By JOHN T. WARD

Can a Jersey Girl whose work as a 22-year-old prostitute helped derail a political career in spectacular fashion return home and remake herself as a small-town retailer?

Four years after her high-priced hotel romps with Eliot Spitzer dynamited his tenure as governor of New York and made her infamous, Ashley Dupré says she turned a page Monday with the opening of Femme by Ashley, a lingerie and swimwear boutique on the choicest block in downtown Red Bank.

The shop, Dupré told redbankgreen in an exclusive interview, “is almost like the beginning of the rest of my life.

“I made a bunch of mistakes when I was younger, and I feel like, for the first time in my life, I’m growing into an adult, and I’m really excited about that,” she said.

The Broad Street boutique features lingerie, swimsuits and Victoria  Beckham sunglasses. (Click to enlarge)

Petite and wearing eyeglasses that made her appear somewhat more studious than she did in Girls Gone Wild videos made a decade ago, 27-year-old Dupré said she agreed to redbankgreen‘s request for a sit-down only at the urging of her boyfriend, TJ Earle, who thought it was important in establishing community roots. She said it would likely be her only interview on the topic.

Off-limits were questions about the events that made her a household name. Dupré also refused to allow redbankgreen to videotape the interview or even take her photo, saying she’d been “burned” in the past by the unauthorized release of images. Instead, she supplied a commissioned portrait.

“I’m just done with it,” Dupré said of her scandal-based persona. “I’m very private. People don’t believe that, but I’m a very private person. I don’t want that life. I’m not looking to be in the press. I’m just looking to get on with my life.”

Her focus, she said, is on becoming a business owner and “me doing what I enjoy for the first time, and not caring what anyone else has to say about it.”

Dupré’s image rehab effort might be traced to her hire two years ago as a sex -and-relationship advice columnist for the New York Post, which had previously reveled in labeling her a “ho” and “trollop” at every opportunity. In bringing her on board, the newspaper wrote:

She didn’t ask for fame, but, “Now that I have it, it’s up to me to take advantage,” she said.

Under the tag “Ask Ashley,” Dupré fielded questions that at first overtly traded on her notoriety. “How do I know if my daughter may be getting into trouble?” asked “Meredith, 40, Queens,” in the debut.

But the column later morphed into questions about keeping relationships fresh and exciting, Dupré said. “I think I have moved away from how I’m viewed to ‘how do I save my relationship?’ and ‘how do I make this work?’” she said.

The Broad Street store represents a continuation of that evolution, she said – and the likely end of the column, which she said has “run it’s course.”

Other than a confessional interview with Diane Sawyer on 20/20, a raunchy one with Howard Stern and a nude spread in Playboy, what else has Dupré been up to since the Spitzer scandal broke in March, 2008?

“I’ve been in a relationship,” she said. “I’ve just started my life over.” She and Earle, a paving industry exec, have lived in the Navesink section of Middletown for the past two months. She said she considers him her best friend, and his young daughters her family.

Growing up in Wall Township, Dupré said she was a frequent visitor to Red Bank. Moving back to the Shore after seven years in Manhattan and again visiting the town, “I just fell in love with the community as a whole,” she said. “It is like a little mini SoHo, and the people here are great.”

In creating Femme by Ashley, Dupré hired Amy Manor of West Front Street to design the space. Borough-based Frame to Please supplied oversized mirror frames and Solari Creative, also of Red Bank, did the website.

“We really kept it in the community. It’s like our own little networking circle here,” Dupré said. “It’s very important to me to have that.”

The resulting shop features white walls, ceilings and flooring. Long, silver velvet drapes form a pair of dressing rooms, each equipped with a plush purple chair so shoppers and their significant others can have some intimate time during a bikini or teddy try-on.

Dupré said the boutique’s merchandise, including labels Agua Bandita, Pily Q and Jenna Leigh, reflects her own evolving fashion sense.

“I’m  a girl, and I think every girl likes to shop and explore their tastes,” she said. “Getting into this business, I kind of explored all of these designers and fell in love with them.”

The shop offers swimsuits in the $180 to $200 range as well as some “special” underthings, Dupré said.

“I really wanted this to be a place where anybody could come in and get something and be able to afford it, but also to have the luxurious items, too,” she said.

Dupré said she plans to be in the store daily, and is braced for curiosity seekers.

“Well, I’m sure I’m going to see everybody,” she says with a laugh. “I’m sure a lot of interesting people are going to walk through those doors.”

Red Bank Mayor Pasquale Menna met recently with Dupré and Earle at their request, and said he came away impressed by their vision for the store and their enthusiasm about the town. Only one person, the wife of a retailer, had complained to him about Dupré’s arrival, he said. “I reminded her that none of us are exemplary in every aspect of our lives.” he said.

“We are a very diverse town,” Menna said. “We welcome everyone.”

Dupré, though, doesn’t expect everyone to be welcoming. She says she’s learned to shrug off whispers, which she finds prevalent “whether you’ve been involved in a scandal or not. People always talk about other people. And it’s sad that you don’t have anything more important to talk about in your life, but that’s just the way of life. Not everybody can like you, and it’s OK. I’m OK with that.

“What am I going to do, live in the past, regretting every mistake I’ve ever made?” she said. “That’s the sign of a weak person. You need to get over it and move on.”

The Broad Street salon gave 50 $7 children’s haircuts in four hours to raise funds for the medical care of Duwayne Powell, a 9-year-old Red Bank Primary School student suffering from a heart ailment. (Photo by Stacie Fanelli. Click to enlarge)

As the headline suggests, the weekend that awaits is jammed with the potential for good times.

We’ve got the fifth Red Bank Townwide Yard Sale, this one making a migration from fall to spring.

We’ve got one of the inaugural events of this year’s weeklong Paint the Town Pink festivities to raise awareness about breast cancer and the importance of early detection.

And capping it all off, rain or shine, is the first-ever Red Bank International Flavour Fest, an outdoor celebration of the wide variety of cuisines available year-round at Red Bank restaurants.

And Mother Nature appears to be in a mood to cooperate.

Details, as they used to say when that was still a two-syllable word, are just below.

SATURDAY: Red Bank Townwide Yard Sale
Location: all over town. Maps available at the Red Bank Public Library and at many of the participating homes.
Time: Officially, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., but sellers can set their own hours.

From an email update from Beth Hanratty, president of the Friends of the Red Bank Public Library, which has hosted the event since 2010:

lots of records, books and air conditioners

SATURDAY: Pink Hat Tea Party
Pilgrim Baptist Church
172 Shrewsbury Avenue
Doors open 10:30 a.m., Event 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Don’t miss this important Paint the Town Pink event, presented by Riverview Medical Center. Gather all the special women in your life to join us for an educational and entertaining Pink Hat Tea, with a hat and apparel fashion show courtesy Geneva’s Boutique of Neptune, a speacial presentation from Adi Smolinsky, M.D., a Riverview Medical Center OB/GYN, education about Paint the Town Pink’s mission of the importance of annual mammography, and more! Refreshments will be provided by Jameson’s Ultimate Southern Cooking Restaurant in Neptune. Don’t forget to wear your pink hat!

*Pink Sale Event. Deck your pink all year long with our exclusive Paint the Town Pink gear and goodies for sale at this signature event.

This event is FREE but registration is required. RSVP: 1-800-DOCTORS

SUNDAY: Paint Everything Pink Community Day
Riverview Medical Center parking lot
1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Pink your town, pink your house, pink your family. Everything is pink at our family-centered, free Community Day! Featuring many of the same pink “zones” families have come to expect as well as exciting new ones, this year’s event will feature:

Kids’ Fun & Games: Rides, arts and crafts, face painting – all the things your kids have come to love! And don’t miss photos with Dr. Bernard from the Pawsitive Action Team at
K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital.

Pink it Yourself Man Cave: In line with this year’s theme of Men in Pink, our “man cave” will offer the men in your life an area just for them. Activities will include DYI demonstrations from the Home Depot, interactive games, and of course our exclusive Real Men Wear Pink t-shirts.

Rockin’ Country Thunder 106.3: Bring out the country in you! With live music from a local country artist, this local-favorite station will have you dancin’ in your boots. Your kids will love our pony rides and everyone can enjoy some good old fashioned root beer!

And that’s not all! Enjoy some snack-food favorites and other sweet treats, and beverages from a number of local pink partners, and don’t forget to stop by our educational tables to pick-up important information about Paint the Town Pink’s mission of raising awareness of the importance of annual mammography.

Special Pink Cotton Candy and Snow Cones presented by Arrow Limousine.

SUNDAY: Red Bank International Flavour Festival
White Street Parking Lot
12 p.m. to 7 p.m., rain or shine

Here’s the National Weather Service forecast:

Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 68. Northeast wind between 10 and 13 mph.

Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 68. Northeast wind around 9 mph.

Jewels given by Michael Jackson to Elizabeth Taylor are on display in Red Bank for the next three weeks. (Click to enlarge)

By DANIELLE TEPPER

She was a silver-screen goddess with a taste for bling. He was a global pop-music phenom who, well, wore a jewel-encrusted glove as a trademark.

Now through May 13, movie and fashion fans can hold in their hands a piece of Hollywood history that connected them: Elizabeth Taylor’s iconic “monkey necklace,” a gift from her friend and fellow artist Michael Jackson.

The set has found a temporary home at Leonardo Jewelers on East Front Street in Red Bank.

The necklace and matching earrings are encrusted in diamonds, emeralds, and rubies, and filled with delightful details, as in the way the emeralds have been carved into small leaves, the clasp is a gold pineapple, and the monkeys’ faces have perfect, tiny smiles.

The exotic set was designed by Baron Enrico “Ricky” di Portanova – a jet-setter who once described the best things in life as “sun, sex and spaghetti”   – for his wife, Baroness Sandra di Portanova, Leonardo partner Michael Zeik tells redbankgreen.  After their deaths, the set was sold at auction by Christie’s, and eventually ended up with Jackson, who gave it to Taylor.

The price he paid is a mystery, but the set went for $260,000 as part of a Christie’s auction of Taylor’s jewelry in December, according to one report.

But “it’s not about that,” said Zeik. “You need to know that kind of thing if you were to try to sell it, but that’s not what we’re doing with it. This is an investment piece. The craftsmanship is beautiful and you have two national cultural characters attached to it, both of whom are now deceased. Everything about it is phenomenal.”

Customers are invited to look at, touch, photograph and even try on the baubles, said Zeik.

So how did Leonardo come to get it?

Well, it’s not exactly unprecedented, as Taylor’s jewelry seems to get around. Hamilton Jewelers on Broad Street in Red Bank late last year displayed two Taylor-owned pieces purchased by a store client at auction  from Christie’s, which had previously put her collection on tour. Earth Treasures, a jewelry store reopening next week in Eatontown, is advertising a display of “some of Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry.”

In this case, Leonardo has partner that is “one of the largest purveyors of estate jewelry in the country,” said Zeik. “Now, when we offer estate, we’re talking about some real spectacular pieces. When we do estate, we don’t want to do it just halfway.”

“We hate the ‘sea of sameness’ you find in most stores. Everybody’s got the same bracelet, the same necklace. That’s why we got involved in estate, to set ourselves apart. We figured this would be a great way to let our customers do something they can’t do anywhere else.”

By JOHN T. WARD

Downtown Red Bank’s comeback is about to get a jolt of extra energy.

Alex and Ani, a designer and retailer of wrist bangles and necklaces infused “with the positive energy that ancients refer to as vital force,” has signed to take over retail space at 12 Broad Street, next door to the newly relocated coffeehouse Zebu Forno.

Even the walls are expected to hum with good vibes.

On her store’s website, owner and designer Carolyn Rafaelian says her mission is “to design products that adorn the body, enlighten the mind, and empower the spirit.”

On a page labeled “philosophy,” the site says Alex and Ani

is a company dedicated to creating products of unparalleled quality and beauty that promote consciousness and unity. Manufacturing in the United States and re-using and recycling materials is an integral part of Alex and Ani’s mission as a conscious and eco-friendly company. Alex and Ani’s collections are not only Eco-friendly, they are made up of powerful, meaningful, and spiritual pieces, which uplift and inspire all who wear them.

The website says Alex and Ani has 10 stores, seven of them in New England. The Red Bank shop would be the first in New Jersey, according to the list.

The shop may need some supplemental positive energy to attract walk-in traffic. The space the company is leasing has no storefront: the tall glass windows outside the shop frame an elevator foyer.

But the retailer seems to have that covered. Contractors will be installing  vital force crystals between studs before closing up walls with Sheetrock, redbankgreen has learned from reliable sources.

Rafaelian did not respond to a request for comment left at the company’s store in SoHo.

By JOHN T. WARD

Three Red Bank council members wore hooded garments to Wednesday night’s bimonthly meeting as a local group put out word of a silent vigil next week in memory of slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.

A poster for the event, called “We Are Trayvon Martin,” encourages attendees to wear hoodies, the type of sweatshirt that Martin was wearing when he was killed in an encounter with a gun-toting resident of Sanford, Florida a month ago.

Councilwoman Sharon Lee, in a vivid blue hoodie from the Unversity of North Carolina, where her son attends school, tells redbankgreen she wore the garment on the council dais in solidarity with others to call attention to the stigmatization of African-American youth.

“I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have one. We put our children out in them,” she said. “But if it’s that much of a problem, then we do need to desensitize people by letting them see them all the time.

“They’re just material things,” she said. “They’re not the substance of the person wearing them.”

Councilmembers Ed Zipprich and Juanita Lewis also wore lightweight sweaters with hoods to the meeting.

Organized by IMPACT, a youth advocacy group created by Red Bank native Darnell Lewis, the vigil is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday at the pocket park at the corner of Shrewsbury Avenue and Drs. James Parker Boulevard.

“Community members will peacefully assemble and stand silently together in his remembrance and raise awareness on the national issue of stereotyping and injustices against African-American young men,” a press release for the event says.

By JOHN T. WARD

A primo spot on the sunny side of Monmouth Street in Red Bank is about to get some ice.

Most recently home to Soapmarket, which vacated in January to become an online-only retailer, 12 Monmouth is being outfitted for Ice Costume Jewelry, which hopes to open in just a couple of weeks, store manager Ashely Goral tells redbankgreen‘s Retail Churn.

The store is the first retail venture by Goral’s boss, Jack Hersch, and will feature “costume jewelry, but high-end, with real stones,” pieces crafted by “up-and-coming designers,” she said.

Though the store’s name might suggest diamonds, it won’t be selling any. “It’s more fun stuff, more exciting,” she said.

In other Churnings…

Elio Ventrella’s The Glam Bar hair styling salon – blowouts, no cuts – has opened for business, after a glammy red-carpet style opening party last Friday night.

Ashley Dupré, who plans to open Femme By Ashley lingerie and swimwear in May, has all her approvals from the borough planning and zoning office, except for one. A store sign that would hang from a beam that spans the opening alcove to the building, at 15 Broad, is not of a kind addressed by any ordinance and will need a variance, said director Donna Smith Barr.

Models showed off bridal gowns at Sassy Chic Boutique, above, while a passerby did a doubletake at the sight of human mannequin Stephanie Rogers at Barbizon Models during the fourth Wedding Walk in Red Bank Saturday.

Nancy Adams, executive director of event sponsor Red Bank RiverCenter, said the walk attracted about 30 percent more registrants than the March, 2011 edition, with some 600 shoppers thronging the streets in search of dresses, hair styling, DJs, photographers and more wedding-related goods and services. (Click to enlarge)

Matt DePonti of Powerhouse Signworks gets the word about Wedding Walk out above Broad Street last week. (Click to enlarge)

Here come the brides-to-be again, as Red Bank merchants reprise an idea that’s turned into one of the more popular recurring draws of shoppers and diners.

As with the first three editions of this shopping extravaganza, merchants of everything from formalwear to framing, from rehearsal-dinner restaurant meals to riverfront hotel suites will open their doors on Saturday to an expected swarm of soon-to-be-marrieds hoping to nail down details of their big day.

Organized by downtown promotion agency Red Bank RiverCenter, the free, one-day event is designed for prospective brides, grooms, their families and friends to come to town to plan their weddings, checking out more than 40 wedding-related businesses have to offer.

Florists, gown and tuxedo retailers, photographers, jewelers, hair and nail salons and banquet facilities are on board, RiverCenter says in an announcement. Most will be offering promotions, light refreshments, and libations and live music will be performed all day at three locations throughout town.

From RiverCenter:

The day begins at 9:00 AM with Registration/Check In and Continental Breakfast at the historic Molly Pitcher Inn, at 88 Riverside Avenue followed by a self-guided tour of the town’s participating businesses.  All registrants will receive a Wedding Walk map/passport and each registered couple will receive one complimentary tote bag to hold all the giveaways and information.

Free shuttle, limo and trolley service will also be available with stops at each of the downtown’s shopping areas. Guests must visit at least 16 businesses (including one from each zone) to be eligible for the prize drawings at the end of the day.

The day concludes with a fabulous champagne reception including hors d’oeuvres at the Oyster Point Hotel, a beautiful, waterfront, wedding venue at 146 Bodman Place at 3:00 PM.  The prize raffle will be held at 3:15 PM where guests can enter to win fabulous prizes with their validated passport including the Grand Prize of a 6-day vacation in Costa Rica!  The Wedding Walk will conclude at 4:00 PM.

Guests are strongly encouraged to pre-register @ www.OnlyOneRedBankWedding.com where they can browse the participating businesses and map out their itinerary to get the most out of their day.  Engaged couples, mark your calendars for the Red Bank Wedding Walk on Saturday March 24th! Your dream wedding awaits!

For more information go to www.OnlyOneRedBankWedding.com or call Red Bank RiverCenter at 732-842-4244.  Red Bank RiverCenter is a not-for-profit alliance of businesses, property owners, and residents working toward the economic vitality of the Red Bank Business District.  Please visit www.redbankrivercenter.org for additional information.