# Falling in love with a prostitute?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 29, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847 "2013-07-29T21:11:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/1 "2013-07-29T21:11:43Z")
Hello,
I’m looking for stories where a man falls in love with a prostitute. Primarily I’m interested in a man falling for a female prostitute, though I wouldn’t mind hearing about other combinations.
I’m mostly interested in novels/short stories, but any other medium is of interest too–movies, music, opera, plays, etc.
I’m not going to be strict about the definition of “love”–it could be obsession, a crush, real intimacy, or anything else under a big umbrella.
Obviously, Pretty Woman leaps to mind, so I’ll get that one out of the way myself…
Thanks very much in advance for all help.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/2 "2013-07-29T21:14:44Z")
Mindkiller, by Spider Robinson.
[Pretty Baby.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Baby_(1978_film))
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### Author:  [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/3 "2013-07-29T21:15:00Z")
In Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder mystery series, the main character’s girlfriend is a prostitute who continues her career even after they establish a relationship.
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### Author:  [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/4 "2013-07-29T21:17:53Z")
This was a weakness of Wojciehowicz from _Barney Miller_. That was the main plot of the “Wojo’s Girl” episode, and I think it was mentioned in other episodes as well.
There’s Christ and Mary Magdalene too, but you have to read way sub rosa to believe that one.
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### Author:  [@Schism](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schism)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/5 "2013-07-29T21:21:03Z")
_Leaving Las Vegas_.
Book and movie.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/6 "2013-07-29T21:22:53Z")
Since you mention music, there are several songs about men in love with prostitutes- “Roxanne” by the Police and “Mama” by Genesis come to mind.
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### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/7 "2013-07-29T21:23:40Z")
There was a very interesting thread right her on the SDMB a few months back. He loved her. She had a boyfriend. Drugs were involved.
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### Author:  [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/8 "2013-07-29T21:24:19Z")
Operas, with prostitutes and people who fall in love with them, which immediately leap to mind are _Lulu_ and _La Traviata_.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/9 "2013-07-29T21:25:52Z")
[This page](http://www.abebooks.com/books/working-girls-hookers-call-girls-madams/prostitutes-literature.shtml) lists a number of famous novels about prostitutes. I haven’t read all, or even most, but I’ll bet large bucks that somebody falls in love with a prostitute is just about 100% of them.
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### Author:  [@conway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conway)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/10 "2013-07-29T21:26:39Z")
My first thought was _Of Human Bondage_, though Mildred becomes a prostitute later, so I’m not sure that counts.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/11 "2013-07-29T21:29:51Z")
There’s Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine in _ **Irma La Douce.** _
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/12 "2013-07-29T21:31:49Z")
Mat falls in love with a prostitute in Eugene O’Neill’s _ **Anna Christie.** _
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/13 "2013-07-29T21:33:33Z")
Dan Aykroyd plays an investment banker who falls in love with a hooker played by Jamie Lee Curtis in _ **Trading Places.** _
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/14 "2013-07-29T21:38:56Z")
The novel _ **The World of Suzie Wong** _ is about an Englishman who falls in love with a Chinese prostitute.
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/15 "2013-07-29T21:41:13Z")
**Klute** , **Sharkey’s Machine**
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### Author:  [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/16 "2013-07-29T21:55:27Z")
> [@conway](#):
>
> My first thought was _Of Human Bondage_, though Mildred becomes a prostitute later, so I’m not sure that counts.
By William Somerset Maughm, who wrote very well about mad obsession, in novels and short stories. Usually some hapless upper crust man falling for a woman far ‘below him’, often a native girl.
I’m afraid I can’t remember the exact name of the story, but Maughm wrote a collection of short stories about a spy,“Ashenden: Or The British Agent”, based on Maughm’s own experience in WWI. One of the stories is about an aristocrat type, engaged to a society girl, who fell madly in love with a cheap circus performer (she was a prostitute on the side). He took off and travelled with her and her shabby crew. Then he went back and had his proper marriage - and lived very unhappily ever after.
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### Author:  [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/17 "2013-07-29T22:02:08Z")
Frank falls for a prostitute in S7E1 of **It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia** (“Frank’s Pretty Woman”).
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### Author:  [@Schism](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schism)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/18 "2013-07-29T22:24:20Z")
And…
_Taxi Driver_
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### Author:  [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/19 "2013-07-29T22:38:17Z")
> [@Knorf](#):
>
> Operas, with prostitutes and people who fall in love with them, which immediately leap to mind are _Lulu_ and _La Traviata_.
And if novels are of more interest than operas, _La Traviata_ is based on the novel _The Lady of the Camellias_ by Dumas (fils).
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### Author:  [@agnesnitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agnesnitt)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2013, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-a-prostitute/664847/20 "2013-07-29T22:44:33Z")
In Magnum P.I., the character Rick falls for a prostitute and marries her I believe.
In the movie Trading Places, Dan Ackroyd falls for a prostitute who is a major character. (sorry , missed earlier post)
And what about the Jack Lemmon movie “The Apartment” although the girl’s status as a prostitute is a little vague.
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