-sex encounters, according to the company.
Hustler publisher Larry Flynt told the AP last Friday that he e-mailed Dupre offering her $1 million to appear nude in his magazine, but didn’t sound optimistic that she would settle for that amount.
Dupre’s public profile has skyrocketed since Spitzer resigned earlier this week amid the prostitution scandal. He was accused of spending tens of thousands of dollars on prostitutes, including a February tryst with a call girl named “Kristen,” since identified as Dupre.
Dupre’s MySpace page was hit more than 5 million times in the days immediately after the scandal broke. Her musical efforts were listened to hundreds of thousands of times online and played on national airwaves.
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