a hollywood husband, really does not want told. they're mistresses. and after the news comes out, they often are attacked as home wreckers or worse. now some of them are finding ways to turn infamy into income. here's neal karlinsky with our report. >> i am so sorry. >> reporter: between tiger woods -- >> i was unfaithful. >> reporter: sandra bullock's ex jesse james. >> you cheated on your wife. >> reporter: senator john edwards. >> i made a very serious mistakes. >> reporter: and many others, it's been a busy time for tabloids chasing sorted tales of infamous affairs. >> you need to brand yourself. >> reporter: what would that be for you? >> it's michelle bombshell. >> reporter: for all the bad press, the reported tattooed other woman, you might expect michelle mcgee in particular would be in hiding right about now. >> infamy in this industry is short-lived, you're forgotten by the next scandal. you might as well capitalize off

it. >> reporter: these days, she is definitely not hiding. it's interesting, the way you describe it. i think most people would say having a tattoo of a swas stick ka and breaking up sandra bullock's marriage would not be a great path towards fame -- >> right. >> reporter: -- riches, anything but being disliked. >> uh-huh, i have been viewed as the villain, breaking up, you know, america's sweetheart's marriage, it's really tough. >> reporter: it's a lot tougher for sandra bullock. >> she ducked out. she did the smart thing. >> reporter: michelle mcgee has parl laid her 15 minutes of infamy with a career. even a reality show deal. how profitable is it? >> it's very profitable. >> reporter: really? so you're making more money now? >> by far. >> reporter: she didn't do it alone. she is just one in a long list of women attached to an incredibly odd publicity

machine, dd entertainment. at the head of it all, a former porn star turned queen of scandal. >> we should have purchased this stuff for us too. >> reporter: gina rodriguez says bad girls are good business. what is this business? >> i'm mcing the mistresses and all the peeve of scandal. >> reporter: what does that mean exactly? >> i've taken these girls involved in these, you know, sex scandals, and built them a career. i was watching the scandals happen like one after the other, all these cheating scandals coming out, i saw there was a vacant space there and i went in there and grabbed them. >> reporter: take a look at some of the paparazzi's greatest hits and you'll see gina in the background again and again, quietly managing hollywood's best-known alleged mistresses. >> i try to monetize the entire situation from the beginning for them. and that's through, you know, their press images, appearances, anything we can do. >> reporter: her cut, a whopping

20%. been lucrative? >> very lucrative, yes. >> reporter: she says the most marketable of her clients are the ones she calls tiger's girls, jamie jungers, jocelyn james, all of them claimed to have had affairs with tiger woods. she makes money for them by staging public outings at restaurants and elsewhere, then tipping off the tabloids for a fee. >> i would -- sex tapes, celebrity sex tapes, cosmetics, shameless by jocelyn james. some of girls, i packed them together. we did the scandal tour. >> i'm going to wiggle your nerve -- >> reporter: she also gets deals for free cosmetic surgery, often in exchange for publicity while they're doing it. >> i'm getting plastic surgery today. >> and so am i. >> reporter: michelle mcgee wasn't the only one will to chat. we sat down with several of gina's girl. what are you doing with gina? >> trying to make a career out of a bunch of bad publicity.

>> reporter: trying to make a career out of bad publicity? >> yeah. >> reporter: that's your game plan? >> i mean, to try and get past everything i've been through and move on with my life and what i want to do. >> reporter: 24-year-old january gessert found herself in the headlines when tabloids claimed she had a sexual relationship with kim kardashian's boyfriend reggie bush, a relationship she and reggie bush both deny. >> i've been working on coming out with my music by myself. also, i've had a collecting line called butter for about four years and i just started an accessory line. >> reporter: those are your accessory, the shoulders? >> my shoulder pads. it's an avant-garde accessory line. >> reporter: marilea used to work with jesse james. merilee denies they had an afar but claims she filed a sexual harassment claim against them. and violet kowal got press with her claim she had an affair with mel gibson, something he had

called an absurd fabrication. >> i wouldn't be known as a mel gibson mistress, i want to be known like a violet. >> reporter: she wants to sell a line of purses. >> i'm going to have probably between 5 to 7 purses coming out next year. >> reporter: merilee wants something more basic, to clear up misconceptions about who she is. >> i'm not this terrible villain that tried to ruin people's lives. i really didn't. i'm not that person. >> reporter: today, gina's branching out. what started with alleged mistresses now includes just about any scandal she can get her hands on. from the corrections officer fired for posing for playboy to lindsay lohan's father michael. >> she's a problem solver. when you have a problem and you want it resolved and you want to bring the pieces together, you go to gina. >> reporter: gina says managing such an eclectic clientele isn't always easy. >> these girls are, like, they're all sexually charged,

they all have a lot of tension, they are jealous of each other. it's a reality tv show right there. it is. it's good stuff. >> reporter: sounds like a nightmare hanging out with this group. >> i'm sure i'm a nightmare. no. i'm, like, the mom to everyone. >> reporter: some might look at a business like yours and say there's one more that companies to mind for this kind of business, exploit. >> i don't think i'm exploiting women. the press is exploiting them. they're the ones who brought them up first. i was there to grab them afterwards. >> it says i heart michelle. >> reporter: hanging out with gina and her women, you get the sense they don't spend much time using the word regret. you're making more money now than you ever did before. does that mean that given the chance you would -- you'd do it all again? >> um, take away the negative aspects of it, take away sandra bullock getting hurt -- >> reporter: i'm not taking that away, that's reality.

>> for the moneywise, absolutely. >> reporter: you'd hurt her again? >> no, if i could take it back and her not being hurt by it, absolutely. if i could exploit a situation again, i would probably do it again. >> reporter: welcome to gina's world where infamy rules and the next scandal right around the corner isn't personal, it's business. i'm neal karlinsky for "nightline" in hollywood. >> no comment. when we come back, he's one of the most sought after hitmakers in pop music today. we sit down with the producer known as dr. lou. no, no, i just paid my car insurance bill -- ouch. [ man whistles ] sounds like somebody paid too much. excuse me? i use progressive's "name your price" tool. they showed me a range of coverages, and i picked the one that worked for me. i saved hundreds when switching. hundreds? who are you?

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to music now.

quincy jones, cliv davis, george martin -- some of the most powerful people in pop music are not singers but producers known for nurturing talent and unlocking sounds. it's hard to define that skill that is understandably in high demand. top producers not only get their pick of projects, they're richly rewarded for their efforts. one of today's hottest producers is known as dr. luk. our chris connelly asked him for his secret. ♪ hey over there >> reporter: "hold it against me," the newest video from britney spears. it had its world premiere on mtv just hours ago. ♪ play my favorite song here at conway studios in hollywood, he is one of the principal architects of that song. that little tented area, that's where you record vocals, is that the idea? >> yep, that's where today britney would be. she sounds good fast, you know? she's a lot busier than i am so

she comes in and gets it done and she's out. >> reporter: with 21 number one singles to his credit, he is 37-year-old producer and songwriter lukasz gottwald, the man everyone calls dr. luk, the most successful and sought after hitmaker in pop music today. ♪ here i am ♪ once again ♪ i'm torn into pieces >> reporter: he shaped the "american idol" kelly clarkson. ♪ california girl >> reporter: katy perry's candy coated confection. ♪ trying to get a little bit tipsy ♪ >> reporter: and the too many martinis tipsy doodles of ke$ha. time and again showing a knack for what teens like. >> i do have three sisters and i think that has something to do with it. one of my sisters now is 15. >> reporter: when you make this music, are you thinking

15-year-old girls will really like it? >> no. >> reporter: are you thinking, i really like it? >> i have to like it, otherwise it would be weird. >> reporter: luk spent ten years playing guitar in the "saturday night live" band and became fascinated by the mechanics of pop songs. >> sometimes the hardest thing and the most difficult thing is to do the most simple thing. i kind of feel like that about a good pop song too. when it's right, it's perfect, you know? >> reporter: while deejaying at new york city clubs, luk met max martin, the swedish pop producer known for his work with britney spears. ♪ hit me baby one more time the pair collaborated on "since u been gone," kelly clarkson's megahit. ♪ since u been gone >> i had a lot of a & r people who i'm friends with to this day who are like, yeah, i passed on this song. i think one of the things that made the song special is her voice on that song.

♪ yeah yeah >> reporter: that song's radio friendly chorus would come to typify his sound. with max martin as his mentor, luk quit "snl" to focus on producing. >> i'm look for voices that are distincti distinctive. that's important to me. >> reporter: along the way, he discovered a vocalist who he thought had a unique sound. ke$ha. >> we kind of developed the song together. it was me being a sassy lady and then him kind of helping me put that into a pop song. ♪ we are who we are ♪ we're dancing like we're dumb dumb dumb ♪ >> reporter: there was no denying that chorus. and a hook that dr. luk created right here on this old-school, lotus 5, are you kidding keyboard. ♪ >> his sense of melody is just -- it's like a gift from

god. it's bizarre. everything that comes out of his mouth is incredible and is so catchy and hooky. >> when we wrote it, we kind of -- we liked the idea of sort of taking a stuttering word. ♪ hard hard hard ♪ just like the word is ours ours ours ♪ >> stuttering always works. my sharona. my my my my my. ♪ my sharona >> reporter: so it's the king's theory of pop music? >> repeat the same thing. >> right. ♪ let's go all the way tonight >> reporter: come up, inside the making of a number one record with dr. luk, the 182 different tracks that made katy perry's "teenage dream" a hit. [ male announcer ] twenty-four hour stuck-on food can be a huge project. but not for cascade complete pacs.

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we continue now with the music industry and one of the run-away hits of the last six months. katie peri's album, "teenage dream" released in august has sold over a million copies and we wondered what's the secret to creating a sound that seduces and sells? once more, here's chris conley. ♪ you think i'm pretty without any makeup on ♪ >> it sounds like the simplest of songs, "teenage dream" by toda katie perry. 182 different tracks and as dr. luke shows us on his computer. >> the first thing it started with was the guitars, for sure.

i'll show you that. she does all her backgrounds. she does all of them so, you know, the lead is just -- ♪ you think i'm pretty without any makeup ♪ but when you do a chorus there's three, let me give it -- you know? and then later there's harmony. we had a crowd of people so we just -- >> brought everybody into the studio and just said -- let her rock? >> you know? >> that's awesome. ♪ just one touch >> there it is. >> that's cool! >> when it's all put together the product is pure pop bliss. ♪ we can dance until we die you and i will be young

forever ♪ ♪ you make me feel like i'm living a teenage dream ♪ >> what is it that's so much fun about making pop music? >> you mentioned the songs, all happy and feeling good and that kind of stuff. honestly, at this stage in my life right now i want to feel that way. i feel like if you can make music and get people to, you know, evoke that feeling out of other people through writing songs that's a pretty cool thing to do ♪ >> britney spears "hold it against me" video will be followed by an album after which dr. luke figures to keep crafting his. the music business that needs him now more than ever. >> how often do people say to you -- you should have been here 15 years ago? ten years ago when we were selling tons of records. >> i'm the one that feels that way. i'm telling them that.

>> i'm chris conley for "nightline" in los angeles. >> how fast do you look at the layers beneath the sound. and finally tonight, the to pick of our online closing argument. the political fight in wisconsin where demonstrators today packed the state house to protest republican budget cuts, the democrats, meanwhile, have fled hoping to prevent a vote from taking place. we've heard from many of you and we invite the rest of you to join discussion on the night line facebook page and at abc news.com. that's our report for tonight. from all of us at abc news, good flight, america! captions by vitac up next on an all new jimmy kimmel live -- >> name that oscar winner. >> jackson? >> no. it's like watching monkeys. jason sudeikis. wow. blake griffin. are women trying to get impresenting nated by you? >> i've managed to escape. >> we only have two more seasons

with these guys then snooki will i guess go back to her job as ag