The $1,000-an-hour prostitute reportedly hired by New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer may soon make much more than that, turning her 15 minutes of infamy into a tidy sum of money.

Since 22-year-old Ashley Alexandra Dupre was identified by The New York Times late on Wednesday as the governor’s paramour, the prostitute and aspiring singer’s songs have become the most popular downloads on a music-sharing Web site and at least one magazine is prepared to pay her for a nude photo spread.

Proving the adage there’s no such thing as bad publicity, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt told the Access Hollywood television program on Friday that he plans to offer Dupre $1 million to pose nude in his magazine.

Earlier this week, the woman told the Times she was worried about paying her rent this month after the escort service she worked for was shut down by federal officials.

The newspaper reported Spitzer was heard on a federal wiretap last month arranging a tryst with a prostitute called “Kristen,” whom the paper identified as Dupre.

Spitzer resigned on Wednesday and apologized for his “private failings,” but did not refer specifically to the report.

According to Dupre’s MySpace page (www.myspace.com/ninavenetta), she left home at 17 and moved to New York, where she is trying to pursue a music career.

Her R&B- and pop-tinged songs “What We Want” and “Move Ya Body” are ranked as the two best-selling songs on the AimeStreet.com music sharing Web site.

A spokesman for Aime Street, which uses a demand-price model where users pay more for popular songs, would not confirm how many times Dupre’s songs had been downloaded. But he said “Move ya Body,” which was uploaded to the site around 2 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Thursday, rose to the highest download price (98 cents) faster than any other song in the site’s history.

Dupre’s page on the site has been viewed more than 300,000 times and artists get a 70 percent cut of sales. If 1 million copies were sold, as some media outlets have estimated, then she’s already made more than $680,000 from her notoriety.

New York radio stations, including the top-rated Z100, have been playing her music on the airwaves. Her profile on the social networking Web site MySpace has had over 7 million page views.

Penthouse Magazine Group president and publisher Diane Silberstein has said the men’s magazine would consider offering Dupre a nude cover shot.

On Friday, The New York Post ran five pages of revealing pictures of Dupre from a 2007 photo shoot purportedly to promote her music career.

The alleged prostitute known as “Kristen” in New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s sex scandal is a 22-year-old New Jersey native from a broken home who now worries what people will think of her, according to a newspaper report.

“I just don’t want to be thought of as a monster,” the woman, identified as Ashley Alexandra Dupre, tells The New York Times. “This has been a very difficult time. It is complicated.”

“I like Britney,” 5-year-old Elissa Bouganim, who has taken three classes with the pop star, told People magazine. “Today, first we were dancing slow, and then faster and faster … Then we did the fish-move and lots of other fun things.”

Spears, 26, has become a semi-regular instructor at the Millennium Dance Complex in the past month.

“It’s just amazing to watch Britney with the kids,” Elissa’s mother, Pam, told People. “Elissa won’t stop dancing now, that’s all she wants to do. Britney has really inspired her.”

Elissa even gave Spears a gift during Tuesday’s class.

“It was a picture of [Peter Pan’s] Tinkerbell,” she told People. “And she gave me a hug.”

Elissa also said she wants to dance with Britney “all the time.”

Rihanna has put to rest rumors that she was romantically linked to rapper Jay-Z.

The Umbrella singer tells US magazine Cosmopolitan that she was horrified at the recent gossip. But she said she’d managed to ignore the whispers, thanks to Jay-Z himself, the 19-year-old chart star’s mentor.

She said: “I felt self-conscious around him until he took me aside and said that I just had to ignore it.”

Internet reports had linked the Barbados-born star with her record label boss. It was claimed that Jay-Z - real name Shawn Carter - was cheating on his girlfriend, Beyonce, with Rihanna. But both denied any romance. And Rihanna insists that her love life should remain private.

She said: “It’s tough because you want to be able to talk about it and be proud.

“But you have to be sure of that person first.

“Christina Aguilera and her husband are my favorite couple because they’re in love and that’s all that matters to them.”

And she warned any potential boyfriends not to be over-confident around her.

She added: “If a guy is hot and he knows it - forget it it.

“I hate arrogance.

“I have three girlfriends and about 20 guy friends.

“I love listening to guy talk because I learn a lot.

“Here’s the key - you can’t lower your standards for a guy because he won’t respect you and he’ll tell his friends. You always have to stick up for yourself and speak your mind.”

Rihanna, real name Robyn Fenty, poses in a revealing yellow Versace dress for the March 2008 cover of Cosmopolitan, on newsstands in the States now.

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly says that Mary-Kate Olsen won’t be interviewed in connection with the death of Heath Ledger

Internet and print reports have insisted that MK would be questioned by cops, insinuating that Ledger’s masseuse, Diana Wolozin, called her to hatch a plan to hide illegal drugs in Heath’s apartment. If that were true, we’re told, cops would have to interview Olsen, but as TMZ has reported, that simply isn’t the case.