Carré Otis and other super models say they were'trafficked and repeatedly raped' by former Elite agency boss Gerald Marie

Here's an excellent piece from 60 Minutes Australia on the subject.

Isn't this what happened to Karen Mulder (lost her marbles and left the industry after being raped), or was that a rumor?

Gerald Marie signed all the big models of the day including Cindy Crawford. He ass raped many of them to avoid the threat of pregnancy.

Coke was everywhere. It was the heady days of drugs, booze, jet-setting, etc. Many of the girls said GM stole their money as well convincing them he had put their earnings into safe Swiss bank accounts and investments

Worse than Hitler and Harvey Weinstein.

What exactly is trafficking? Are you dragged somewhere and handed over?

Lol. The French won’t do a damn thing about it. They don’t give a fuck about women.

Gerald Marie is living in Ibiza trying to lay low, but the Press are going after him. The statute of limitations is 20 years so these big names can't go after him unless the law changes.

However the police are appealing to women who fall into the statute's time frame to come forward.

Michael Gross wrote about Gerald Marie and his sleaziness years ago for his book Models, Inc. John Casablanca is very lucky he's dead because he would have been Me Too'ed all around the globe and back

Oh! It's Carrie Otis! Wasn't Mickey Rourke abusive to her too?

The 60 Minutes piece is very good and it reveals that girls within the 20 year statute are starting to come forward so it will be interesting to see where this goes. I would imagine GM is more worried about his financial discrepancies surfacing than sex abuse claims though

There was stuff about him in Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women, which was published in the mid-90s.

R7 Sorry I didn't see your post.

DL should do a book club where we discuss that book.

I read Carre's book and she told of all of this in it years ago. Gerard raped her and Linda Evangelista was a total cunt about it and acted like Carre went after him and it wasn't rape. She didn't say it, but I wouldn't be surprised if Linda fucked up jobs and opportunities for her, she certainly meangirled her in other ways. Glad to see Linda is finally showing a little support

R8 He certainly was emotionally abusive. Out of jealous rage, he sent a couple of goons to rough up Steven Meisel after he shot a provocative photo of her for Vanity Fair.

[quote] He ass raped many of them to avoid the threat of pregnancy.

So no douche? What a filthy pig!

[quote]Oh! It's Carrie Otis! Wasn't Mickey Rourke abusive to her too?

He shot her. it was an 'accident'.

" Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women", which was published in the mid-90s, is very much worth the read if you can find a copy.

I admire Carre for being so brave and open about what happened to her. And then they body shamed her on top of that…she had eating disorders too. Traumatizing.

Used copies of MODEL by Michael gross are everywhere. I’d love a book club thread on this!

R18 - I wish Michael Gross would do a "Volume II" and bring the story/history up to the current day as the modeling industry has changed sustainably since the mid-1990s.

R19 yes! I’d buy the new book. The original was heavy with details. Michael Gross is a good writer.

Jesus, Carre has been through it, poor thing. But her life seems pretty fantastic now. Her husband is a top environmental scientist and CEO of a big company. He also looks like a really decent guy and he's 100% geek cute. Good for her.

I really don't like Linda E. She got her comeuppance anyway.

Didn't Karen Mulder claim she was trafficked by Arabs?

You can be sure GM raped Linda as well in the early days. In the book Model Christine Bolster takes down "whiney" Evangelista. CB was raped as well, at 15 I believe, but she lived with GM for 4 years because she didn't want to get the sack.

She said coke was everywhere including always on the mantle. GM did it publicly in cafes and clubs off his credit card

Some girls were sent on photo shoot jobs around the world, but there was no shoot. They'd arrive and have to fuck some guy who'd paid GM 50k US for the girl after choosing her from photos GM had shown him.

I’d bet money that Linda E was somehow in on it -she seems horrible.

#MeToo is finally reaching the modeling world, and I would say it’s about time. Models have basically no rights and protections whatsoever, and since they start so young, they’re exposed to many sick predators.

“If modeling is, as one of Ford’s children once said in an unguarded moment, a business of “whores and their pimps” (a nice way to talk about your parents), then Milan is to modeling what Cheyenne was to the American West, an untamed, lawless frontier”

Excerpt from the book. Didn’t Melania start her career in Milan?

R27 - Which book????

R28, "Model" by Michael Gross, that's been discussed here.

R25. Linda was a victim of it just like the others. They all knew what was going on once GM raped them then moved on to others.

I thought Eileen Ford was known to safe-guard her girls. Was this not the case? Was Lauren Hutton whored out or even earlier models?

The book is available to download on amazon btw.

This has been public knowledge since the 1990s, especially with Karen Mulder's case.

R33, I remember hearing the Mulder story and pretty much every article questioned her mental health and the credibility of her accusations. There were really no repercussions for anyone involved and the story died down.

I have no interest in primping females who get photographed as they stand and walk whilst primping.

Don’t be naive- Linda legitimized him by marrying him

I think you miss the point. All the girls knew what was going on. Many stayed so they could continue to work because even if they tried to go to another agency GM would black ball them.

There were many girls who left the biz entirely. Linda was no different from the others except when she married GM she had his power behind her so she wasn't exposed to sexual abuse by others any longer Plus big $$$ GM gave her the bigger contracts

In the late 80s - early 90s my cousin was a Ford model out of NYC. They sent her to Milan for a few weeks when she was 17 and had to stay in an apartment with a few other underaged models and two female employees of the agency who managed everything and got them to each booking, arranged meals, etc. She went back for the summer when she was 18 and didn’t get to stay in the apartment with the minders. She stayed in a pensione, like a B&B/hostel with other models with no assistance or supervision from Ford. She wasn’t anywhere near a supermodel level but she worked steadily for 5 or 6 years and said she never felt threatened or endangered and felt very protected in Milan.

r19 The 90's was the golden age of modeling, but an update would be interesting.

The trouble is that Carre Otis comes across as a bit nuts and was in and out of relationships with extremely abusive men. At some point we all have to take responsibility for our choices even if the outcome wasn't entirely our fault.

I used to watch the elite model search as a child (yes I am that gay) and he always came off super creepy.

It looks like Carré Otis walked into the office of her plastic surgeon and said, 'Make my face look like Carrot Top's!"

R40, Carre was a teen when GM raped her. That's on HIM, not her. She's not responsible for her own rape.

And Linda E was complicit. She enabled GM to abuse girls like Carre. She knew what was going on and didn't give a fuck as long as she got hers. I'm glad she's finally gotten a clue.

Glad this scum of the earth finally gets what he deserves. While I think it's great it all gets to light now, I find the mechanics of this kind of systematic abuse fascinating, in a situation where the victims of abuse and exploitation know of each other, so they know they are many against one and no one of sane mind will doubt their claims if they unite. The inability to do so for a long time is observable in people working shitty jobs like McDonald's or abused choirboys who only speak up decades later. A good portion is exploited and misguided solidarity, but I believe that Stockholm syndrome plays a role, too.

Notice how the women aren't talking about 3 ways or group sex though. There had to be plenty of that as well. It's Paris after all.

Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women is on Amazon. You can buy a used copy for under $2 + shipping. It's also available on Kindle.

I devoured this book as a teen in the 90's. Sounds like it might be worth a re-read. I wish I still had it.

"Super" models! BAH! There is nothing "super" about them!

I read her memoir. Otis wrote the encounter was not consensual. Period.

2009 article on Karen Mulder

R18 I’m actually halfway through it myself as we speak! it’s ideal DL book club fare for sure

From R50's linked article: "It came after Marie was filmed on hidden camera by the BBC trying to give a 15-year-old model £300 for sex, and bragging of how many entrants to the Elite Model Look competition — average age 15 — he was going to sleep with that year."

R5 And who the fuck are you to claim that? Another fucking ignorant bitch who doesn't know what he's talking about. You virtual garbage. Acting like feminist and the masters of the world when France was feminist long before your imperialist America of 500 years of colonization. Shut the fuck up, you the boil of humanity. As if Epstein and all the girls involved in his pedoland that has the most powerful people in this world makes America better with the women. It's the same thing everywhere. The powerful don't pay for their crimes. Gerard Marie has files on the most powerful people in the world, including Americans. Don't talk about the French as a people, you don't shit.

^you don't know shit

Yeah sure, because it is so well known that New York, London and other cities are SO much more chaste than Paris. The most stupid clichés are certainly on DL. It's American after all...

r51 When is the 1st book club meeting?

you can also get it on the pirate bay website.

Good luck. The french are quite chill with pedophilia. rape, racism and they are going to accuse you of being "woke" since it's part of their culture.

France is no friend of women:

R21 - He's beyond geek cute. Handsome, actually. Thankfully, she wound up with a good guy and lives a good life in Northern California. Her daughters are coming of age which prompted her to become more vocal

It's not often that women go from the ugly and sleazy like O'Rourke (who looked like utter trash even in his hey day) and move to a gem of a man. Good for her. She managed to preserve her soul throughout.

r56 ready when you are unless someone has already started one! Tons of tea in that book, as well as an interesting section about the history of models/agencies. The modelling scenes from How to Marry a millionaire always made me laugh but I feel that they weren't completely farfetched for the era?

Elite model

wow r62 im assuming that is Carre? She looks 12 there max

Karen Mulder was so beautiful, prettier than Moss, Turlington, and Evangelista. I hope she has received the help she desperately needed. I could see this business “breaking” a lot of women, with all the predatory behavior, drugs, starvation, rich men, etc.

It’s been years since I’ve read “Model”, but I think it talks about how these young women are purposely placed in a country where they don’t speak the language, separated from their family, so they have to rely on those around them who tell them they must fulfill their contract, or else they’re fired.

Linda Evangelista had a bad experience early in her career involving nudity in Japan, according to Wiki. She returned home and quit modeling for a couple of years. I naively hope she didn’t know anything about her husband’s rapes, but she had to have been aware, especially through gossip.

Question: are there any good books about the dark side of modeling I could read? Maybe from the '90s?

R65 Model by Michael Gross as discussed upthread was written in 1993 or 1994 I believe. Definitely worth a read, lots of sordid details

"Michael Gross wrote about Gerald Marie and his sleaziness years ago for his book Models, Inc. "

I read that book! The gist of it was that modelling became one of the sleaziest businesses in the world... when straight men became involved in it.

In the first half of the20th century at least, the modelling industry was run by older women and gay men. They were bitches, but at least the girls were physically safe.

"I find the mechanics of this kind of systematic abuse fascinating, in a situation where the victims of abuse and exploitation know of each other, so they know they are many against one and no one of sane mind will doubt their claims if they unite."

There's always something protecting these serial predators - other people's scorn for the victim, fear of being ripped to shreds in public for accusing "America's Dad", the power of churches, etc. In this case, the atmosphere of ambition and competition in the modelling industry probably worked to keep Marie safe. No supermodel wanted to be known as a rape victim, someone vulnerable and human, it'd mean ruining their image and opening one's self to attack from all the backstabbing bitches who'll do anything to get ahead, not to mention making powerful enemies! The modelling industry was and is full of sleazy straight men, they want to employ the girls who let them get away with murder, not the ones who prosecute.

Hopefully he'll get what he deserves in the end, but far too late.

No,

[quote]Question: are there any good books about the dark side of modeling I could read? Maybe from the '90s?

Another book to check out is Thing of Beauty by Stephen Fried, from 1993. Although it's about a specific model, Gia Carangi, it has a ton of dirt about the inner workings of the modeling/fashion world.

Gia’s story was super tragic. She totally went off the rails. Her family was effed up as well.

Models nowadays are dime a dozen, replaceable, generic eastern european/russian and brazilian. They also go to Cannes.

And it's not just the agency heads that abuse. It's also the bookers, the photographers, their assistants, etc. What a marvelous environment for straight men to run wild.

And stage mothers…no doubt they have them in the modeling world.

Stage mothers commit sexual assault?

No r74, but I think that they exist. If there’s parents out there willing to pimp out their children to movie and music producers, why not fashion? What was Teri Shields?

May I be in the book club, too? I just bought the eBook.

Fire away here. Let's discuss the book then.

DISCUSSION OF MODEL

I LOLed at the Cindy Crawford chapter when she discussed her desired acting career. Also, I don't know if she ever talked about her stalker outside of her interview with Gross, because I've read a lot of interviews with her and it is the only place I've ever seen her mention it. She also implies that one of the reasons that she didn't earn a contract in the Elite Look of the Year contest is because she said she wouldn't drop out of high school. A lot of girls who've been in the contest say that too.

Crawford was intelligent and made smart business-related decisions. She was valedictorian of her high school and attended college on a scholarship until her career took off.

But her kids with Gerber seem so vapid and charisma-free.

I found the section on the modelling scene in 80s Milan interesting. The hotel where the models were put up during fashion weeks was nicknamed the Fuck Palace by local Italian rich guys/skirt chasers. There was a scandalous murder of a prominent agent by an American model that was quite the scandale

^^ that's a very strange story. She wasn't really a model though was she? She aspired to be one.

r77 I just ordered my copy!

r77 I think it deserves its own thread.

R83 I thought so too, but people said to start discussing it here.

I think maybe we should wait a couple of weeks, so those who haven't read it can read it, and so that those of us who have can skim through it again.

I'll start another thread. I'm booking discussion to start on February 1st!

I have to put it in my calendar!

[quote]Models nowadays are dime a dozen, replaceable, generic eastern european/russian and brazilian.

A lot of them are...not beautiful. Not at all. It's really weird.

[quote]But her kids with Gerber seem so vapid and charisma-free.

I remember Cindy's rise very well, and I'm sort of stunned at the way she ended up raising her children. She always presented as the most sensible, professional and healthiest of all the supermodels. I would have thought that both she and Andie MacDowell would have tried to protect their kids, not push them out there to famewhore at every opportunity, especially when they both have daughters with obvious eating disorders who don't need constant judgment passed on their bodies. Of course, Cindy showed her whole ass with the ghastly work she's had done, so guess her old persona was farther from the truth than we thought.

^Further, that is.

r86 And lest we forget Crawford's marriage to Richard "Gerbil" Gere.

[quote]I'm booking discussion to start on February 1st!

I hope my copy arrives in time. I got the cheapest shipping so it won't be fast.

R86: Models are mediocre now because fashion designers don't want a repeat of the 1990s supermodel phenomenon. They don't want to return to a time when beautiful, charismatic, womanly models were treated like movie stars, when said models overshadowed the clothes and got more attention than the designers. '90s supermodels had enough power to demand and get high salaries because of their public popularity. Designers phased out supermodels by promoting starving waifs and adolescent-looking women like Kate Moss, instead of continuing to hire healthier, assertive women who were like Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen. They've never gone back. The faces hired went from quirky to plain to fug. If Karlie Kloss existed in the late '80s/early '90s, the agencies would've shown her the door had she tried to model. Karlie can walk and pose, but her face is meh.

Cindy used to be one of my favorite supermodels. Christy Turlington was another one and still is. Both of them had reputations in the industry for being professional, reliable, unpretentious, easy to work with. That's why they had the lucrative cosmetics contracts. No diva shit like Naomi Campbell. Christy reportedly remains down-to-earth, a classy lady who protects the privacy of her children. At the height of her success, she went to college and studied Eastern Philosophy and Comparative Religion. Later, she received her Master's degree in Public Health.

Cindy, it seems, let all that fame go to her head and turned into a Hollywood creature. She lives in the past, frequently sharing on social media many photos from her glory days. She also turned out to be a shameless stage mother, pushing her kids to model at an early age. She once said in an interview (years before Kaia and Presley were born) that she wouldn't want any children of hers to follow the same career path. Empty words. She lives vicariously through the nepotism success of her model daughter, who is generically pretty and bland in personality. Cindy is yet another celebrity who sold a phony image that was more interesting than the reality.

Watching my mailbox for my copy of the book…

My copy arrived yesterday. Did someone start the book club thread? I’m cheap and can’t start one.

While one wishes these women all the best in their pursuit of justice, it is going to be a tough long slog, and likely they will not prevail.

Then again a prince of blood royal from house of Windsor-Mountbatten is being hauled into court, so there may be hope after all.

His article mentions GM has become suicidal around all this.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

M. Jean-Luc Brunel has good reasons for wanting certain persons removed from this world. Or at least silenced on this matter.

More....

Just shows there is some justice in the world...

European countries really need to remove statue of limitations on prosecuting rape charges.

nothing new in the blog, r94

On 31 October 2001, Mulder was interviewed on the France 2 show Tout le monde en parle (Everyone is Talking About It) hosted by Thierry Ardisson in front of a live studio audience. During the shows taping, Mulder claimed that various people had raped her, including police officers, politicians, members of her former agency Elite Model Management, and Prince Albert of Monaco.[9]

You can read the Model book online at scribd.com

Days later, Mulder repeated her allegations, this time to a weekly magazine in an interview conducted in her Paris apartment. Within hours of the interview, her sister Saskia arrived and took her to Villa Montsouris, a psychiatric hospital specializing in such disorders as depression, anxiety, and delirium, where she stayed for five months.[12] The stay reportedly was paid for by Elite models president Gérald Marie, her employer and one of the accused.[13] (It came after the BBC caught Marie on hidden camera trying to give a 15-year-old model £300 for sex, and bragging about Elite Model Look competitors he would sleep with that year.

Poor R66/R69 couldn't recognize sarcasm if it fell out of the sky and landed on her head.

[quote]GM has become suicidal around all this.

Good. I hope he's in living hell.

[quote]His article mentions GM has become suicidal around all this.

Boo hoo. These rapist assholes like GM and Weinstein always get 'suicidal' when the chickens come home to roost. It's a legal tactic at this point.

It almost sounds like a film credit. Raped by Gerald Marie.

It looks like Brunel faces only one charge of rape. Ridiculous.

Yuck. Not only a pretentious snoot, but a rapist too. With looks of some ugly nubile aunt. No wonder he coulld only get it up in the prrsence of terrified and shocked little girls.

This is a very good article but I don't have a subscrition. If you do it would be good of you to copy and paste.

It makes clear the general attitude about sex with minors in Paris especially in the Arts, politics and the Intelligensia - even with a step son.

The link

If you use the linked site, you should be able to plug in the article's url and be able to read it.

Here's the story at the BBC, but the title is misleading because Duhamel didn't really confess to anything he thought was wrong.

His step daughter wrote a book some years back about her brother suffering abuse by their step father, Duhamel, and if I recall correctly the book describes casual acceptance amongst Parisian elites of sex with minors.

I recall some surprise when I learned about this story and I'm a guy who had his fair share of whoring in Paris.

I don't think that France is worse than rest of the world regarding the abuse of underage boys (or girls). I believe the only difference is that until recently they were apologetic of this "libertine" tradition.

Unlike the rest of Europe, homosexual relations had been legal in France since the Revolution. According to the law of 1791 that legalised sodomy, the age of consent was 13. There was no law against pédérastie, or sexual relationships between men and boys.

The Vichy regime started persecuting gay men and prohibited homosexual relationships up to the age of 21. Unlike other laws passed during the Nazi occupation, this one was not repealed after the Liberation. But the tradition remained.

And unlike Oscar Wilde, who was also preying on boys in North Africa, French authors Andre Gide and even Michel Tournier from younger generation wrote freely about their conquest and even bragging about it. Well, different times.

The Duhamel scandal is quite complex and includes a suspicious death. I seem to remember initially many cinema actors were named as part of this group as well.

This good but rather poorly translated article explains some complexities of the scandal. And the death of actress Marie -France Pisner.

IMO the Duhamel scandal relates to the Gerard Marie scandal because both celebrated the general French view that minors are beautiful and sexual beings.

Marie-France PISIER