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Spitzer prostitute's suit seeks cut of Girls Gone Wild

MIAMI — Five years after Girls Gone Wild recorded the unknown teen cavorting topless, the now-notorious Ashley Alexandra Dupre is demanding a cut of the money from the video sales.

Dupre filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court in Miami, claiming that Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis should pay her more than $10 million.

Turning 23 Wednesday, Dupre was underage — 17 — when she ran into Francis' film crew outside Miami Beach's Chesterfield Hotel in March 2003. They got her drunk and filmed her flashing her breasts in hotel rooms, she claims in the suit.

Francis, 35, who arrived in Miami on Monday to promote his company's new magazine, told the Miami Herald he has "never sold one" video of Dupre. His attorney in Los Angeles said there are no plans to sell the Dupre footage, although a Girls Gone Wild news release last week announced that the Hooker Gone Wild DVD featuring Dupre would be included with every copy of the video empire's new $9.99 monthly magazine.

Francis has heralded the footage since last month, when Dupre became identified as "Kristen," the high-priced prostitute who had sex with New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, leading to his resignation.

Francis has advertised the topless footage on his Web sites — including one called ashleydupre.net.

Dupre and her Miami attorney, Richard Wolfe, say Francis has profited from false advertising and unauthorized use of her name and images. They also say that even though she signed a consent, at 17, Dupre was not legally competent to enter into a contract with Francis.

But Francis recalls that Dupre knew exactly what she was doing. Although she was 17 at the time of the filming, Dupre showed the crew a fake ID showing that she was of legal age and named Amber Arpaio, Francis said.

He said Dupre, a "quintessential Girls Gone Wild girl," was sober during filming, and he personally sent her home on a Greyhound bus after later catching her with a beer in her hand, a violation of company policy.

Dupre's lawsuit claims that Francis promoted the new videos by saying she was "doing a lot of hot lesbian acts," which she says is not true. The suit also accuses Francis of falsely trying to get the public to believe that Dupre "is performing sexual acts" in the videos.

"Defendants have adopted an advertising strategy to induce the public to believe Ms. Dupre is engaging in sexually explicit acts, which is in fact false," Wolfe said in a statement.

Besides demanding more than $10 million in damages, Dupre's lawsuit also seeks to have Francis shut down the Web sites ashleydupre.net and girlsgonewildashleydupre.com.

Francis is no stranger to the courtroom.

He was recently released on bond from a Nevada lockup for a pending tax evasion case, and he avoided a Florida jail sentence after pleading guilty to charges stemming from a 2003 Girls Gone Wild bust in Panama City Beach, Fla.

He has battled numerous lawsuits from young women who appeared in his films and later claimed that they were underage or did not consent. Women from the Panama City Beach case filed a federal civil case against Francis last month in Florida.

The federal prostitution case that thrust Dupre's name into the spotlight is working its way through the courts in New York.

Four people who are accused of running the Emperors Club VIP — an escort service with clients in Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Paris and London — have pleaded not guilty. Neither Spitzer nor Dupre has been charged, but Dupre has been subpoenaed to testify.

Dupre gained notoriety since being revealed as "Kristen" in a federal wiretap investigation that included an encounter with Spitzer at a Washington hotel.

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