Ashley Dupre says book publishers ignoring her over ‘political’ pressures

WASHINGTON - Ashley Dupre, who was offered a 2-million-dollar deal for a reality show and tell-all book after her explosive affair with former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer hit headlines in 2008, has said that she has been dumped by publishers over ‘political’ pressures.

The 1,000 dollars-an-hour call girl and current Playboy cover girl, has said that although she wants to work on her book, publishers are backing out because of “internal” issues.

“I want to work on (a tell all), but I’ve been having a lot of problems with it,” Fox News quoted Dupre as saying at The Big Bluff Trivia game launch in Los Angeles.

“I’ve had three really huge publishers and they’ve all pulled out. It is because of ‘politics,’ it’s all internal. But I’m not giving up. I’m going to keep going with it,” she added.

But despite her resolve, experts believe that Dupre’s chance of convincing publishers has nothing to do with pressure from Spitzer’s people.

“I would be extremely surprised if a major publisher declined her book for political reasons. As a general rule, if a publisher feels the manuscript in question is of interest to the general public and make money they will do it. But if any one of those elements are missing they won’t risk it,” said entertainment attorney and literature expert Joe Hartlaub.

“If the manuscript was immediately available back when there was lot of public interest it would have been a different story. But two years is an eternity in terms of the public’s attention span,” he added.

And according to Harry Stockhausen, the vice president of sales and marketing at Expert Publishing Inc, publishers may be more concerned with legalities than political party backlash.

“Naming names and specific illegal activities, even with solid evidence, can leave a publisher open to lawsuits. Even when you are innocent, it costs you time and money to defend yourself,” explained Stockhausen.

“And how many people are really interested in reading about her as opposed to looking at pictures of her? People with 15 minutes of fame usually do not sell a lot of books. Many books don’t earn enough to cover the cost of production, and publishing is business, so publishers must be discerning to succeed,” he added. (ANI)