Hookers, lady hookers, have been getting plenty of media obsession run since… ever. But particularly since a young, firebrand governor in need of some comeuppance (and companionship) was caught spending bootloads of the family fortune on a particular female escort (oh that's right, his name is Eliot Spitzer and hers, Ashley Dupre).

Since then, we've (the media, I guess I'm one of those weasels) had all sorts of love for hos (sorry, Snoop). In addition to covering anything and everything money-for-sex-related, we (rather Showtime) delved deep into the world of hump-hump for ching-ching with Secret Diary Of A Call Girl. Questions like: Why aren't you allowed to kiss a hooker were sort of answered*? Then the country was floored when everyone's favorite informercialier, Vince, tried to slap his troubles away with a South Beach prostitute (no amount of absorbing power could soak up a nation's shame). But something has been missing, something egalitarian. Maybe something European.

We were missing the gigolo. No more hilarious six letters have ever been strung together. Please say it aloud: jih-gah-lo. But the man of the night is starting to get back some of the esteem that Richard Gere created in American Gigolo but Rob Schneider ripped from us in his farces involving a man named Deuce Bigalow. HBO is bringing us Hung, the story of a well-endowed fellow looking to earn a little extra cash by "hustling." It stars Thomas Jane (yep, The Punisher) and I'd like to point out that HBO may have tried to cast him in Rome but got his doppleganger James Purefoy to play Mark Antony.

And in these tough times, doesn't everyone need to "hustle" for a little extra kablingy in his/ her pocket? Evidently, the gigolo's life is not as ritzy as making a sexy, rich cougar feel like a natural woman woud have you believe. Em & Lo (at EmAndLo.com) have a great Q & A with a man who's at the ladies leisure for their pleasure. My favorite two parts of the interview: 1) his take-home pay: $1,500 for an overnighter; and 2) his strangest request (seriously, you'll have to read it). Read: UK Woman's Essay: "I Pay A Man For Regular Sex"