Anyone considering a turn on the pole for a quick buck needs to be careful who they work for. A Brooklyn stripper-for-hire filed a lawsuit yesterday accusing her former employer Dial-A-Dancer [NSFW] of withholding pay for her dirty dancing. Crystal DiCesare claims she worked without wages or overtime for 12-hour shifts, three nights a week, taking home as little as $200 a week from tips, the Daily News reports. DiCesare also alleges that Dial-A-Dancer owner Roger Otway would take a portion of the tips for himself before dividing it among the other dancers. more ›

The DA is throwing the book at the one-legged ex-con millionaire who was convicted of assaulting a Russian stripper in January. Manhattan prosecutors want to sentence Thomas Hartmann, who was found guilty of smacking Sophia Kandelaki with his Rolex watch, to a year in prison for the misdemeanor assault. Hartmann's lawyer has asked for more time to respond to the prosecutions' 11th hour demand: "We're hoping he can stay out (of jail) altogether," said Joseph Tacopina. more ›

Former Real Housewife of New Jersey Danielle Staub has returned to the stripper pole from whence she came. While she had described her former job as "burlesque dancer," she is now taking off her tops and bottoms for the masses at Scores right here in New York. According to TMZ, she's signed a three-year contract in which she "agreed to do one live appearance and occasionally appear on ScoresLive.com." The club sent over some very NSFW photos of the 48-year-old on the pole, and you can click through to view them—we have censored them for you (you're welcome). more ›

The city's cyclists may be in the midst of a ticketing blitz, but there could be a solution! Maybe if you create a contraption that would allow you to travel around with a pole-dancing stripper on the back of your bike, then you could ride wherever you please, so long as you don't run into the morality police or insist on bringing a tote bag along for the ride. This recent video below was taken outside of City Hall... and here's an older one where the same cyclist drives the pole dancer right into traffic! more ›

One of the two strippers from Big Daddy Lou's Hot Lap Dance Club who were accused and ultimately acquitted of prostitution charges a year ago has decided to get all hot and litigious. Falynn Rodriguez is suing the city for $5 million over her prior arrest. Rodriguez and porn star Alexia Moore were embroiled in the confusing prostitution case, which included semantic errors in the prosecution's court filings, lesbian defense strategies, and ultimately, the downfall of Big Daddy Lou Posner himself. more ›

Former Flashdancers stripper Sheryl Azevedo is going to court over a cab accident she claims left her with a career-ending scar. Azevedo hopped in a livery cab after finishing her shift in February of 2007. The cab hit a dumpster, and according to Azevedo's lawyer, "Her head hit the partition behind the driver, she was bleeding and she ended up with a scar on her nose." From then on, she said it was nearly impossible to get good stripping jobs in the city, and was forced to take her act to the Midwest. more ›

With her accountant husband accused of running a $59 million Ponzi scheme, a former Scores stripper was in court on Thursday in an attempt to get their assets unfrozen. Sadly for Diane Passage, a SEC attorney said, "Ms. Passage would not be the first spouse of a fraudster to be harmed by their spouse, but unfortunately, our priority is the investors." more ›

Break out the tiny violins: Because his assets are frozen, accused Ponzi schemer Kenneth Starr now has to rely on a public defender! Last week the 68-year-old celebrity financial adviser was living with his ex-stripper wife in a $7.5 million Manhattan apartment (where the feds found him hiding under laundry in a closet). Now he's behind bars and relying on Peggy Cross of the Federal Defenders of New York to represent him. We're sure she's a fine attorney, but don't any white shoe law firms want to do some pro bono work for a down-and-out Ponzi schemer? more ›

A former stripper at the upscale Penthouse Executive Club is suing over a billboard that depicts her as a dancer for Scores, citing "emotional distress." Well yeah, a girl's gotta protect her reputation! Nicole Hughes filed a suit with the Manhattan Supreme Court saying she was forced to take part in a photo shoot for Penthouse in 2008. She was paid only $4 but assured her photos would only be associated with the Penthouse brand. According to the Post, that's not what happened. more ›

Former Scores stripper (and author of No Man's Land, Ruth Fowler, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the club last year alleging (amongst other things) that she was pressured into having sex with upscale clients as well as managers. Now the Daily News reports that the strip club is striking back; yesterday their lawyers claimed Fowler was "frequently topless" and left the impression on male bosses "that she would have an interest in seeing them or entertaining their attentions outside of the club premises." We're not strip club experts, but... sounds like the girl was just doing her job! Her lawyer reacted to the club's legal team by saying they're just giving "the typical lame answer of blaming the victim." more ›

It turns out that the man who tried to "save" escort Lindsey DeLeon may not have been such a white knight after all. DeLeon claims that real-estate developer Robert Brot moved her to the city to pimp her out, not to put her through school as he claims in his lawsuit. She told the Post, "He told me, 'I'm going to show you the high life. I'm going to show you how to live.' And he did." more ›

Despite what Pretty Woman would have you believe, most women in the world's oldest profession aren't just innocent, misguided souls waiting for their white knight. According to the Post, one Manhattan man found this out the hard way after allegedly getting conned out of $100K by an Oklahoma escort. Robert Brot, 57, met Lindsey DeLeon, 26— a "Sweet Southern Redhead with Natural DDD's"—on a dating website in 2008. After finding out she had two kids, lots of debt and was working as a stripper and escort to pay the bills, he decided he wanted to help her out. more ›

Back in 1983, the Post penned its most famous headline of all time, "Headless Body in Topless Bar," but to this day the man incarcerated for the humorously described crime claims innocence. For the third time in his 27 years behind bars, Charles Dingle asked for parole, claiming he wasn't responsible for the blood bath in a Queens strip club, where one man was decapitated, a stripper was raped, and several women were robbed and held hostage. For the third time he was denied. "They expect you to come in and plead guilty and take responsibility for the crime," he said of the parole board. "I can't do it because I didn't do it." A gruesome flashback follows the break. more ›

Around midnight last night Ray Alvarez, owner of beloved East Village hole-in-the-wall Ray's Candy Store [MySpace], celebrated his 77th birthday with a cake, a clown, a stripper, and a spanking. (Photo #4 mildly NSFW) Bob Arihood took some stellar photos and reports, "These are very trying times for Ray and this party afforded a brief respite from his struggle and noticeably lifted his spirits." Slum Goddess writes that before blowing out the candles, Alvarez wished for his business to stay open until his 80th birthday. Many in the neighborhood view Ray's as one of the last relics of a funkier Alphabet City (it opened in 1974) and hope it survives longer than that. more ›

Finally! After grammatical errors and charges of lesbianism, Alexia Moore has been found not guilty of prostitution, according to the Post. Moore and fellow dancer Falynn Rodriguez (whose prostitution charges were thrown out on Sunday) were accused of offering more than just lap dances at Big Daddy Lou's Hot Lap Dance Club. more ›

A Manhattan judge decided he believes at least one of two strippers from Big Daddy Lou's Hot Lap Dance Club who say they’re “just selling fantasy.” He threw out prostitution charges against one woman allegedly caught selling sex to an undercover cop. A decision is expected Tuesday on the fate of a second showgirl—porn star Cassandra Malandri. On Friday she took the stand and gave all the dirty details more ›

While the transit police are busy cracking down on commuters who put their feet up on the seats, maybe they can also do something about people pulling down their underwear and grinding away on the subway? We don't know much about this truly vile Twitpic, and we don't want to know. (We regret that now you know too, but better you should hear it from us, in a safe place.) Below, in the interest full public disclosure, the NSFW version of the photo. more ›

A discerning dancer at a Times Square peep show nailed an ex-con earlier this month for trying to pay her with phony $10 bills. The unidentified stripper was plying her trade at Gotham City on Eighth Ave, where women perform private dances from behind a glass partition. It was around 2:20 a.m. on May 5th when she noticed that the two ten dollar bills handed to her by customer Michael Harris seemed to be fakes made with an Ink Jet printer. After calling the manager, he confronted Harris, who has done time on a drug conviction. According to court documents obtained by the Post, Harris proceeded to freak out and spilled 21 more bills into the aisle, later telling cops, "I panicked so I dumped them." He was subdued until the arrival of the NYPD and the US Secret Service, which has exclusive jurisdiction in counterfeiting investigations. Apparently, counterfeit money is often passed at peep shows and strip clubs; one employee tells the Post, "It happens all the time." And Gotham City isn't safe from this joker yet—he's currently walking the streets on $2,500 bail. more ›

The recession is making the adult entertainment industry increasingly competitive, and many employers in the field say they're flooded with applications from college-educated women who, until recently, held down white-collar jobs. Gus Poulos, the manager of Sin City gentleman's club in midtown, recently received 85 responses to a Craigslist job posting in just one day; he tells the AP, "You're seeing a lot more beautiful women who are eligible to do so many other things." A spokesperson for Rick's Caberet notes that 20 to 30 women a week are applying for jobs at the New York club, twice as many as last year's average. And Rebecca Brown, a new stripper in Chicago, says she earns more in one night than she used to make in a week as a trainer and bartender. The new job just took a little getting used to: "It is like giving a speech, but instead of imagining everyone naked, you're the one who's naked." more ›

State Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, a Brooklyn Democrat, is still pushing hard for a special tax on strip clubs, which he says would raise money to help victims of human trafficking. When Ortiz first proposed the tax last year, he also floated the idea of requiring strippers to purchase licenses before they could legally dance erotically. There's no mention of licensing in today's AP article, which reports only that Ortiz would like to levy a statewide, $10 tax on patrons of nude and seminude dance clubs and strip bars. Ortiz argues that the tax would generate plenty of desperately-needed dollar bills for sex trafficking victims at a time when there's no money in the budget to assist them. The bill doesn't have a Senate sponsor yet, but if it passes, strip club owners will probably just dodge the tax by moving their operations to bicycles. more ›

The east side Scores will pick up its crumpled dollar bills and jiggle into history by the end of the year, the Daily News reports. It's not quite clear if this means the entire Scores chain, which includes clubs outside of New York, is going down, but a lawyer for the owners says, "It's over; it is what it is." more ›

Charges related to a conspiracy to kill a man's business partner have been upped to first degree murder against the group accused after the Queens stripper that was hired to carry out the killing copped a plea with authorities. When Ronald Thornton of Commack wanted his neighbor and business partner James DiMartino dead, he turned to none other than his local stripper, Monique Randall of Queens. She then employed boyfriend Donovan Raysor and their friend, aspiring rapper Darnell Festus. The group then allegedly conceived the plot to kill DiMartino at Shady Al's Lounge on Jericho Turnpike--just near where his body was found. Randall has now agreed to testify against the gang after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. Festus's lawyer defended his client to reporters, "I guess she first told a story about a robbery, then it's a murder-for-hire. What's next? She seems to be finally giving a story the district attorney's office is happy with." more ›

For exotic dancers tired of the boring brick and mortar confines of traditional strip clubs, here comes PoleRiders, a new rolling stage with the power to turn every intersection into your own personal Bada Bing. Yours for $300.00 for the first hour and $200.00 for each additional hour, the stripper rickshaw comes fully equipped with pole, music, neon-lit platform, one driver, and one professional pole dance instructor. But it's not all fun and games; the team behind the contraption also has a mission: "To unite two great things that are even better together: bicycles and pole dancers!" And while the price may sound steep, you'll easily earn back your investment in crumpled dollar bills tossed by passing Suburbans. [Via Thrillist.] more ›

Like other classy gentlemen, 39-year-old Luis Lora-Martinez liked to impress the erotic dancers at AJ's Lounge in Secaucus by tipping them with 20 dollar bills. But Lora-Martinez's tips were actually forgeries, according to Secret Service agents who arrested him after employees at the strip club called the police. It seems Lora-Martinez never watched a little movie called To Live and Die in L.A.—which shows how labor-intensive the counterfeiting process actually is—because his fake bills were produced on a computer printer on regular paper. But according to The Jersey Journal, his funny money was good enough to fool the dancers for a little while, at least. When they wised up, they directed investigators to his motel room, where they found $5,000 in fake $20s and $50s stashed away. He now faces up to ten years in prison, and will only be released on bail if he can prove he has $60,000 in non-computer printer bills. more ›

After a ten month investigation, cops have busted a Suffolk County mail courier who they say forged dozens of realistic-looking deputy sheriff's badges and gave them out to acquaintances. But 54-year-old Peter Mistretta says it's all a big misunderstanding because he runs a male stripper business on the side and the badges were simply part of his employees' costumes. According to police—the real kind you generally don't want to see in G-strings—five shields and ID cards had the shield numbers of active-duty officers. And in July a driver pulled over in Vermont showed the trooper a fake Suffolk sheriff's ID, which was traced to Mistretta. Newsday reports that Mistretta is also in trouble over the five grams of cocaine in his possession when he was arrested—but surely that was just a prop for the Scarface stripper routine. more ›

When we decided to check in on the status of the proposed bill to regulate New York’s exotic dancers, it was partially in the interest of pleasuring ourselves with some droll double entendres. But it seems you’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to beat Daily News Bronx Borough Chief Bob Kappstatter to the pun:

A bill that would license exotic dancers has been bumping and grinding its way ever so slowly through the legislative hopper in Albany - but the "sin-tax" in the measure may leave legislators poles apart.