Spitzer Consort Ashley Dupre’s Philly Producer
When news broke of New York governor Eliot Spitzer’s very expensive escapades, I knew that the name of the call girl and aspiring musician sounded mighty familiar. Turns out that the song that everyone’s been cringing at on Ashley Dupre’s MySpace page and in this YouTube video was produced by none other than Simon Illa, the profoundly physically challenged music producer I profiled in Philadelphia magazine in December 2006. (At two seconds into “What We Want,” you can hear Illa tag his name into the song.)
Reached at his Atlanta studio this afternoon, Illa, who apparently lives in complete isolation from the outside world, said that he didn’t know about the scandal until he started getting calls from an NBC News reporter. He called Dupre to find out what it was all about and says her response was, “Pick up the New York Times. I can’t talk about it.”
Illa, who terms Dupre’s talent “nothing special,” says he has no further comment on her situation and respects her right to privacy.
Illa photo by Chris Crisman.
Simon Illa Is Living Large [Philly Mag]
When news broke of New York governor Eliot Spitzer’s very expensive escapades, I knew that the name of the call girl and aspiring musician sounded mighty familiar. Turns out that the song that everyone’s been cringing at on Ashley Dupre’s MySpace page and in this YouTube video was produced by none other than Simon Illa, the profoundly physically challenged music producer I profiled in Philadelphia magazine in December 2006. (At two seconds into “What We Want,” you can hear Illa tag his name into the song.)
Reached at his Atlanta studio this afternoon, Illa, who apparently lives in complete isolation from the outside world, said that he didn’t know about the scandal until he started getting calls from an NBC News reporter. He called Dupre to find out what it was all about and says her response was, “Pick up the New York Times. I can’t talk about it.”
Illa, who terms Dupre’s talent “nothing special,” says he has no further comment on her situation and respects her right to privacy.
Illa photo by Chris Crisman.
Simon Illa Is Living Large [Philly Mag]
