George Clooney’s girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis has lasted more than two months, for anyone who had money riding on it. Speaking of rides, Elisabetta is still getting the same Sarah-Larson-esque, glowing, ridiculous press coverage. At least there are no smarmy quotes from Clooney trying to convince us that Elisabetta is a “great co-pilot” for ride of life. Instead, we get this lovely little report from In Touch Weekly, all about how Clooney is lavishing gifts on his lovely working girl:

George Clooney’s romance with Italian TV personality Elisabetta Canalis is heating up. According to a pal, Clooney is so smitten that he recently presented her with a ring. It’s not an engagement ring – but it is a sign they’re getting serious.

As In Touch first reported, George invited Elisabetta to move into his Studio City, California home and now that she’s there, he’s spoiling her rotten.

In addition to slipping the Cartier diamond on her finger, George also bought her a Hermes Kelly bag and countless pairs of designer shoes.

“Every day is like Christmas at George’s house for Elisabetta,” says his buddy, adding, “He’s even looking at a Maserati. He’s had a great life for a long time, but she seems to make him very happy.”

[From In Touch Weekly, print edition, October 19 2009]

And now I just wasted way too much time looking at Cartier’s jewelry collection on their website. Jesus, I really want like twenty of those rings. Please, George? I’ll do anything you want, seriously. I have big boobs and I’m a brunette. And I’ll do anything for expensive jewelry. I’m so your type.

Also, I would much prefer the sports car to the engagement ring. Granted, if you get the engagement ring, the car could come after that. But come on! Sports car > diamond ring.

Don’t ask me why, but I am still fascinated by the whole Eliot Spitzer-Ashley Dupré scandal from last year – it’s been more than a year and a half since it broke, and I’m still interested in hearing more about these people. I think I’m captivated by the players because the scandal didn’t over-stay its welcome. The whole thing – from the outing of “Client Number Nine” to Gov. Spitzer’s resignation, the whole ordeal only took a week. It was a really fun week, gossip-wise, but I’d still like to know more about all of the players, from Eliot Spitzer, to Silda Spitzer, to Ashley Dupré.

Before I get to Ashley’s latest, I just want to ask if anyone had read “Out to Lunch… With Eliot Spitzer” in Vanity Fair’s September issue? It’s a good piece, and Spitzer’s own contrition is compelling. I tend to think he paid a very heavy price for some hooker action. Granted, he was totally gross, but I think his political disgrace came not just from the hooker action, but that he was unafraid to take on Wall Street and Albany. Anyway, back to Ashley. Ashley posted a blog entry on Global Grind which the New York Post and People picked up on. In the “essay” Ashley blasts… well, pretty much everyone. She basically says that many women are prostitutes, but she’s a better person for being honest about it. She also says that she’s a better person than, say, Monica Lewinsky, because she didn’t “out” the Governor, nor has she been out there, selling her story and trying to profit from her tenuous connection to power. Of course, Ashley’s promoting her new single, “Inside Out”.

I read the front page of the NY Post this week and was happy to see that Mr. Spitzer is moving on with his life and considering getting back into politics. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone deserves a second chance. Me too, right? Well, apparently not. Why? Because many people are liars and hypocrites. Let me give you just a few examples of what I keep encountering, despite my best efforts to move on.

First, I’m often referred to as the “woman who brought down the Governor” – excuse me people, I didn’t call the tabloids, I didn’t blow the whistle and I didn’t save “the dress.” I did nothing to shine a light on my indiscretions or to “out” anyone else.

Second, I keep being accused of “cashing in” on the scandal – wrong again. People think I made money off music that was exploited when the scandal first broke, that I am doing reality television, and that I made millions posing nude for magazines. The truth is none of those things happened. This situation closed far more doors than it ever opened. I didn’t see a dime for my songs, but other people certainly did. I didn’t pose nude for a magazine, but other people made money off of photos of me that they sold to tabloids. Even photos I posed for ages ago were sold to the highest bidder. I never sold any photos of myself – but people who I trusted did. And the “millions” for the nude pics? I was offered that, repeatedly – and turned them down because I didn’t want to perpetuate the problem or feed into the stereotype.

Third, speaking of perpetuating the problem and feeding into the stereotype, let me tell you about most book publishers – they are worse than the tabloids. I won’t give them the “tell all” they are demanding and won’t glorify and sensationalize “how exciting the life of a high-priced NYC escort must be,” as one major publisher put it. Sorry folks, my life wasn’t like a “Sex And The City” episode. I’m not sure that exists anywhere but on television. Oh, and I also love how some publishers who were interested in my story and had offers on the table suddenly pulled them because executives in the company had “personal and political reasons” about publishing the book. What does that mean? Did this hit too close to home for you because your husband cheated on you with an escort? Or would your wife feel insecure if she heard you were working with me? I will write the book regardless and do it for the right reasons.

Fourth – ladies, ladies, ladies – so many of you have been cool, supportive and loving. But there are those of you out there who just love to judge. Let me say this – most girls, to varying degrees of course, want to be pampered and have nice shoes, designer handbags and gorgeous clothes. I know many women who target guys with money and use them to get these things. They toy with them, flirt, go on dates, have sex and then drop hints about that new dress at the store down the street or being short on rent money – and the guys deliver it. This is a dishonest relationship. I see this all over New York City. Some women aren’t as vindictive, but still dive into relationships with wealthy guys who they don’t love or even find attractive, but they stay in it because they have a nice home, a car and spending money – they would rather stay in an unfulfilling or loveless relationship than lose that security. This, too, is a dishonest relationship. I see this type all over the suburbs of New Jersey with the housewives who are strung out on mood stabilizers or the couples who put all their attention on their children so they don’t have to deal with their own issues. What about going to those sugar daddy websites? Is that legal? Should it be? Is what I did any more dishonest? Get real and get over yourself.

You’d be shocked at some of the messes I’ve gotten myself into….and, more importantly, how I got out of them. I have so much more to say, and I will – but it’s time for Yoga class! Om Shanti!

[From Ashley Dupre’s blog entry, Global Grind]

I think the “stereotype” Ashley is referring to in her diatribe is the “stereotype” that you can pay a hooker for pretty much anything. Gawker points out that Ashley is in fact “right, morally” and she’s doing “the right thing to retain [her] humanity.” But then they go on to blast Ashley for being too dumb to realize that by giving her “story” away for free (by using said story to jointly promote her music career), she’s being “conned”. They suggest – and I hope Ashley’s listening – that she simply “sell out like the evil world wants you to, or just fade into obscurity. One’s good for your soul. The other’s good for your wallet. Playing footsie with the Post will only lead you off the cliff. Trust us here.” Gawker has a point.

Meanwhile, Eliot Spitzer just started his new job - as a political science adjunct professor at the City College of New York. He just told the New York Times that the rumors of his attempts to rescucitate his political career were “totally untrue”. Om Shanti, bitches!

Here’s Ashley Dupre spending her summer relaxing on the beach in New Jersey in July 2008. Images thanks to INF Photo.

While it’s being reported that Jon Gosselin is still probably seeing Kate Major, the now ex-employee of Star Magazine, Jon is still totally in denial. While attending the Mercedes-Benz Polo Challenge at Blue Star Jets Field on Saturday, Jon told People Magazine that “At this point … I’m single – per se.” Per se. Nice. Like he’s not with her right now, per se, so they’re technically not dating. Jon also told People, “I’m just a regular guy who just wants to have friendship and good times. And I like meeting people.” People like Michael Lohan. Gah! Get the garlic and the wooden stake. Jon also gave some respect to Hailey Glassman and her family:

Of 22-year-old Glassman, Gosselin says, “She’s always a good friend of mine. Her family is so good. They took me in and I lived there for a while. I love them to death.”

But for now, they’re on a bit of a break. “She doesn’t like this [craziness]. She loves me for who I am and not for what I do,” he says. “We are going to chill out for a while and see where it takes us. I’m not looking for anyone.”

As for Major, the former Star magazine reporter he’s been spotted with, Gosselin says, “We are just friends.”

Despite all the questions about his life as a new bachelor, Gosselin still has the same priorities. “I’m just trying to concentrate on my family first, second my career. That’s what I have to do,” says Gosselin, who will be heading home to see his family in the days ahead. “I’m really looking forward to it – to turning my phone off, playing with my kids in the pool and being the dad.”

He’ll also be shooting scenes for Jon & Kate Plus Eight, which returns to TLC on Aug. 3. “Kate and I are just showing how we are going to live,” he says of the show, which will follow him and Kate Gosselin as they raise their children in the wake of their decision to divorce. “If she’s got to work, I go home. If I’ve got to work, she stays home. And that’s the way it’s always been.”

Don’t expect to see the Gosselin children meeting dad’s new girlfriend anytime soon. “I don’t want to introduce anyone to my kids,” he says. “We just have to play it by ear. I don’t know what it’s like to be divorced.”

[From People]

It really seems like Jon really wants to back away from this Kate Major woman. Truth be told, she seems a bit psycho. The whole thing with Hailey Glassman was that her crazy was mostly because she was young and dumb. I think Kate Major’s got real issues, though. Rush & Malloy have some sources who claim that when Kate first came to New York from Los Angeles, she admitted she was a call back in LA, and was looking to make some “money on the side” there in New York. Of course, Kate Major denies the whole thing:

Reality show star Jon Gosselin’s latest love interest is a hardworking reporter, but was she ever a working girl? Fetching tabloid scribe Kate Major is vigorously denying claims that she once admitted to being a call girl.

Back in January, Major, who until this week worked at Star magazine, went out for drinks at the Thompson Hotel with Steppin’ Out magazine columnist Chaunce Hayden.

According to Hayden, Major, 26, at one point asked if he had “contacts with money who … how can I say this? … want the company of an attractive blond for the evening and have the cash to afford it?”

“I’ve been working as an escort in L.A. and now that I’m here in New York, I thought I could get some clients on the side,” Hayden recalls Major saying. He also remembers her saying that she charged $1,500 an hour – and her asking if he could introduce her to former madam Kristin Davis.

Davis, whose client list allegedly included former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Bernie Madoff and Alex Rodriguez, says she and Major exchanged several e-mails on Jan. 28, which we’ve seen. Since Davis was too busy to meet, Davis says, she agreed to talk with Major on the phone.

“She wanted to pick my brain about the New York market,” Davis says. “She said she had a few of her own clients in New York. She asked if I had clients I could refer. I said I’m not in the business anymore.”

Major calls the account “pathetic, sick and all lies. By no means would I ever have “escort” in my vocabulary.”

“The only Kristin Davis I know is the actress from ‘Sex and the City,’” Major insists. Despite the e-mails apparently sent from her BlackBerry, she maintained, “I don’t know who Kristin Davis the madam is.”

Could Major have been putting Hayden on? Could the intrepid reporter have been trying to unmask Davis’ celebrity clients by pretending she was an escort? Major would only say, “I have never been an escort!” So whatever affection she’s giving Gosselin must be free.

[From Rush & Malloy]

Meh. I could see either side of that one. It’s perfectly possible that a mildly attractive blonde in LA would get work as an escort. But I seriously doubt she was some $1500 a night hooker. Let’s get real. Of course, that’s what I thought about Ashley DuPre too, and she was a four-diamond hooker or whatever. And I definitely doubt Kate Major is charging Jon anything… maybe she’s taking her fee in John Hardy shirts?

Note by Celebitchy: Jon has issued a statement to E! Online in which he admits that he “cares for” Kate Major. It sounds like he’s trying to make sure she’s going to stick around despite his statement that they’re “just friends.”

“I care about Kate Major, she resigned from her job for me. Right now, my focus is on my relationship with my kids. My personal relationship is private,” he says in an exclusive statement to E! News.

[From E! Online]

Mel Gibson isn’t taking it to heart that the baby Oksana Grigorieva is carrying might not be his – although I’m sure that as soon as that baby is born, a little DNA test will be performed. While he’s waiting for verification (and really, Oksana is a smart enough gold-digger to get pregnant by the rich guy, give her credit), Mel isn’t going to stop treating his girlfriend like she needs to be treated. Basically, he’s treating her like the only way he can show her that he loves her is by buying her presents. The bigger the present, the bigger the love. Different people have different ways of describing this – “cupboard love” or perhaps even “prostitution”. All I know is that not only did Mel buy Oksana a $2.4 million home several weeks ago, but he’s now “pampering” the hell out of her. Diamonds, cars, and a $10,000 monthly allowance. Wow. I’m kind of jealous of this hooker:

Mel Gibson isn’t ready to marry his pregnant girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, so he’s spoiling her instead.

In addition to the $2.4 million love nest that Mel, 53, recently purchased for her in Sherman Oaks, CA, an insider reveals that he’s also bought Oksana, 39, a baby-friendly Mercedes SUV, a 3-carat diamond commitment ring and an allowance of more than $10,000 a month for clothes, food and other necessities.

“Mel might marry her one day, but until he does, he’s going to pamper her,” the insider says. “He’s also hiring a nanny when their baby is born.”

[From In Touch Weekly, print edition, July 6 2009]

He’s hiring a nanny… because Oksana has such an exciting music career ahead of her, what with her first single in which she strangled a half-dozen cats. Do you think that Mel knows he’s got to keep the money flowing for a girl like Oksana? Or do you think he’s really that “romantic”?

Photo credit: WENN.com

Michelle Pfeiffer has been doing the publicity rounds for her new film Cheri, and she has been utterly charming. Last week we covered a couple of interviews she gave where she talked about how a journalist called her “old and decrepit”. She also talked about how she hates the word “cougar” even though period cougar-hood is what Cheri is all about. It’s set in 1920s Paris, and Michelle plays an aging courtesan who takes on a young lover, the son of a retired courtesan, played by British actor (and Keira Knightley’s real-life lover) Rupert Friend. While out promoting the film, Michelle told reporters at the Cinema Society that she liked the subject matter of the film, and that prostitution should be legalized:

Michelle Pfeiffer and Kathy Bates, who both play French courtesans in “Cheri,” think it may be time for America to legalize prostitution.

“There is an argument to be made for providing some protection for [prostitutes],” Pfeiffer told us at the Cinema Society/Noilly Prat screening of her film. “It would solve a lot of problems for them. They’re going to do it anyway.”

Bates concurred, “For health reasons, it would be better for people to enjoy those pleasures…”

[From The New York Daily News]

I kind of agree – of course there would be many, many issues with the legalization of prostitution, but the subject is certainly worthy of a larger discussion. I’d kind of like to see what a Hookers’ Union would look like. What would happen when they called a strike?

Back to Michelle – in yet another interview, Michelle was asked about the new Batman franchise, and her role in the 1992 film Batman Returns, where she played Catwoman. Michelle is all for the return of Catwoman in the new Christopher Nolan-Batman franchise. She’s even willing to take the new Catwoman under her wing… or rather, her whip:

Michelle Pfeiffer – who played Catwoman and her alter ego Selina Kyle in 1992 movie ‘Batman Returns’ – says she thinks the character should be brought back for the next movie in the hit superhero franchise and she would happily compare experiences with the chosen actress.

She said: “You would think they’d bring her back. They better… They should!

“I would be there for the consult. I can give the whipping lessons. I did my own whipping.”

Both Angelina Jolie and Rachel Weisz have been mooted for the potential role, but Michelle refused to choose a favourite saying only they would “both would be awesome”.

Director Christopher Nolan – who helmed the previous Christian Bale-starring Caped Crusader adventures, ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ – is rumoured not to be returning for a third movie.

[From Ireland Online]

“I can give whipping lessons” is my favorite quote of the day. I have an idea for Christopher Nolan. Don’t mess around with casting Angelina Jolie or some other, younger actress for Catwoman. Go with the classic. Go with what works. Hire Michelle for the role, all over again. You know she would whip the hell out of Christian Bale. And he totally deserves it.

Here’s Michelle Pfeiffer at the premiere of “Cheri” held at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin on February 10th. Images thanks to BauerGriffinOnline.

The most recent shame of New York, soon-to-be former Governor Eliot Spitzer, resigned from office today, with the official transfer of power to Lieutenant Governor David Paterson to take place on Monday. Spitzer has been linked to a worldwide prostitution ring, and may have spent as much as $80,000 on hookers. The federal government figured out what he was up during the course of investigating the Emperor’s Club, which specializes in high class hookers. Apparently Spitzer was too ethical to get one of the $45 trannies from Queens like everyone else.

“I am deeply sorry that I did not live up to what was expected of me,” he said in a brief news conference announcing his intention to resign, effective Monday. “I will try once again outside of politics to serve the common good.”

With his wife, Silda, at his side, he added, “Our greatest glory consists not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.”

[From CNN]

Spitzer was famous for rooting out corruption, and was a formidable adversary as the state’s attorney general. He took on Wall Street, government corruption, and – most ironically – prostitution. Lt. Gov David Paterson will be New York’s first black governor and is also legally blind.

“Kristen,” the $4,300 hooker that Spitzer’s been linked to, sounds like quite a catch. Certainly good enough to risk your career and your family for. She likes nice wines and dinners, is 5’5 tall and weights 105 lbs, and has 34 Cs. During a wiretap Kristen was recorded commented on some of Spitzer’s sexual proclivities.

Additionally, the affidavit notes that after her appointment with Client-9 [Spitzer] ended, “Kristen” spoke with a Emperors Club booker, who said that she had been told that Client-9 “would ask you to do things that, like, you might not think were safe…” “Kristen” responded by saying, essentially, that she could handle guys like that.

[From the Smoking Gun]

As a New Yorker, I can say that I’m profoundly disappointed in Eliot Spitzer. Not just because this is such a despicable way to behave – though that would certainly be enough – but because I was incredibly pleased to live in a state with such a noble and upstanding governor. It sounds cheesy, but that really was a point of pride for me. Gov. Spitzer wasn’t just some random politician that few regular people paid attention to. He rooted out corruption and had a long and upstanding track record. All of that is worthless now.