New Mexico News
| N.M. Families Lose Thousands When Modeling and Acting School Goes Belly Up |
| Posted by Peter Phipps (pphipps) on Jun 10 2008 at 7:23 PM |
There is no shortage of girls who want to be the next Hannah Montana. Or parents willing to shell out their hard-earned dollars to make their daughter a star.
And that was a formula for disaster for dozens of New Mexico families who spent big bucks for a talent and modeling program that has gone belly up.
Case in point: 11-year-old Veronya Bedford of Farmington.
"I just wanted to get into it," she said of a possible career on stage and TV.
But those dreams have been dashed, at least for now.
The company her family paid $10,000 upfront to groom her for stardom says it's out of business and the aspiring stars are out of luck.
The Bedfords aren't alone.
At least 45 others in New Mexico paid up to $10,000 each for the acting and modeling classes offered by the Pacific Modeling and Acting Academy.
Some estimates put the number closer to 100 in Albuquerque.
Several students were told via e-mail last week that classes had been canceled. There's no word yet on refunds or whether classes will ever begin again, Charles Bedford, Veronya's dad, said.
"I thought it was my chance to finally do something instead of just having to wait for it to come to me," Veronya said.
She and her dad were drawn in by a TV advertisement offering classes in Albuquerque, so he brought Veronya here to audition.
She had been taking dance classes and modeling a bit in Farmington, and he said she had a knack for show business.
"She's an avid fan of Miley Cyrus. Who's not?" Bedford said.
"But she had demonstrated to us for a while that she had wanted to get into the entertainment industry. We saw a television ad for the modeling, acting; we went and called and set up the audition."
That, he said, was in April.
The Bedfords thought Veronya must have had something special because she was called back.
Bedford said the company picked Veronya "not because we were ready to pay, but because she was marketable."
"We pay our $10,000— it had to be prepaid— for a year's worth of training, cards and a photo shoot with a local photographer," he said.
Then, he said, last Saturday the e-mail came, saying the company had run out of money and was canceling classes.
A phone call to the company's main office has a similar message, which says bankruptcy is an option.
Journal calls to the number weren't answered, and e-mail messages weren't returned.
No refunds
Meanwhile, Bedford is out $10,000.
Other families, who paid from $1,000 for a one-day class to $10,000 for a year of classes haven't heard anything else.
"(Veronya) was the one with a dream. Now, she's a little bit goosey about it," Charles said.
Local people hired by the company to conduct the classes were also stunned.
"Veronya was one of my little modeling students," teacher Lisa VanDyke, who worked for Pacific, said. "She had this great little portfolio. It was this glossy, bedazzled binder with little modeling shots her dad had taken at home."
VanDyke, who, with three others, taught the Saturday classes at the Doubletree Hotel in Downtown Albuquerque for Pacific, said she received an e-mail May 22 telling her that classes were canceled.
" 'We're closing.' Bam. Just like that. Nutty," VanDyke said.
She was teaching three, four-hour modeling classes at $250 each per week. She said the teachers, who were counting on the money, feel just as abandoned as the students. Her calls to the company have gone unreturned.
"I got paid once, for the April but not May classes I taught," said Debra Miller, the Albuquerque acting teacher. "We were totally blindsided. The phone calls I have made, same with e-mails, haven't been returned."
Company complaints
Parents and teachers in Albuquerque aren't alone.
The company also operated in other cities, from Seattle to Tampa, Fla.
So far, in Washington state, the Attorney General's Office has received 51 complaints about the company. Florida officials said the office has received 20.
In New Mexico, the Attorney General's Office by Friday had received one complaint and two inquiries about the company, said Lynn Southard, deputy director of communications for the office.
Linda Gossett, of Bellevue, Wash., signed up her 9-year-old daughter, Lauren, for a year of classes and paid $5,900 to Pacific, she said.
Then, as in Albuquerque and Tampa, Fla., the company simply vanished.
Now, Gossett is heading up an e-mail network and is hosting an Internet blog page about her experiences.
"I'm trying to unite all the parents," she said.
There could be hundreds, said Tatevik Aprikyan, a modeling instructor and former receptionist at Pacific's Seattle office. She said in a telephone interview last week that the company had set up eight offices around the country before closing.
She said she hasn't been able to contact any of her managers from Pacific.
"There was nothing that seemed suspicious," Aprikyan said. "The teachers were great. All of a sudden, they said sorry, we're out of finances."
Though parents and former employees assumed that the headquarters was in Washington state, the Washington Attorney General's Office doesn't. Phone numbers for the company have California area codes.
Bedford said he was cautious before signing up, and he even Googled the company and the teachers in April. The company, though new, didn't raise any red flags, he said.
Others also said they did their homework.
One Albuquerque couple met with a woman who identified herself as talent director Kathy Eisner.
They said they were told that their daughter was one of the select few picked to interview with Eisner.
"We met with her. She called us back personally. She made it sound so legit," the girl's father said.
"We were absolutely convinced this was the real deal."
Veronya said the experience was a disappointment.
"It was really hard on me whenever we woke up at 4," Veronya said, for the drive from Farmington to Albuquerque. "It's something I still want to do. It's just that it really makes me think that who has the heart to crush a child's dream?"
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