DINNER WHORES.. everyone knows one!

This recent article in the NY POST was brought to my attention by (ironically enough), BLONDE CHATTERBOX. It's a funny read and rings so true in a number of ways. Check it out and throw me some feedback!

MEET THE DINNER WHORES

By MANDY STADTMILLER
"Men are always saying, 'It's just sex.' Well, this is just dinner. I don't feel sorry for them."
- Brooke Parkhurst (right), a self-described 'reformed dinner whore,' pictured here at Ribot.
Photo: Graham Morrison

January 12, 2006 -- THEY'RE gorgeous. That's the first thing you notice.

How could a man resist taking these ladies to dinner, even if he suspects they might be staying in the relationship - or simply, at the restaurant - more for the pricey martinis than the possibility of marital or bedded bliss?

Meet today's modern - sorry, Ms. Steinem - "dinner whore."

Immortalized by frequent discussions on Craigslist, and most scientifically defined by urbandictionary.com, the frank term doesn't scare some of today's modern female daters.

"The concept of dating has changed," says 26-year-old blond bombshell Brooke Parkhurst, who estimates over the course of her 200-plus dinner-whore encounters she has run up combined tabs of $30,000 in New York and beyond. "Women used to feel like something had to be given in exchange, whereas now I'm perfectly confident that my company is enough."

Today's modern male dater is, likewise, not afraid to identify himself as a "dinner-whore avenger." Writes one on Craigslist who left his date with the check, "No thanks dinner whore, I won't keep being your walking meal ticket."

But get to know the ladies, and see if you don't want to buy them a little dinner, too. Take Parkhurst, who says her D.W. days are long behind her now that she is dating a man who is fabulous in - where else? - the kitchen.

"It's kind of ironic," she says with a giggle. "A reformed dinner whore dating a chef."

Not familiar with the term? Check Urbandictionary: "A girl who is exclusively after a free meal or an expensive gift. She actively seeks out dates with well-off men who will wine and dine her at upscale restaurants. She is usually physically attractive enough to make the man fall for her feminine wiles."

But that's just the beginning, you see. Prepare to enter ... The Club.

The first rule of being a dinner whore, says Parkhurst, whose dating chronicles at her blog Belle in the Big Apple helped land her a book deal in November, is you do not talk about being a dinner whore.

"The male ego thinks that, of course, this 25-year-old wants to be out with a 55-year-old man," says the SoHo novelist and former Southern debutante. "He should be fully aware that it's because he's picking up the tab."

The second rule of being a dinner whore is you do not talk about being a dinner whore. "It's when they start mentioning Nobu," she says, "it's very obvious they are getting desperate."

Third rule: If someone goes limp from boredom, discomfort or a crushing sense of pathos, the evening is over - without obligation. "My worst date ever left me alone for 15 minutes on the patio, then came out dressed in 4-inch lucite heels, fishnet hose and panties. That's when I was like, 'See ya.'"

Fourth rule: Only one girl to a dinner. "Sometimes your friends can benefit," she allows. "My date once ended up paying for my friends' meal, too, at Spice Market. She told him, 'You're going to expense it anyway.'"

Fifth rule: One dinner at a time, ladies. "And for each guy, I'd say max there is a three date rule," she says, "because when you go past that it gets a little trickier."

Sixth rule: expensive shirts, expensive shoes. "Thank God, I have the classic L.B.D. to wear over and over," she says. "The key is to always have a fabulous jacket. And high heels."

Seventh rule: Dinners will go on as long as they have to. "It's until you can't possibly drink another flute of champagne."

And the eighth and final rule is, if this is your first night being a dinner whore, you have to order dessert. "Back in the beginning I would do that," Parkhurst says, "when I didn't mind being there longer."

So, Belle in the Big Apple, take us through a typical evening, won't you?

8 p.m. "Of course, he has to play squash first, then shower and meet you out for drinks."

9 p.m. "A private club. You look at the wine list, and you choose whatever you want."

9:30 p.m. "Appetizers. French and expensive."

10 p.m. "You're starving, you're half drunk, and by now he's boring you. In the very beginning he wants to know absolutely everything about you. He finds it so wonderful that I'm chasing my dream, and he talks about how he was forced into his profession by his mother or something. I'm his one glimpse of normalcy, blah, blah, blah."

11 p.m. "He orders another cocktail. Port maybe. He's really set on drinking. As little food in your body, that's ideal. The best is when the older ones want to go to clubs, like Cain, and you're thinking, 'What the hell, you are not going to Cain.'"

Midnight to 1 a.m. "I am the one to cut it off. These are Monday through Thursday nights, not the good nights. Always have your key in the palm of your hand so that you can exit. As little talk as possible. Then you leave. Full and satiated."

Is there ever regret?

"Most of them are expensing it," Parkhurst counters. "Men are always saying, 'It's just sex. It's just a one-night stand.' Well, this is just dinner. I don't feel that sorry for them. The guys need to ask themselves what their intentions are anyway." Many who have dabbled in the dinner-whore waters soon leave. Just ask Blaise Kearsley, 33, a Brooklyn writer, photographer and designer who has craftily chronicled her love life adventures at her blog, Bazima. While she did the dinner-whore thing once, she describes herself as more of a reformed "cocktail whore."

"That was so horrendous that I thought I can't do this," recalls Kearsley, who has been in a relationship now for two years. "They kept bringing out food that was so amazing, and my date kept saying, 'You're not going to believe it.' Lots of wine, lots of dessert, the table was totally filled constantly. But the food did not make up for the company."

This is a common cry of the reformed dinner whore. Michelle Fowler, 26, better known as Mimi Foe, the author of the popular blog Mimi in New York, is a thrice Cambridge-degreed freelance journalist who often makes up for shortages in cash by stripping around town. The Wales native now living in Midtown remembers her first dinner-whore experience well. It was Miami, December 2002.

"For me, it was the opportunity to go to all these stupid places you read about in Us Weekly," she says. "For him, I was like an accessory."

How does her sometimes profession of working in gentlemen's clubs compare to being a dinner whore?

"Stripping gives you more freedom," she asserts. "You have to be more polite to the guy in the restaurant. In a strip club you can say, 'I'm not having fun. Piss off.' In a restaurant, unless he's been blatantly rude, you have to follow some kind of protocol."

And what about the concept of the lunch whore, the breakfast whore? Is such a thing possible?

"You would never do brunch," Fowler says. "I mean, it would have to be a pretty impressive brunch."

She thinks some more.

"Actually, that place Bed, they do a really nice brunch," she says. "Like with champagne. That's acceptable."

mandy.stadtmiller@nypost.com

Are you f***** kiddin' me? This "Sex in the City" mindset has gone way too far... discuss amongst yourselves.

NUFF SAID