Hooker, pop star, harlot, prostitute: One of these words doesn’t belong.

However, that may soon change thanks to all the media hype surrounding professional skank, Ashley Alexandra Dupre.

The 22-year-old lady of the night, who works under the name “Kristen,” is allegedly behind the prostitution scandal that prematurely ended New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s career.

Dupre, as it turns out, is also an aspiring singer.

First, let me get this off my chest: Once you’ve sold your body for sex, you’ve pretty much crossed a line there is no coming back from. You can no longer use the title “aspiring singer” – it’s just “hooker.”

Second, and more importantly, who cares if Dupre is a wannabe pop singer? This isn’t news.

Everything was fine when the New York Times first ran reports outing Dupre as the call girl who brought sudden death upon Spitzer’s political career; that was newsworthy.

But when CNN.com, and every other major news outlet, started running articles about Dupre’s MySpace page – complete with pictures taken from the website – all the journalistic integrity previously involved was thrown out the window.

Suddenly, the angle of the story shifted away the disgraced New York governor. Many speculated he would eventually make a bid for the White House then he was leaving comments on Dupre’s page and how many Google hits she was getting.

Bill Zwecker from the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that a top Hollywood music executive told him, “I know of several people who have heard her [promo] tape and think there is something there. Of course, if she was just another girl from Jersey with that level of talent, it likely wouldn’t amount to much.”

Exactly. Listen to the song. There isn’t much talent there, but because of the media hype surrounding Dupre at the moment, a synthetic sense of celebrity has been created.

All the “reporting” that has gone into this story has managed to produce yet another undeserving young woman (i.e., Paris Hilton) into a potential gold mine for whoever wants to give her a contract.

There’s only one problem, though – Dupre is not a pop star in the making.

She is a hooker who allegedly had sex with a former governor, has been linked to a wild three-way with actor Charlie Sheen and reportedly exposed herself on a “Girls Gone Wild” video.

But what if Dupre does end up getting a record deal? What kind of example does this set?

The first one that comes to mind: If you sleep with the right person, you can make all your wildest dreams come true.

This probably isn’t the kind of message the music industry should be sending out, especially to the impressionable children who buy and listen to the radio-friendly, pop garbage Dupre is making.

Luckily, though, nothing is set in stone.

There’s still a chance everyone will come to their senses and forget ever hearing of Ashley Alexandra “Kristen” Dupre. After all, life isn’t like “Pretty Woman.”

Jake Corbin can be reached at [email protected]