AFTER ALL the drama over former New York governor Eliot Spitzer's sleazy tryst with that high-priced hooker, I never thought I'd find myself agreeing with her.

I have a knee-jerk reaction to this kind of tawdriness, especially when the john is married with children, as Spitzer is.

But, as much as I'm loath to admit it, there's a kernel of truth to some of what Spitzer's call girl, Ashley Dupré, has to say about certain male-female relationships.

Stay with me.

I know it sounds crazy.

After all, Dupré doesn't have much credibility. For obvious reasons, she's a woman on the defensive. Nobody likes being judged and vilified the way she has been since the news broke of her hooking up in that hotel room with Spitzer. So, Dupré's fighting back and accusing other women, particularly her haters, of being not all that different from her.

So there.

"Let me say this - most girls, to varying degrees of course, want to be pampered and have nice shoes, designer handbags and gorgeous clothes," Dupré wrote online, according to the New York Post. "I know many women who target guys with money and use them to get these things. They toy with them, flirt, go on dates, have sex and then drop hints about that new dress at the store down the street or being short on rent money - and the guys deliver it. This is a dishonest relationship."

She also wrote, "Some women aren't as vindictive, but still dive into relationships with wealthy guys who they don't love or even find attractive, but they stay in it because they have a nice home, a car and spending money - they would rather stay in an unfulfilling or loveless relationship than lose that security. This, too, is a dishonest relationship. I see this type all over the suburbs of New Jersey with the housewives who are strung out on mood stabilizers or the couples who put all their attention on their children so they don't have to deal with their own issues."

She's right, in a way. From time to time, you hear of cases in which the woman doesn't love her husband but stays married because he pays the bills. Or of the groupies who target ballers in hope of latching onto a high-living lifestyle.

The late Steve McNair's 20-year-old paramour may well have had genuine feelings for the married football great, but the fact that McNair assisted her in getting a new Cadillac Escalade probably helped move things along as well.

Kim, of the reality-TV show "Housewives of Atlanta," played a similar (albeit less deadly) game with a secret boyfriend she calls Big Poppa. In one memorable episode, Kim spots some expensive jewelry, places a call supposedly to Big Poppa and before long, is flaunting it. And there wasn't an ounce of shame in her game, either, as the saying goes. That kind of behavior is typical on Bravo's "Houswives" series - whether you're talking Rolex watches or huge divorce settlements.

Dupré's assertion is correct that for some people love is secondary to the pursuit of stuff, which is why that old saying "you can marry a rich man as well as a poor man" has such staying power. Over the weekend, I caught a brief part of a discussion on XM radio of a new book called "Smart Girls Marry Money: How Women Have Been Duped Into the Romantic Dream - And How They're Paying For It:"

So, yeah, it happens.

But it's not all relationships.

The vast majority of the women I know stand on their own two feet to earn their money, rather than getting it the way Dupré did.

We worry about getting laid off from our jobs. We fret over our diminished 401(k) plans and worry about being able to retire one day - not where the next john, or even rich boyfriend, is going to come from.

Most of the women I know are looking for true love and honest relationships, one in which they can be loved and return that love - not a financial transaction. Because while most of us like things, the women I know aren't willing to sell their bodies or souls to get them.

Send e-mail to heyjen@phillynews.com. My blog: http://go.philly.com/heyjen.