Stories related to: prostitution

Manhattan banker and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida today to hiring an underage prostitute, and began serving an 18-month sentence. A year of house arrest and a life on the national sex offender list will follow. "They will be tracking you for the rest of your life," a judge told Epstein, 55, a philanthropist who has socialized with figures such as Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. More »

Two workers in the Washington Metro transit system have been busted for running a prostitution ring from one of the train stations, and using a loudspeaker to arrange a tryst, according to police. One of the staffers, a station manager, advertised available "sexual pleasures" in flyers, reports Fox TV. She presented a book of options to an undercover cop that could be obtained on trips to Brazil—or locally, police said. More »

The world's oldest profession has long since gone online, but Miami police have charged six people with putting it on wheels, the Miami Herald reports. A rolling brothel, a huge limo-bus with a tractor-trailer cab, picked up three undercover cops Sunday morning, offering an all-you-can-drink ride for $40. Once aboard, an extra $125 would earn a trip to the curtained-off “VIP room," with a promise to "get your money worth." More »

Hundreds of people have been arrested and 21 children rescued in what the FBI is calling a five-day roundup of networks of pimps who force children into prostitution. In all, authorities arrested 345 people, including 290 adult prostitutes, during the operation that ended this week in 16 major cities. "The sex trafficking of children remains one of the most violent and unforgivable crimes in this country," said FBI chief Robert Mueller. More »

The makers of such revelatory documentaries as Inside Deep Throat and The Eyes of Tammy Faye have a new film in the works, about Heidi Fleiss’ bid to open an all-male brothel in the Nevada desert, W reports. Fleiss, who had a falling out with directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, said, “I was hoping it would be fun, but instead it was me getting mad.” More »

The world's oldest profession has helped many an actor get a leg up in Hollywood—onscreen. With Showtime airing the British hit Secret Diary of a Call Girl , Entertainment Weekly salutes cinema's top 25 sex workers, including: Jane Fonda ( Klute ): Fonda says she based her Oscar-winning performance on the prostitutes she hired for group sex to satisfy her then-husband. Leonardo DiCaprio ( The Basketball Diaries ): Novelist/memoirist Jim Carroll personally coached DiCaprio in his breakout role. More »

Hookers and pimps are watching closely as “the most influential man” in US prostitution awaits trial. David Elms founded TheEroticReview.com, a site where users rate prostitutes and leave comments along the lines of Amazon book reviews. Sex traders fear his jailing and the subsequent closing of his site could hurt business, reports the New York Times . More »

Sex is selling in Afghanistan despite Islamic laws that make prostitution punishable by death, the AP reports. At least 900 women do it in Kabul, but residents admit only to brothels full of Chinese prostitutes; to be a native Afghan hooker is "very, very bad," one expert said. But 30 years of war and poverty inspire many to try, despite their ignorance of condoms and AIDS. More »

A British spy is out of a job following his admission that his wife was one of the five prostitutes who participated in Max Mosley's Nazi-themed orgy, reports the Times of London. Worse yet, the wife was purportedly behind the camera, though MI5 yesterday denied Mosley's accusation that it set up the orgy as a sting. But the spy's link is a messy twist, since he could have been subject to blackmail. More »

The woman accused of arranging the infamous liaison between "Kristen" and "Client No. 9" pleaded guilty today, the New York Times reports. Temeka Rachelle Lewis, 32, admitted to charges of promoting prostitution and money laundering in the bust that brought about Eliot Spitzer's downfall. She could face up to 25 years in prison. More »

Playboy's June issue introduces a new term into modern sexology parlance—"to Spitzer"—the New York Post reports. The flesh mag defines the nod to disgraced former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer as the act of asking a prostitute for sex sans condom, as in "I Spitzered her, but she was like, 'Duh, not a chance, pal.' " More »

British authorities are targeting men who pay for sex with a hard-hitting ad campaign comparing some instances to rape, Reuters reports. Because thousands of women trafficked into the country each year are forced into prostitution, there's nothing consensual about the sex they sell, the ads suggest. "Walk in a punter, walk out a rapist," say the ads to be posted in men's rooms. More »

Most know her as the feisty DC Madam who riled up the media by releasing her clients' phone records, but a half-finished memoir obtained by Newsweek reveals Deborah Jeane Palfrey's personal side. A small-town girl turned "fuddy-duddy white lady," she overcame a stifling childhood to turn feminist entrepreneur.     More »

Soccer virtuoso Ronaldo was questioned by police in Rio de Janeiro yesterday after an altercation in a motel with transvestite prostitutes, Reuters reports. The star of AC Milan and the Brazilian national team took three call girls to the motel, only to discover that they were men in drag, according to cops. Ronaldo then offered them $600 each to close the affair, but one of them demanded $30,000 to keep the story from the media. More »

Heather Mills gave Paul McCartney an ultimatum in the early stages of their relationship—marry me or it's over—says a former friend in a British TV show airing tonight. Heather's buddy also talks about their time together as high-priced prostitutes, reports the Daily Mail . "Heather knows how to play people, she's very clever," she says. "They're besotted, like enchanted, you know—like she throws fairy dust all over them." More »

Rejecting the defense that she didn't know her escorts were having sex with clients, a federal jury convicted the "DC Madam," who, WTOP–FM reports, met today's verdict with a sigh. Deborah Jeane Palfrey, whose prostitution-ring bust implicated Washington highbrows, including a Louisiana senator, faces up to 55 years on racketeering and money-laundering charges at her sentencing in July. More »

For years Silda Wall Spitzer knew her disgraced husband patronized prostitutes—and she looked the other way, the New York Post reports. While his reps deny the rumors, a source tells the Post that former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is telling friends that the mother of his three daughters "doesn't care, so why does anybody else care?" More »

Formula One president Max Mosley has lost his court battle to block a newspaper from hosting a video showing him cavorting with five prostitutes in a sadomasochistic scene with Nazi undertones. Mosley is suing the News of the World for breach of privacy, but a London judge ruled that, although the footage is "intrusive and demeaning," its wide dissemination would make an injunction "a futile gesture," reports the BBC. More »

The Justice Department's unusual pursuit of the Emperor's Club—and its most famous client—grew out of suspicions of corruption, not moral turpitude, department officials tell the New York Times. Agents tailed Eliot Spitzer, tapped his phone, and pored over his financial records, steps more costly and intrusive than prostitution cases usually merit. More »

Irina Palm , about a frumpy grandmother who resorts to prostitution so she can pay for her desperately ill grandson's operation, is winning over critics, both because of its unsentimental portrayal of the sex trade and because of the performance given by its star, singer/songwriter/actress and '60s icon Marianne Faithfull. More »