Banging for big bucks

>>Former escort to the stars and native
Montrealer Natalie McLennan tells all about
doing johns, doing drugs and doing time in her
book The Price: My Rise and Fall as Natalia

HIGH COST, HIGH PRICE: McLennan

by CHRIS BARRY

Montreal has certainly had its share of quality celebrity exports over the years: Leonard Cohen, Captain Kirk, Patsy Gallant, to name a few. Yet what’s a hack like Leonard Cohen ever done to merit his glowing international rep? Exactly.

But Natalie “Natalia” McLennan, hey, now there’s another story. Born and raised in Montreal West, the Royal West Academy graduate and former tap dancing protégé left town a few years back looking for fame and fortune in the Big Apple, and actually found it. Yes, our hometown gal scaled the heights to become the top prostitute in a town chock-full of whores, earning herself a cool $2,000-an-hour warming the willies of Wall Street big shots, celebrity athletes, politicians and other studs with way too much money to burn.

Along the way, she got entangled in one of the most delicious scandals New York has seen in a long time, when it was discovered that Governor Eliot Spitzer had been a regular client of New York Confidential, allegedly forking over some 80 grand to the escort agency run by Natalie’s mega-unsavoury ex-boyfriend, Jason “King of All Pimps” Itzler.

Despite having left the agency just before the bust and the attendant media circus accompanying it, our heroine, who’d picked up a minor drug habit on her path to greatness, found herself looking at some potentially serious prison time.

Now safe and sound in Montreal living the straight, simple life working at a downtown spa, Natalie’s recounting of her ordeal, The Price: My Rise and Fall as Natalia, is available from fine booksellers everywhere.

Mirror: When did you get back into town?

Natalie McLennan: About a year ago. I’m living in the Plateau now, rediscovering the city—it’s great. I pretty much came back to reconnect with my family and because I couldn’t get shit done in New York. So many distractions there, parties to go to, restaurants to eat at, friends to hang out with. So I knew Montreal would be a good place to just come and do what needed to be done, which was finish my book.

M: You’ve notably declined to name any of your famous clients. Was that a difficult decision to make or simply obvious?

NM: It was obvious. Revealing names wasn’t even an option. When I was first working out my publishing deal, there were quite a few publishers who only wanted me to write a tell-all in the extreme sense and rip everybody’s private lives wide open. But I wouldn’t budge on that—not ever.

M: So, as a prostitute, you were getting 2K an hour with a two-hour minimum and–

NM: Crazy, right?

M: I’ll say. So how does it feel to just be giving it away now? Is it a sort of, “Hey, I used to get 4K for this, and now, like, at best all I’ll get is an orgasm” kind of thing?

NM: (laughing) Ah, but Chris, don’t we all really just give it away?

M: Huh? Um, I dunno. I guess it’s really two different things anyway, right? Fucking for money and fucking for pleasure.

NM: Yes, it’s two totally different things.

Too much money

M: When you’re earning that kind of insane money selling the simple pleasures of your company, do you tend to strut around thinking, “Goddamn, I’m as hot a chick as has ever walked the earth, look at me, I’m absolutely spectacular?”

NM: You know, it was so surreal. I was in this weird little fantasyland, walking around with way too much money. There was definitely a lot of pressure too though. But I clued in right away what my niche was: a really awesome fun girl to hang out with. And I was pretty and I’m a sexual person, so the whole package really put it together. I made sure I was always in a good mood when I was with clients. I was also very fortunate to never lose a sense of who I was within the business, you know? Like, it’s true I got caught up and swept away a little, but even in those moments, I made of point of checking in with myself to make sure I was always true to myself.

M: Do you have any advice for other girls looking to earn themselves a cool 2K an hour as prostitutes?

NM: Um… Ah, I dunno.

M: Seriously, what would you suggest? Like, “Always brush your teeth, comb your hair, make sure you’re clean down there.” What sort of–

NM: Oh my God. I really don’t know. I guess I’d tell them to be careful. It’s true I got lucky but that’s not the case for everyone. My worst nightmare is some girl reading my book and saying “Oh my gosh, wow, that’s something I could totally do and feel comfortable with” and then not going into the right part of the industry and getting hurt. But if they’d already made up their minds, I’d tell them to make sure they’re doing it for the right reasons, to get a good therapist, and make sure they’ve got some good friends and family around. That’s it.

M: If you had a hot-looking daughter, might you recommend a career in whoring to her?

NM: I would never recommend or try and steer someone else into it. I know it was okay for me at the time when I did it. But everybody is different. Everybody deals with situations differently. Some people are better at handling different things.

Shits and giggles

M: When you’re charging 2K an hour for sexual services, is pretty well everything a go? Like, at that price, if a client is into scatting, do you just smile demurely while he takes a good old-fashioned beer shit on you? Going, “Ah, this is wonderful, baby, let’s roll around in it afterwards while we make sweet love?”

NM: I have to tell you that… It wasn’t… Oh God. Um, okay. With anything goes… Lemme think. (long pause) No, I definitely had my boundaries and I definitely maintained them. I knew what I was comfortable with and knew what felt good to me. And really, that’s the thing. I think the number of clients who’d want to engage in something that someone else doesn’t enjoy is really a small percentage and probably not the kind of client you want anyway.

M: I guess so. But I think if I was spending 4,000 bucks to see the high-diving act, I would make sure that I saw the high-diving act, you know what I mean? Like, I wouldn’t care if the diving horse I was paying all that money to didn’t enjoy diving. Too bad. Then again, I guess if you’ve got that big a budget for whores to begin with, you’re not really thinking about dollar value in the same way someone of more modest means might. Did you have a preferred sex act with clients?

NM: Wow, what an awesome question, no one has ever asked me that before.

M: Are you kidding me?

NM: People tend to tiptoe around certain things, or they just don’t go there. Um, my preferred sex act. Well, I think that’s a little private. Which I know sounds crazy since I just wrote a book about it.

M: Well yeah, I’m not exactly asking what you think about when you’re masturbating or anything especially personal, you know? Just what, as a professional, was your preferred sex act. Like, was it the quickest, easiest thing or….

NM: Um, okay. Let me transport myself back to the world of escorting for a minute. (Pause) Okay, I really don’t know.

M: Alright, so be it. So how often would you genuinely wind up having a bang-up enjoyable time with a client?

NM: Most of the time. I made sure I did, I made sure it was fun. Just imagine having a job where it’s fun, easy and you’re making insane money. Those are all the positives.

Women in prison

M: So why did you leave New York Confidential then?

NM: My relationship with Jason was deteriorating, I didn’t feel safe there anymore, I didn’t feel happy there anymore, there were some new managers that came in who were really mean, negative people. It changed the whole vibe of the agency. Like, we had this whole sex utopia going on there and it just vanished, you know? So at that point, I just figured, well, why am I here? So I decided to leave.

M: And then, a month later, they got busted. You ended up doing time at Rikers? How did that come about?

NM: I’m sorry, I really can’t discuss the details of my case, but yeah, I did, only because they set my bail so high, $250,000. That’s why I went to jail for 26 days, three days longer than Paris Hilton. Jail is a terrible place. When I was growing up watching Law and Order, I would always cringe whenever the jail doors would slam, and then, ah, like, fast-forward 15 years. It was really brutal. One thing I know for sure is that I’ll never be in that situation again. It’s a nightmarish experience.

M: Were you especially popular with some of the more, how do you say, masculine girls at Rikers?

NM: Honestly, I don’t want to burst anybody’s balloon, but when you’re at Rikers, it’s really just a survival thing. Nobody is at that stage of it yet. When you go upstate and you actually get sentenced to do time, that reality exists. But for me, it was more about not getting hurt. The girls in there were really aggressive. Really aggressive.

M: And to you especially, I’d assume, the famous 2k-an-hour call girl. After all, they get the New York Post in Rikers.

NM: Yes, exactly, they do! And they published this full-page picture of me that everyone was walking around with. Everyone in there was really resentful because I had a good lawyer and regular court dates to try and resolve my situation. A lot of girls there don’t have those opportunities to get themselves to a better place.

M: And they all think you’re loaded too, right? Which is both good and bad in jail.

NM: Yes, exactly.

Looking for local fun

NO PLACE LIKE HOME: McLennan, a Montrealer again

M: Were you able to walk away from the business with any money?

NM: No, there was a lot of money owed to me that I never got. Money that was sitting in an account which I believe got seized. It’s probably all for the best—it might have gotten me into a lot more trouble and I probably still wouldn’t have it. So hey, I came back to my humble beginnings in Montreal and now I’m trying something new.

M: Do you resent that Ashley Dupree, who you turned on to big money whoring, has somewhat successfully cashed in on all the notoriety from the Spitzer scandal?

NM: Well, has she really? She sold 500,000 copies of her single on iTunes, so that’s good, but she’s kind of disappeared now, hasn’t she? I know she’s still popping in and out of hotels, she’s in the press for that, but I’ll be very curious to see how the music career she’s working on will be received, how far she’ll be able to go. Actually, she’s a cool, down-to-earth, awesome girl. I only wish her the best. She just got caught up in a huge situation, this crazy scandal.

M: What do you think you’ll do for a career now?

NM: Well, the book is out and I love writing. I studied acting and still really love that whole world. So I dunno, I think I’m due for a light bulb moment soon. I can sense it coming. I’m enjoying living in Montreal again a lot. Except for winter, which sucks. I really need to find a winter activity to keep myself sane this year. So if anybody out there wants to teach me how to snowboard, tell them to get in touch with me. I’m totally open to learning, because I really need something fun to do now.