Delusions of Hipness

The Oprah Experience, Part 1

2010-04-12T04:56:00.001-07:00

The Opara Experience

2010-04-12T03:52:00.000-07:00

We got a call from an Oprah producer inviting us to be featured on The Oprah Show. I was long a great admirer of Oprah. I discussed this with Cindy's Mom, my wife, and others. The consensus was, Oprah is a good person. She won't blind side you like 48 Hours. She would be fair and balanced. Remind you of anyone?

I am no expert on the television industry, but I sense that when you get really big you probably have an agenda. Oprah has been an advocate for many types of people, so the idea for Oprah to be there to protect Cindy is not a stretch. To be realistic, if you were to launch a PR campaign to lock in your viewers, create the perception that you were a selfless champion for those who can't defend themselves, what would you do? Well, heroes make a lot more scratch than us non-heroes. My opinions about Oprah are my own, arrived at by pure speculation. One should not take on my opinions, but search for the truth and come to one's own conclusions.

I really believe that Oprah has a good heart and that she really believes she is doing the world a lot of good. Her massive introduction of Eckhart Tolle, whom I believe to be the most effective voice of reason and self-improvement. I personally have used Tolle's philosophy (The Power of Now and A New Earth) and applications with great results. I consider Tolle the most realistic voice for self-improvement and achievement. Hia points of view are easy to apply and don't require training or long term study. It's kinda like Nike: Just do it.

When you have many people working for you, the people that are not in the "inner circle" are left with this kind of thinking: I know the policy so I will shape the story this way. If you believe that investigative reporters will not form an opion until they gather all the facts, I have 1996 Suburu that runs great and will likely last 30 more years. Practically all big budget "investigative reporting" is totally skewed towards the agenda of it's originator.

The television networks are in major competition with the Internet. Most of the viewers are housewives and their children. The attempt to change this by having more programs slanted towards women, like Lifetime, is very evident. They don't do shows on how evil Teen Modeling on the Internet is because, like the Oprah show, which quadrupeled Cindymodel.com memberships, these shows drive hordes of memberships to these sites. The network have wised up in this regard. You won't see any of these kind of shows for some time I suspect.

Ok, so the Oprah crew comes to my house. The producer a lovely woman of oriental decent makes it clear that my wife and I are to clean up our act by me wearing slacks instead of blue jeans and cut-offs for the tapings. They had us do a family portrait so we could be depicted as a very family oriented business. They filmed Cindy with her mother, no tough questions. They interviewed Cindy in a very soft way, me very sympathetically to our cause. Funny, they never used this footage on TV which they spent three days making. The Mafia defines "birdseed" as a food that a hunter spreads out in order to attract the birds to a place where the hunter can easily shoot them.

We were given a wonderful hotel accommadations, Cindy and her mom Tracy occupying one delicious suite and me in another suite on a different floor.

The big day finally was here. Ever see a Rocky movie where Apollo Creed makes the most spectacular entrance ever seen. Whether intentional or not, this show of force can be very intimitating to an opponent. Loud music of the 2001 Space Oddity kind blared through the speakers. The audience, I would guess to be 95% women rise obediently their feet. In comes Oprah high-fiving audience members in the higher section. The loudness was deafening, not from the music as much as the screaming throngs of Oprah supporters.

After the audience finally settled down. Oprah began explaining what this show was going to entail, the Teen Internet Modeling scene (my words), featuring the most successful model in this field. To illustrate her point, had probably 8-12 large screen TV's. As Oprah told about Cindy's involvement in this activity, the tv screens lit up.

The pictures they showed on the screens wer pictures of 12 year old girls, some of them in wet underwear, the kind of pictures we never would have done. The audience began to boo loudly. Oprah put her hand to her ear a la hulk hogan pushing the audience to jeer and boo more and more loudly. We had been had.

The rest of the show involved Investigative reporters trying to make a name for themselves. One said we had endangered Cindy because stalkers could find out where she lived. The "reporter" also gave a 3 minute lesson on how this could be done. Cindy's safety was put in jeopardy by the ambitious one who ostensibly was there to help her. Ambition makes for strange choices...

There were several commercial breaks. This taping took about 2 hours which would be edited to a one hour show. It was shot in March to be aired in the May Sweeps, the time when TV shows were given ratings which determined advertising rates.

During one of the breaks I asked Oprah to help Cindy get an acting role in a movie or TV show. Oprah told us that if Cndy took acting lessons, she would recommend her.
A week later we enrolled Cindy in a commercial acting school, the most prestigious in area. Telling Oprah about this yielded no fruit.

All the "experts" that spoke were strategically seated in the audience where Oprah could direct them easily. Of, course we were not told about these
"experts" in advace. There was a bent psychologist, the investigative reporter, a currently popular Internet model, 18+ who did a lot of bear breasted and thong work. She said "Well, this is the age of masturbation, isn't it?

During another break, the producer, who when in Dallas, kept telling us that Oprah was going to like us and that this would be a very positive show, was literally in tears over the horrible way this whole show was going. Back in the green room, she weepingly hugged Cindy and apologized for this debacle and how her word had been totally compromised.

After the show, Oprah took Cindy to her office where she advised her that Internet modeling was something she should give up. She gave Cindy some cheap trinkes, like chocolates and useless brick-a-brack.

After getting back to Dallas, a "friend" of Cindy's brother Zack, called Cindy some bad names, which resulted in a black eye for Zack.

On the bright side....

When the show finally aired in May, there were so many people logging on to see what this Cindy thing was all about that we could not log on to the site for four days. Our membership quadrupled. What a way to "arrive."

We were asked to go on Maury Povitch. I agreed that we would do the show as long as Maury would let us re-enact the CBS show with Maury in drag as Erin Moriarity. Sadly, Maury declined. We were also approached by the America's Most Wanted outfit. By then Cindy and I decided that we just needed to move on and not do these shows.

Our conclusion was that "Investigative Reporting" was just an excuse to wreck somone's life to suit a pre-ordained agenda. There was no ethics or news involved. That would be pretty boring.

What encapsulated this event was the Oprah's Asian producer coming up to Cindy and her mome in tears saying "I'm so sorry."

Next blog, The current Teen Modeling Scene

Cindy becomes CindyModel.com. The die is Cast Blog 2

2010-03-13T14:19:00.000-08:00

Please be sure and look at "Older Posts" on the bottom of the page before you get any further. Reading the older blogs first will make more sense out of the other ones.

We started posting pictures on Yahoo groups. We immediately got huge response and many comments and inquiries. It looked like we had made the right move. Most models that I ever worked with never got paid for modeling. They only paid money to the agency for pictures, purses and overnight bags with the agency name on it. I guess it looked hip at airports of spending the night with a friend to sport the overnight bag with the agency name on it.

Cindy was special in my mind. Here you had this kid of 12 from a very money challenged rather dysfunctional (lack of funds can make anyone dysfunctional)family with the talent, looks and desire to be a success in the most natural field for her. Getting her with and agency was not the brightest option. She did go with an agency for a while but never got a call fir a go-see. We quit putting our faith in modeling agencies.

In actuality, models get their own jobs mostly if they have an ambitious mother to drive the and see photographers personally and show them their portfolios and leave them a comp card. The photographer always wants to upgrade his own portfolio. If the girl has a certain look that motivates him, he will invite her to do a test session. If the girl does great pictures with him, there's a great chance that he will request her for the next shoot that would work out well if age, race, and other factors are right for the job. The best way for an model in her twenties to get lots of work fast is to move in with a successful photographer (if he's straight).

Of course, this was never an option for Cindy at twelve or any age, for that matter. Cindy is no prude, but would never take such a path. Success in mainstream modeling is sort of like trying to talk to Jimmy Hendrix on the Ouija board. You may think your talking to the right person, but most likely it's all in the mind. The mind when aligned toward success in movies, modeling or music will believe almost anything to justify one's continuation in a field where their is little or no chance for success.

Internet models usually never have to pay for anything. They get paid. Cindy, in high school, came for one of the deprived families but dressed like a debutante because of all the clothes may fans bought her. She was the constant recipient of very nice clothes. For Christmas she recieved more gifts than you can imagine, so many beautiful coats that she gave many of them away to other girls at her apartment.

Cindy's pictures were always very conservative, never getting sexual. (Of course, some of Cindy's relatives thought they were all bad.) Yet she held the top spot in the world of teen modeling for several years, from about 2003 to 2010. There right now there is much dissaray in the teen modeling scene because of the credit card companies. I have to say, I can't blame the credit card companies for pulling credit card priviledges from those who host teen models. Unfortunately, many of those who run teen modeling sites depict the girls as what I call the fishnet tots, meaning girls who are depicted in clothing that is slutty or very rediculous considering their ages.

The reason that credit card companies don't want to be the payment gateway for teen modeling sites is that there is a certain amount of child porn. When a web host or photographer gets child porn published on a website and there are credit cards involved, the law enforcement agencies go into the offices of the credit card companies to get the information on those who subscribed to these sites. Can you imagine how demoralizing and upsetting it would be to have a bunch of policemen in your place of work to find names and addresses of those who subscribe to kiddy porn?

The theory is: if it can happen, why take the chance? I can't blame the credit card companies for being extra cautious. There is nothing illegal about a teen modeling site as long as they obey the laws surrounding this activity. But sites can change their whole image in a few minutes.

Now we go back time. We got a call from a TV show called 48 Hours. They explained that they were in Dallas and wanted to feature us on their show. They were very flattering to us to get us to agree to do the show. We took the opportunity and it was a bit of a disaster. My interviews with Erin Moriarity consisted mainly of us sitting down and looking at the Cindy's site. Erin tried to shoot down pictures of Cindy by saying that Cindy's holding hands at the state fair with her sister was promoting lesbianism. All I could do was look at her and shake my head.

Erin had a much worse time with Cindy. She asked Cindy how she could ever express a modeling career when Cindy was only 5'3". Cindy was 12 years old at the time a normal height at her age. Erin indicated that she would not reach modeling height of at least 5'8" by the time would be 18. Everyone guffawed directed at Erin when Cindy replied, "Well, I guess I'll have to wear high heels,then." They shot a lot of footage of Cindy and me together and separately. Most all the positive footage was not shown. All the footage that could be spun critically was shown.

This show was such a journalistic disaster for 48 hours that we laugh it off to this day. When asked what my role was with Cindy, I said that I was skating coach training an Olympic caliber talent. Yes, I made money at this, but my emotions, my goals were to see it through that Cindy would become rich and famous by my promotions and advice.

There was a touching moment when I was allowed to interview Cindy and Cindy began to talk about how overwhelming this was becoming withs this TV coverage and all the negative hoopla. There was this point where even the jaded TV crew were siding up with Cindy.

We played a football game for the cameras with Cindy and me on one side and my two grandsons on the other. They scored the first touchdown, but Cindy and I came back when I threw her a long pass which which she leaped to catch, scored and made this magnificent spike while doing the knee wobble. It was something.

As a way of putting us down, Erin and crew showed up at New York's Ford agency to interview them about what the thought of other girls that were on the show. (They intervied other teens who were doing very provocative stuff.) On TV the Eileen Ford Agency (I think that's her name) was negative about the other girls, but when she saw pictures of Cindy, she said that Cindy really had it and this girl was ready to go with a major agency like Ford. Of course, we all know that most TV "news" investigations are already scripted before anyone goes to the field, to fit the agenda of the network. So Eileen Ford's recommendation never made it on the show.

How do I know about the Ford Agency incident? Because the producer of the 48 Hours show who came to Dallas called me later and told these details. Another funny incident happened the next day. Erin was gone and the "investigation" was not headed by a young man who wanted blood from these interviews most likely to bolster his career. He chose to do footage of Cindy showing her large closet full of great clothes, Teddy bears and other gifts of from fans. He would ask for the names of the senders of these gifts. I objected to this because these gifts were sent privately and all info about these gift senders were not for national TV. The young man agreed begrudgingly.

I made a very vocal announcement that there would be no names of member asked for or else. The young man asked me why and I told him that if he asked any more questions about who some of the fans and gift senders were, I would soak the camera in water. The young idiot still persisted in asking another "who" question. The cameraman immediately groaned protecting his camera and moved his focus to the ceiling thus stifling the young man's attempt to get anyone's name.

Why do the networks so desire to make Teen Modeling the bad guy. Because the deep pockets of most any household is somewhat bored with TV unless it's some sporting event. Intelligent women and males like to spend their time on the Internet or on their computors. So one of the main purposes of these shows was to steer people away from the Internet because it's a "dangerous place and you could get arrested." Besides that we have little Amy considering "doing it" on the next episode of the Family Values Show and we know the men will like that one.

It's funny that you can go on cable tv and most of the time they will feature whole shows of porn stars having sex over and over. These shows are on when kids of all ages are up and surfing the TV.

If you notice, there are no longer any more "exposees" of the teen modeling industries. People have come to realize that almost all investigative reporting is agenda driven and has little basis in fact. It has become proven that every time there is a show featuring some teen model that they are trying to make look bad, it drives people her web sites by in droves. Sort of self-defeating.

When the Oprah show featuring Cindy (we had a full hour)was aired, I literally could not access the site for four days, it drove so many people to her site. Many girls applied to be models from all over because they saw an opportunity to do something that had always been denied them. Cindy became to the teen modeling scene what Scotch is to cellophane tape. We got a lot of hate mail but ten times that in support of what we do.

We will have much more on the Oprah show incident in the next blog. -Curt

The first of many beginnings - Blog 1

2010-03-13T12:11:00.000-08:00

In 1987 I had a photo studio in Deep Ellum, a wearhouse district in Dallas with many lofts, pricey hair salons, cool t-shirt stores, hand-made jewelry and hundreds of young people from 15 to 30 cruising the sidewalk looking for meaning in life. I was 45, young enough to be on the fringe of relevance and old enough to be trusted in a business sense. I did mostly family portraits and an occasional portfolio of a beginning model. My wife, Mary, did all the hair and make-up. I would ride my bike to work. Life was not opulent but the ship was floating and I was regarded as being hip.

One night there was a party in the mode of Andy Warhol gatherings where the super-hip could see and be seen. My assistant, darkroom specialist and brother-in-law, Bob, attended this party, took a camera and shot some pix. He found that one of the girls he shot was with a new modeling agency, Esprit, I think, and sent the 8x10 to them along with the contact number of Curt Newbury Studios. The pix were flash-on-camera snaps without any artistic merit, but Esprit started sending me beginning models to do headshots and portfolios. Now I was "fashion photographer." How hip can you get?

Next thing you know, I was getting models from Esprit for model portfolios and models from other agencies. We got pretty busy from opening to closing. I was learning the parlance of the fringe of the modeling game, (I don’t think that look is right for you. You need to key in on those legs, girl.
Often, we, in house peeps (the Curt Newbury Studios staff), found that most of the models were pure wannabe's, not meeting the standards of the fashion industry. Many were charming, all of them between 13 and 30, but, truthfully, it didn't seem fiscally responsible to decline shooting them. After all, every attractive girl, even if moderately so, should have a portfolio and these girls were getting their day in the sun plus pictures to prove it for about a $100. I thought it was win, win. To be truthful, it was a steal.
The girls would have their modeling pictures in nice portfolio, their comp card (card with four or so poses) with the name of the agency on it and the ability to, without reservation, tell everybody that they were models. The cowardly lion got his heart from the wizard, authenticating his courage and the girl's got their pix and comp cards.

After a period of time the girls would find that they didn't get any requests to actually model professionally. They did get lots of requests to buy purses with the agency's logo, invitations to "commercial acting classes," or anything to convince the model to part with his or her money. I did a very unsophisticated survey and found that aspiring models spent more money buying classes, introductions to game changers and overnight bags with the agency logo than they ever got from the agencies.