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High-Class Call Girl

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She has the beauty to get your attention... and the talent and charm to keep it.

"Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?"note 
Labelle, "Lady Marmalade"

Her time is valuable; an hour with her will set you back a few hundred dollars (or whatever the local equivalent is). She’s fashionable; she wears silk stockings and looks good in a court wig and robes. She’s cultured; she speaks several languages, knows her claret from her Beaujolais, and can carry on a conversation with anyone from the flower vendor to the Queen.

She's not a barrister or a solicitor (though she could just be putting herself through school and might be arguing cases in a few years yet). In simplest terms, she's a prostitute, but that label fails to capture the full breadth of her occupation.

The High-Class Call Girl—also known as an escort or "courtesan" if you're feeling fancy—occupies the highest tier of her profession, which is usually safer, pays more, and is seen as more respectable than working in a brothel or on the street. On-screen, it allows for attractive actresses to do plenty of fanservice, while not dealing with the truly unsavory aspects of prostitution. She moves through elite circles and appears at fancy events. Her clientele will mostly be men (and sometimes women) in the upper echelons of society (expect at least one of them to be a politician, particularly one who is always publicly touting his good old fashioned Family Values). The nature of this clientele may also lead to them becoming involved in a Hookers and Blow situation.

Historically, a High-Class Call Girl was refined, well-educated, and genuinely smart, giving her more agency than most women of her time. In modern settings, she has even more financial freedom to control her situation, choose her customers, and engage in Unproblematic Prostitution. She might not officially sell her body at all, she might merely sell her time and company, and whether sex happens during that time is up to her. Often an Ethical Slut; also likely to be a Hooker with a Heart of Gold, or to become a Miss Kitty when she's older.

Compare and contrast Dominatrix and Silk Hiding Steel. Compare Gold Digger. If they limit themselves to one client, they are The Mistress. She may be a Shady Lady of the Night.

See Up Marketing for other examples of selling to the well-to-do.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Anita in D.Gray-Man, could qualify as both this and Miss Kitty. She runs the biggest and most fancy brothel in China, so it is probably the most expensive that only the upper-classed men could afford. When dressed up and running her brothel, she wears very elegant clothing and a fancy headdress. She seems to get nothing but respect from people and has her own ship, with a crew who respects and obeys her every word; thus, she also has a knowledge of sailing. She meets the Exorcists in China but speaks Japanese, which is good since only 1 person in the group of 4 speaks Chinese. Her lover, Cross Marian, who has a good share of other lovers himself, says that she was a strong and good woman, after finding out she's been killed. She also has a big burly female bodyguard named Mahoja who also works as a bouncer for her brothel, most likely to make sure the men won't abuse her or any of the other women, as it's been said Anita has no tolerance for mean people. So, if you're going to be with her or anywhere near her or her brothel, you'd better be well-mannered. She's a prostitute, but she has standards and will NOT have patience if you break them.
  • Great Teacher Onizuka - Principal Daimon financed her revenge scheme by being a hostess in a seedy bar.
  • Nokaze in Jin is the most famous courtesan in 1860s Edo. The time-traveling title character gets the special deluxe treatment from her.
  • Nayotake Shimizu from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War was a prostitute in such high demand that she could charge over a million yen for a single night of service. She eventually ended up getting pregnant with the child of one of her clients (who had fallen hopelessly in love with her), leading to the birth of Kaguya Shinomiya, the series' main character.
  • The Wano arc of One Piece introduces "Komurasaki" (real name Kozuki Hiyori), who is an oiran, the highest rank a courtesan in Wano can hold, and considered the most beautiful woman in the nation. She also doubles as a Heroic Seductress by fooling several rich men through false promises into bankrupting themselves paying for her company, while secretly giving the money they pay her back to the poor. She also uses her role to get close to Shogun Orochi (the man who murdered her parents), who is deeply enamored with her, to gain information to help the alliance.
  • In the jousei manga Oiran Chirashi, the Naïve Everygirl Haru becomes a Fish out of Temporal Water as she falls into the Yoshiwara of pre-Meiji times. She's taken in by the cynical regent of a high-class brothel and, to survive in such a Crapsaccharine World, she accepts to re-invent herself as Ayame, one of her "girls".
  • Yumi Komagata from Rurouni Kenshin was an oiran (a high-class courtesan). Also, despite not being a bad person, she was far more cynical and emotionally broken than the standard thanks to some extreme dick moves on the part of The Government. The prequel Master of Flame is dedicated to Yumi and shows how her pre-Shishio life was, mentions how she became a call girl, and shows how she and Shishio met in the luxurious brothel she worked for.
  • Gender-Inverted Trope: Souma from Sakura Gari will let anyone sleep with him as long as there is something for him to gain from them in return. One of the detectives even remarks on it, saying that even back when they were investigating his stepmother's suicide, he had the eyes of a prostitute.
  • In an episode of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, Itoshki briefly overcomes his pessimism and resolves to become The Hedonist. This includes hiring a high-class prostitute.
  • Another Gender-Inverted Trope: Sakuya Ookuchi, the male lead from Sensual Phrase. Prior to the eventsnote  in his early teenage years, aside from working as a bar singer, Sakuya also used to work as a male escort at just 12 years old due to have a tall-large figure (thanks to his Caucasian-American ancestry) and look older than his actual age.
  • We meet two in Wicked City. They're both demon women sent to act as Honey Traps, and one of them actually becomes a major antagonist since she doubles as a Dark Action Girl.
  • What Suzu's former mistress Riyo used to be in The Twelve Kingdoms.
  • Yugiri from Zombie Land Saga was a legendary oiran when she was alive during the Meiji Restoration (while in the present day, she's a zombie who's been revived to be part of an idol group). Episode 2 shows that she's very good at playing the shamisen, which is just one of many skills oiran were expected to learn. In Episode 10, she also reveals that she had training as a Geisha.

    Arts 
  • Olympia: Subverted. The nude woman is a prostitute, not a high-class girl. Instead, it's the person she is modeling for who is high class. In other words, her client, who is so rich that he has even assigned Olympia a servant. Additionally, the name "Olympia" is a French slang term for prostitute.

    Comic Books 
  • One volume of The Boys has a superhero party called Herogasm, where the majority of the country's heroes gather and have wild sex with each other and the high-class call girls there. At one point, The Homelander attempts to use one of these girls to distract his uber-competent Magnificent Bastard boss from Vought American.
  • Crimson: Scarlet is descended from a high-class French courtesan that wore a red cape, which marked her as off-limits for commoners and was reserved only for noblemen.
  • Trish from Knights of the Dinner Table might not be quite as high priced as some of the others on this page, but she is certainly classy, well-educated, and smart.
  • A one-shot Punisher story had Frank using one of these as an accomplice to get close to some corrupt politicians/corporate goons in order to...well, do what he does best.
  • Played with in a Red Ears comic. A john visits a dignified woman's lavish apartment, who is soon revealed to the reader to be a prostitute. Looking around the place while she changes into a nightgown, he realizes that she's very cultured, intelligent, and rich. She just chose to be a hooker because she likes it.
  • Sin City: While it's not outright stated, the girls of Old Town are implied to have a wide range of prices. One story explains that you can see limos parked alongside old pickup trucks in Old Town. Gail, the madame, carries herself in such a way as to imply that she is quite pricey. Not to mention nobody ever stiffs them - well, those who try don't live to regret it.
  • Katchoo was one during her years in LA in the history of Strangers in Paradise. She looks back on this time with nostalgic fondness and love, but also with horror, disgust, and revulsion. It was during this time that she met Emma, the first person to actually be nice to her except for Francine, and the woman who took her off the street, gave her a place to live, and whom Katchoo eventually fell in love and escaped with, but Emma is also the one who introduced her to the world of prostitution and, more importantly (and traumatically), Darcy Parker, whose psychotic tendencies and obsessions drove Katchoo to drink, abuse drugs and suffer from crippling emotional issues for years.
    Emma: Nervous? Well, don't be. You'll do fine. Act shy but interested. They love that. And don't fidget... they hate it if you're nervous. Aw, c'mon, honey... it's not like it's gonna kill you!

    Film — Live-Action 
  • American Psycho Several times, along with numerous Streetwalkers he kills, in many different ways.
  • Al Pacino's professional football coach character from Any Given Sunday gets approached by one of these ladies one night in an upscale bar. Pacino's character is in the middle of Drowning My Sorrows after his team suffered a bad loss and knows that his career is slipping away, so he is too drunk and depressed to take her up on her offer.
  • Battle of the Bulge: General Kohler sends a ridiculously attractive "courtesan first class" to Col. Hessler's room. Hessler, being a no-nonsense hardass, sends the call girl on her way. In point of fact, the point when he sends her packing is the moment she mentions his wife confirming his suspicion she knew full well that he was married and is implying that he has a reputation for cheating on his wife, which he very much doesn't and won't do.
  • Severine in Belle de Jour is a young woman who spends her midweek afternoons as a high-class prostitute, while her husband is at work.
  • Sylvia, the Italian courtesan, in Brotherhood of the Wolf, claims to be "expensive". As she is played by Monica Bellucci, this is easy to believe.
  • Gloria from Butterfield 8.
  • The various film versions of La dame aux camélias/Camille all feature this trope in the tragic courtesan heroine Marguerite, most famously portrayed by Greta Garbo in Camille (1936).
  • Ginger in Casino is this before she gets married to Ace.
  • Catch Me If You Can. Frank meets one in a hotel, enjoys a night of sex, and then not only gives her a fake check but scams her into giving him $400 change for the fake check. He recognizes her as a model, so it's not quite clear if she's a full-time prostitute or if she was just tempted by his rich guy persona.
  • Dangerous Beauty is a bio-pic of Veronica Franco, who was a Real Life Venetian courtesan, or high-class prostitute. At one point in the movie, she — [ahem] — "persuades" the king of France to lend Venice the warships needed for war with the Turks. In Real Life, she did have a liaison with King Henri III, but it probably wasn't of quite that much diplomatic importance.
  • In Diary of a Lost Girl, Thymian is pretty lost by the time she escapes from a women's reformatory and winds up as a high-class call girl in a fancy brothel where champagne is quaffed and the customers wear tuxedos.
  • Liz Blake in Dressed to Kill, who's on the phone with her broker between johns.
  • Flowers Of Shanghai is about the life of high-class courtesans in 19th-century China.
  • Gigi: The title character's Aunt Alicia is an aged and successful cocotte with an expansive set of jewels, a butler, and her own private residence. She trains Gigi to follow in her steps, but this is of course in vain.
  • Chelsea in The Girlfriend Experience. Offers low five figures for the titular experience, and finds her clients are starting to get wary given the economic crisis. Bonus points for being played by a pornstar.
  • Bree Daniels in Klute.
  • Lynn Bracken from L.A. Confidential is part of a stable of high-class call girls who are made to look like movie stars.
  • In The Life of Oharu, Oharu does this, working in a high-class brothel for a while. But it's only one step in her slide that started with a noblewoman and goes on to Streetwalker before ending with the homeless wandering beggar.
  • Half Moon Street: Sigourney Weaver plays an academic who moonlights as a high-class escort, eventually becoming involved in a plot to assassinate a diplomat played by Michael Caine.
  • In The Loft, Anne Morris is a very expensive prostitute who usually serves as a paid consort to a city councilman.
  • In Marriage Italian Style, Sophia Loren is an expensive call girl who eventually grows sad and disappointed that her wealthy long-time lover won't marry her and take her out of the life.
  • Memoirs of a Geisha is set in Japan about a girl named Chiyo, who trains to become the esteemed Geisha Sayuri. She is primarily an artist but is required to sell her virginity to become official. Geisha are in fact distinct from prostitutes, as Chiyo's sister is sold to a brothel.
  • Halfway through The Menu, we learn that beautiful, intelligent, and charming Margot is a sex worker, hired by Tyler to be his dinner date. Given that her two confirmed clients in the movie (Tyler and Richard) are both extremely wealthy, we can assume she isn't cheap.
  • Satine from Moulin Rouge! is a courtesan in the high nightclub of Paris. Her whole storyline is clearly influenced by Camille.
  • Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971), Genevre used to be an actress in Cesar's troupe and is now an exclusive courtesan.
  • In The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill, Kissey Hill, the daughter of a notorious madam in 19th Century London, follows in her late mother's footsteps with prostitution in catering to nobility and royalty.
  • Miss Trixie from Paper Moon, though she doesn't have the refinement or discretion typical of the trope.
  • Rosie in Payback.
  • Although it is never explicitly stated, this is Jenny Wren's occupation in The Phantom of Crestwood. She plans to blackmail her clients for enough money to retire to Europe.
  • In Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts' character essentially goes from street-corner hooker to this in one fell swoop.
  • A Score to Settle: After getting out of prison, Frankie gets involved with Simone; a high-class call girl who charges $1000 an hour.
  • "Shanghai Lily" in Shanghai Express (Marlene Dietrich) is a hooker and obviously a very expensive one, traveling in the first-class car of the train, and wearing a series of very ornate dresses. She has a travelling companion Hui Fei, who similarly appears to be expensive; a scene shows them playing records in their cabin, which by the standards of the Great Depression was to show them as extravagant (most people couldn't afford recorded music).
  • Spears has a minor character Ashaki, who's implied to be expensive - given that Jeff knows her, and he's not the type to pick up a Street Walker. She's hired to help them catch an enemy by seducing him in a nightclub.
  • Three Seasons: Lan, the Vietnamese prostitute who primarily caters to wealthy foreigners. She opens her purse and it's full of crisp American $50 bills, she dresses in classy (yet flashy) western styles, and is invited to spend the night in luxurious air-conditioned hotel rooms.
  • The middle segment of Three Times depicts the relationship between a high-class Chinese courtesan and her favorite patron.
  • Undercover Heat: Police officer Cindy Hannen goes undercover in a high-class whorehouse, Mrs. V's, to catch a murderer who's preying on prostitutes. They are very strict about their clients, only catering to people in high positions, and it's invite only by somebody who's already a member. While she's quickly hired as a new girl because of her beauty, Cindy has some difficulty fitting into the role, so the madame has to quietly coach her on what sort of things these clients like and don't like. Eventually, she becomes rather good at it.
  • The World of Suzie Wong downplays it, since Suzie does have to pick clients up at a bar, but considers herself higher class than streetwalkers. She also makes enough to briefly support Robert financially. She also has an Unlimited Wardrobe of fancy cheongsams. The book clarifies that she did used to be higher class, working at a dance hall and having rich businessmen as clients. She only had to stop working there when one of them got her pregnant and decided not to marry her.
  • In Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, Sophia Loren is an expensive call girl who is so hot that the divinity student next door decides to leave the priesthood to pursue her.
  • Belle Starr from Zachariah is not only expensive but also picky and easily bored, and only accepts the most interesting, accomplished men.

    Literature 
  • Mona Sofia from Federico Andajhazi's The Anatomist is the most beautiful, cynical, and expensive prostitute in the whole Venetian Republic. A whole chapter of the book is dedicated to the extremely squicky (and not exactly believable) circumstances behind her success. She meets an anvilicious and tragically ironic end, due to contracting syphilis.
  • Kestel Falke in The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga has a backstory as a highly sought-after courtesan in the royal court of Donderath. This was actually a cover for her real job as a hired spy and assassin; she ends up in the Penal Colony of Velant after being caught at the latter.
  • Beware of Chicken: This is essentially Guan Chyou's role in the Azure Jade Trading Company; she's both intelligent and attractive, and is assigned to highly valued clients to provide for any and all needs that they may have — business-related or otherwise. When she starts flirting with Jin, who's happily married, he quickly shuts her down and requests different services, but doesn't realize it's actually part of her job; he assumes it was more of an impromptu order to seduce a client. When business partners assume that Chyou is in fact sleeping with Jin, she allows and even encourages the assumption, for her own protection. Jin's reputation and influence mean that no one will dare to push any boundaries with her if they think she's taken.
  • The Change Room: Shar is a well-paid, very beautiful sex worker who does this for money to get her degree in therapy at the university. At one point Shar even mentally calls herself this.
  • In Colette's Chéri and La Fin de Cheri novellas, Lea de Lonval is a retired kept woman.
  • The Web Serial Novel The Comfortable Courtesan centres around Clorinda Cathcart, a high-class courtesan in Regency England. Partway through the story, she enters a Marriage of Convenience with a gay and dying aristocrat and is able to retire, although she still discreetly sleeps around a lot for fun.
  • The most famous high-class courtesan in all of literature is probably Marguerite Gautier, the tragic heroine of La dame aux camélias (better known in English-speaking countries as Camille), by Alexandre Dumas fils. She was inspired by the famed Parisian courtesan Marie Duplessis, with whom Dumas fils had a brief love affair (and whose other lovers included Franz Liszt) before she died at age 23.
  • Haruki Murakami wrote Dance Dance Dance which had a network of these.
  • Chandramukhi from Devdas was this and in fact the richest and most popular of all the prostitutes, at least until she gave up her "profession" to marry the eponymous Devdas, who is always dogged by his feelings for his childhood friend Paro (who has been married off to someone else).
  • In the James Bond novel Dr. No, Honey Ryder says she plans to become one of these with the money she's going to get by collecting rare seashells.
  • The Danielle Steel novel The Duchess has the title character, the heroine, actually running a brothel full of these.
  • Anyone trained by the Bene Gesserit in Dune, as they learn certain, ah, marital arts alongside many other things. Case in point, Lady Jessica, a concubine for a powerful and influential Duke who helps out a lot in managing his household. The whole operation is a cover for the BG's secret breeding program.
  • Servilia in the Emperor books ensures that her brothels are staffed entirely by girls like this. She herself also qualifies and is so successful that she can influence the senate.
  • The temple prostitute Shamhat from The Epic of Gilgamesh. Temple prostitution was part of the duties of some priests and priestesses of that time and place, and thus it was seen as a sacred and respectable act.
  • La Señora from Eva Luna has several of these girls working for her in her brothel. They're described rather sympathetically: they're pretty, and rather kind girls who dote on Eva and just happen to be atop of the local sex industry.
    • Also, Tránsito Soto from The House of the Spirits. She doesn't really start as such, though: by the time she's in her 30s/40s, however, she has become this thanks to hard work, growing into her looks and showing off lots of smarts and charisma.
  • Francesca in The Heirs of Alexandria. Goes on to become an imperial advisor and The Mistress.
  • The In Death series: Charles Monroe is definitely a High-Class Call Boy. Eve is friends with him, even though his profession bothers her. There is this one High-Class Call Girl who ends up murdered in Indulgence in Death.
  • Luphera from The Iron Teeth web serial. Blacknail wanders into her room, while she happens to be naked. She's an incredibly beautiful and sensual woman. Her room is also luxurious, tasteful, and filled with a flowery aphrodisiac scent.
  • In the Kushiel's Legacy series, prostitution is a sacred calling. The protagonist, Phedre no Delaunay, is an extremely high-priced prostitute, who, besides her innate craving for pain, is a trained spy, speaks thirteen languages, and is quite generally regarded as the best in the business by man and woman alike. She also becomes active in court politics as a confidante of the Queen and earns a noble title, making her high-class in every respect.
  • The Lost Diary of Don Juan: Alma is a former student of the titular libertine and the most famed courtesan in Sevilla. Highly intelligent and often dressed to the nines, she openly mingles with the most prominent members of society and understands Don Juan’s true personality in a way few others do.
  • Lightly implied to be Lady Meserole's former (?) profession in the Discworld novel Night Watch: she asks if Vimes thinks she's an "old seamstress" ("seamstress" being an Unusual Euphemism for "prostitute") and he says, "Actually I was thinking bespoke tailoring." She also goes by "Madam" and there's some uncertainty about whether it's a job title or more of an honorific.
  • Portrait in Sepia: In her prime, Amanda Lowell is a beautiful Scottish actress in San Francisco. Money is not enough for her services; charm and good manners are also necessary. She literally collects notches in her bedpost, one for every lover. Feliciano Rodriguez de la Cruz has a dalliance with her. Paulina del Valle (his wife) finds out and is furious about him embarrassing her like that.
  • The Reynard Cycle: Defender of the Crown features Precieuse, who is a temple prostitute and companion to the King. Even his mother approves.
  • Madame Ahnzhelyk Phonda runs this sort of establishment in the Safehold series, catering to the needs of the various priests and bishops of the Corrupt Church. She uses this role to act as a spy.
  • The James Patterson novel Sail.
  • Prostitution is considered a sacred profession by the Summer Islanders of A Song of Ice and Fire, being practiced even by the nobility. Chataya, a Summer Islander, runs a high-class brothel in King's Landing that caters to nobles and wealthy clients.
    • Another example is provided by the courtesans of Braavos, who are famed throughout Essos and Westeros and who enjoy a practically revered status. Whilst all of them enjoy high status, each owning their own river barge and servants to crew it, one of them, the Nightingale, is so revered that the bravos that wander the street, looking to duel and show off their swordsmanship, will challenge anyone who does not agree that she is the most beautiful woman in the world.
  • In Robert B. Parker's Spenser series, recurring character Patricia Utley runs a whole enterprise of this sort. She takes very, very good care of her girls.
  • Thais of Athens stars the (in)famous Greek hetaera of the title as the protagonist. There is also her best friend Aegesichore.
  • Wagons West
    • Carolina Brandon has elevated herself to this at the beginning of Nevada!, due to what she purloined towards the end of the previous novel.
    • Kale Salton is a top one in San Francisco when she decides to intervene in Beth Blake's trial in Dakota!
  • The story "The Whore of Mensa" in Woody Allen's book Without Feathers features a call-girl agency where the girls discuss high literature with the customers (and do nothing else).
  • Whateley Universe: 'Abby Carfax' is a Boston Brahmin debutante turned call girl who keeps a string of wealthy clientele; she is careful to make sure that no money changes hands, just 'gifts' in the form of things such as expensive jewelry, rent payments for her expensive hotel room, etc. Too bad for her clients that it's all fake: she is actually Alex O'Brien, AKA Vamp, an intersexed teenage Super Villain who uses her Charm Person powers to convince them they had sex when they really hadn't.
  • Fortunato in Wild Cards runs an agency of these, and makes it very clear that the extra air of class means that they are not whores. He prefers to call them "geishas" in deference to his Japanese mother (which is a little iffy, historically speaking, but whatever).
  • Discussed in The Wise Man's Fear: Denna rescues a runaway girl forced to play prostitute to make ends meet from a violent client, then has a long talk with her about how if she doesn't want to return home she can at least make herself one of these. The glamor only goes so far, though: Denna compares a High-Class Call Girl to a normal prostitute by comparing a lord's well-kept horse to a shabby, run-down steed - including the part where at the end of the day they both get ridden.
  • One of the ten women who make up the composite personality of Penric's demon in the World of the Five Gods series is Mira, a courtesan. When Penric is on the run, penniless, and hiding out in a bordello, she helps him to take on her persona - so convincingly that he has to go through with an assignation for real after a patron takes too much of a shine to Mira. His disguise holds up, and the money bankrolls his escape.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Betty: Indigo decides to become one after learning she can make a lot of money that way, going on “dates” with rich men.
  • The Big Bang Theory: Taking Howard to Las Vegas to help him get over his breakup with Leslie Winkle we see Raj and Leonard hire him a beautiful "lounge lizard" hooker to give him the "Jewish Girlfriend Experience".
  • In season 3 of Boardwalk Empire Gillian Darmody opens a high-class brothel but she fails to attract the right clientele and it struggles financially. By the end of the season, it is taken over as headquarters for Rosetti's mobsters and it quickly devolves into a low-class establishment that the mobsters are more familiar with. Gillian was not a prostitute herself before this, but in season four she becomes a low-class one in order to support her heroin habit.
  • Buffyverse: Darla was implied to have been one when alive, as she was "a whore" (in her words) but also "a woman of some property" according to the Master, and had some servants whom she dismissed from her deathbed when the Master showed up.
  • In Community episode The Politics Of Human Sexuality Pierce's girlfriend Doreen is an escort. Curiously (considering this is Pierce we're discussing), he doesn't have to pay for a date with her. At least initially.
  • The Confessions of Frannie Langton: Frannie worked as one for a while at the School House brothel with Sal, wearing beautiful dresses and her quarters being very nice. It's also unclear if she even has sex with any johns, as those seen only want to be flogged by her. She's still quite miserable since she'd only gone there due to being forcibly separated from her girlfriend Marguerite, whom she misses deeply.
  • The Contessa ran an entire house of these in Copper.
  • Leanne Battersby briefly works as a call girl in Coronation Street.
  • The episode "Pleasure is My Business" of Criminal Minds had a high-priced call girl who moonlighted as a Serial Killer.
  • Multiple murder victims on CSI are those.
    • As is recurring character Lady Heather, though she doesn't run a brothel, just an S&M club.
  • Joanie Stubbs in Deadwood. At the beginning of the series, she has graduated from High-Class Call Girl to Bottom Girl and manages the other whores. She goes on to open her own brothel staffed exclusively by High-Class Call Girls. It doesn't work out.
  • In Death in Paradise, Victim of the Week Carlton Paris is a male version who caters to the wealthy and powerful women of the island: his home is filled with expensive clothes and artwork, and he extensively researches his clients' interests so he can hold up his end of a conversation. Being a noted Pretty Boy doesn't hurt either. His classiness was what got him killed; he realised a painting at the local art gallery was a forgery while researching before a date with an art-loving woman, and was shot by the gallery owner to stop him from telling anyone.
  • Desperate Housewives: In season 1, Maisy Gibbons is a housewife who runs a side business as a prostitute for various married men in Fairview. Bree's husband Rex Van de Kamp uses Maisy's services to engage in BDSM activities he's too ashamed to tell Bree about. Bree ends up finding out about Rex's visits to Maisy when he has a heart attack during one of them and is hospitalized. Later on, Maisy is investigated and arrested for solicitation and cuts a plea deal with the district attorney to give up a list of all her clients, refusing Bree's request to take Rex's name off said list as a way of retaliating against her for snubbing Maisy when her husband Harold got laid off from his job a year earlier.
    Mary Alice Young: [narrating] To understand Maisy Gibbons, you first need to know how she spent her afternoons. Her mornings were spent running errands for her husband. Her evenings were spent washing dishes and helping with homework. But her afternoons, well, they were spent in the company of men. Frustrated. Misunderstood. Lonely men. Willing to pay money to feel a little less lonely. And Maisy Gibbons was willing to help them.
  • The women (and men) of Dollhouse are this, and much, much more. Since they're actually "blank slate" bodies with personalities downloaded into them meeting the clients' exact requirements, the Dollhouse caters exclusively to the super-rich. Prostitution is pretty common, but hardly the limit of what they're capable of being. In the pilot, Echo is sent out to act the part of a hostage negotiator.
  • Elementary: In "The Long Fuse", an investigation into a bombing leads Holmes and Watson to discover that the owner of a major crisis PR firm paid her way through business school by working as an escort. A former employee realised he'd been one of her clients and used that knowledge to blackmail her into promoting him. When she got sick of his demands she planted the bomb to kill him.
  • Endeavour: In "Muse", Morse has to locate, and protect, a high-class call girl (and artist's model) named Eve Thorne who seems to be the only connection in a series of murders. When Morse says she is nothing more than a common prostitute, Eve retorts that there is nothing common about her.
  • Companions in Firefly. They are seen as high-class citizens, and Inara gets bizarre looks when she steps outside the ship on backwater planets. Contrast that to the unlicensed brothel in the episode "Heart of Gold"; the workers there are seen as trash.
    • When the crew gets interned by an Alliance Cruiser, the officer interrogating them is rather surprised to find a preacher and a Companion on board, implying that Companions have at least equal social standing to that of the clergy. At one point, Inara uses her status as a Companion to browbeat a country sheriff into letting Mal and Zoe out of jail. It's also mentioned or implied several times that Mal originally allowed Inara to rent one of his shuttles because she would give his "enterprise" an air of class and sophistication and that her presence would ensure that his ship could land even in "respectable" ports.
  • Game of Thrones: Ros is the go-to prostitute for highborn men in Winterfell and later works her way up to the Red Keep.
  • Blair's new friend Brandice turns out to be this on Gossip Girl.
  • Guilt: Roz and Amber (along with Molly when alive) work as these in an exclusive club patronized by the rich and powerful, including Prince Theo. It turns out that Grace signed up too, but backed out.
  • Hand of God: Tessie, who is a very sophisticated and educated woman with high-end clientèle, such as Pernell.
  • Reed from Homeland, who is part of sheik's harem. One character calls her a hooker, another a paid girlfriend.
  • Rachel from House of Cards (US) is a prostitute for congressmen, politicians, and the like… until she gets caught in the middle of the Underwood's schemes, that is, by being with congressman Peter Russo the night he's arrested. Everything goes downhill for her from there onwards.
  • Ted believed that the date Barney got him for an award ceremony was one in How I Met Your Mother. The series of Accidental Innuendos didn't help. She actually was a paralegal.
  • Law & Order: Criminal Intent: The Victim of the Week in "Rispetto" is a young call girl who poses as a college student and advertises on a website headed 'Generous Gentlemen Only'. The detectives find $5000 in cash and a rack of high-end designer dresses in her apartment.
  • A professional hitwoman becomes one of these in an episode of Life in order to get close to her victim.
  • Million Yen Women: Shin regularly visits an escort who works in a brothel where rooms are nice and have their own bathtubs. In addition one of his mysterious housemates runs an escort agency in which the only shown escort is a young, famous pop star.
  • Motive: A high-class call girl was the last person to see the Victim of the Week alive in "A Bullet for Joey"; conducting 'business' with him in his office. Initially a suspect, Angie and Oscar dismiss her from their inquiries once her alibi checks out.
  • The Professionals
    • In "The Female Factor", the Victim of the Week is a high-class prostitute who 'commits suicide' after trying to contact Ray Doyle (whom she knew when he was in the Drug Squad) after finding her long-lost daughter is being used for a badger game.
    • In "The Untouchables", CI5 are looking to set up an Arab diplomat with a liking for leggy blondes, so hire an escort who's so high class, she turns out to be the daughter of a Whitehall mandarin friend of Cowley's!
  • In the Australian straight-to-cable TV series Satisfaction, one of the main protagonists is an independent call girl of this nature who gets work through the brothel the series focuses on.
  • Belle de Jour from Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Based on a True Story.
  • Sisters. Reed, the daughter of oldest sister Alexandra, runs an escort service full of these, leading to her own mother being Mistaken for Prostitute when they're seen hanging out.
  • Brenda's friend Melissa in season 2 of Six Feet Under.
  • Torchwood: Miracle Day has a girl like this, who was hired by Jilly upon Oswald Danes' request. However, when she arrives, he actually asks her to make it sort of a date, to what she replies that she's gotten her hands dirty for politicians, famous stars, and the like, but he shouldn't forget what he is (a child rapist, that is).
  • Sam's not-girlfriend Laurie from the first season of The West Wing (yes, the one played by Lisa Edelstein) is probably the highest class of high-class call girls, being that she provides her service for some of THE most powerful men in the country. She's actually codified almost perfectly, as she's actually a final year law student (later graduate) from Georgetown University paying her way through college.
  • In an episode of White Collar, Diana poses as one to get to the guy the FBI is investigating, who's in the business of prostitution, and Neal pretends to be a "costumer". Their interactions are more than amusing.
  • The White Lotus: Lucia's dressed quite nicely, worldly, charming, and gets paid 2,000 euros for one night with clients.
  • You Me Her: Izzy and Nina are both beautiful, working as escorts temporarily while going to college so they can pay for tuition. They appear to earn a good amount from it, and there's no sign it's unsafe or any issues with it.

    Music 
  • In the music video for Michael Jackson's "Who Is It?", Jackson finds a calling card carelessly misplaced by his girlfriend. The card appears expensive and has the name "Alex" inscribed on it. Consequently, Jackson suspects her of cheating and has his trusted attendant investigate her. The woman is actually, unbeknownst to him, secretly working as a high-end call girl, and Alex was one of the pseudonyms she used. When she realizes that the card is missing, she apparently quits sex work and goes to Jackson's mansion, ready to confess everything and start anew. Unfortunately, before she could get there, Jackson was told everything about her and decided to abandon the place (and her) for good. The final part of the video shows the girl going back to her "establishment," being smacked for leaving, and returning to the life of a high-end hooker, now trapped in this role for good.
  • The Jad Wio album Sex Magik - Histoire de Lilith Von Sirius, particularly the song "Das ist", is about Diana Orlow aka Lilith Von Sirius, a Real Life writer, poetess, dancer, costume designer, esotericist, and 'courtisane de luxe' (luxury courtesan) who died of uterine cancer at age 25.
  • "Killer Queen" by Queen is a cabaret number about an assertive bohemian call girl who's "guaranteed to blow your mind anytime." Freddie Mercury described the song as his way of saying that "classy people can be whores as well."
  • The album cover for Shiina Ringo's Gyakuyunyū: Kōwankyoku has the singer herself dressed as an oiran.

    Tabletop Games 
  • The Vodacce courtesans in 7th Sea: professional companions/prostitutes who were expected to be witty, well-read on politics, educated, and so on.
  • The temples of the goddess Calistria in Pathfinder engage in sacred prostitution, including of the clergy if they so choose. Calistria's champions can and will visit terrible vengeance upon you for daring to harm their workers, or any other sex workers for that matter. They are very much into the prostitute must agree to all services. Her champions may be Chaotic Evil Antipaladins. That means the high-class call girl (or boy) may be an unhallowed knight who is classy, charming, and willing to slit your throat or cleave you in two with a greatsword the second they feel disrespected.

    Theatre 
  • The Spanish courtesan Clementina in The Desert Song.
  • Madame Leonora Armfeldt, of A Little Night Music, is a prime example. She spent her days as a courtesan in the palaces of Europe, romancing princes, dukes, barons, and a few kings. After making several fortunes, she retired to her estate in Sweden, where she raises her granddaughter and laments about how "modern" women lack the skill, discretion, and passion for sex that her generation displayed. Madame Armfeldt even has an entire song, appropriately titled "Liaisons," in which she lists off her conquests.
  • Giulietta in The Tales of Hoffmann is another operatic courtesan, much less noble and tragic than Violetta.
  • Violetta in La Traviata, based on La dame aux camélias/Camille. The heroine's name is changed from the original Marguerite, but her scandalous profession stays the same.

    Video Games 
  • Evelyn Parker of Cyberpunk 2077 is a prostitute with higher ambitions who services higher-class clients, most prominently Yorinobu Arasaka, son of all-powerful corpo Saburo Arasaka. She attempts to use her connections to him as part of a heist. Unfortunately for her, things don't go very well.
  • Mass Effect: While Sha'ira the Consort and her Acolytes are technically more than prostitutes (one of the Acolytes' specialties is speech), the Consort's Chambers are located on the Presidium and opposite the Citadel Embassies.
  • Invoked in Octopath Traveler. Primrose is sadly not the trope, but she enjoys the glamour and confidence of its image as much as anybody. One of the few happy moments in her story's first chapter is when she takes the opportunity to dazzle a young girl with her beauty.
  • Planescape: Torment has two different classes of prostitutes who can be solicited, the other group being very destitute.
  • In Princess Maker 2, if the Daughter gets high Charisma/Glamour and Refinement and also has high Sin/Karma, she may be recruited by a handsome pimp who will put her on the path to becoming one of these. In the ending picture, she's seen completely naked on a bed and giving a mischievous wink.

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 
  • Nyarai and the Cyclone Crushers from Furry Fight Chronicles work as hostesses in Club Nighthawk when not fighting as Combagals. As seen in Chapter 6, it is a very bad idea to try anything on them as they are strong enough that they don't need bodyguards.
  • Debacle in the Insecticomics is a well-respected actor and cultural icon, mainly due to her Debbie Does Daebola series. No one seems to have a problem with this, besides the local network executive (whose problem is mostly because she has no idea what the porn is about even after seeing it).
  • Getter Must from Rasputin Barxotka and Rasputin Catamite officially works as a secretary, but actually services high-end clients and foreign dignitaries.
  • Bridget O'Brian in Tales Of Gnosis College is a beautiful and talented college student who agrees to spend time in a sultan's harem — even going through a mock slave auction to get there — partly in return for a hefty fee paid to her for her services, although she also claims to be doing it as a mode of sociological research.

    Web Video 
  • Marion Lavorre, Jester's mother from Critical Role, is a famous courtesan called the Ruby of the Sea. She resides in a high-class hotel, is known for her enchanting singing performances, and is paid large sums of money to provide escort services to wealthy and influential clientele.


Alternative Title(s): High Class Sex Worker

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