4: Pay for Play

Novel.

Hey listeners, this is Ellie Flynn. Before we get started, I just wanted to let you know that this episode contains references to alleged sexual abuse. It's also a story of female empowerment and camaraderie thanks to the women who have shared their stories with us. We contacted the photographer mentioned in this podcast multiple times for comment, but we never heard back. He has not been charged with any crimes and is presumed innocent under the law. We also

He's not normally in here? He's very already come to here. I think you've got the charm.

So much. What's his name again? Frank? Me and Eleanor haven't come here to meet Frank. Okay, okay, we haven't just come here to meet Frank. We're also here to meet Fiona Hollingsworth.

I have been in the modern ing industry nearly all my life, to be honest, gosh, we're probably talking twenty years.

Fiona was in her late thirties when she met Luis Gomez during his twenty twenty UK tour. She's one of the few models we've spoken to who hasn't accused Louise of sexual misconduct. But I still find her story really upsetting. Luise gave Fiona his usual spiel. He could make her a star. He could get her in Playboy. He could even get her the most coveted title in Glamour.

He said, for five thousand pounds, I could be the Playboy playmate.

We've heard of Luise charging for photo shoots before from people like her, but charging someone to become a playboy playmate, that's new to us. But Fiona didn't bat an eyelid.

In this industry, you have to put your money into it in order to get the money back. So you know, that could have helped me hugely in the future.

Fionna's a single mum with four kids. Times were tough.

That was like, oh, you know, I'm really tight for money. I'm not sure if I can.

But she knew this opportunity wouldn't come knocking again, so she borrowed the money. Fiona understood from Luis that all she needed to become a playmate was an official certificate showing that she'd been published, but when it arrived in the post, it didn't quite live up to expectations.

It's like a poster basically, so it's not actually a certificate. I think it just says Fiona Hollingsworth Playboy playmate, photographer, et cetera.

Et cetera. Fiona shows me her playmate certificate. It's a page of shiny photo paper with a picture of Fiona and the famous playboy Bunny logo. Fiona's topless, looking sultraally into the camera. She looks great, but overall the edit's bad. The design doesn't even cover a full page, and it's got tacky white borders on the edges. What's more, the photo shoot appears to have been done in a kitchen

Lewis has been saying to me, Yeah, if you just hand those over to Instagram, that is enough to get you verified.

This was before you could pay to be verified. Fiona sent a picture of her Playmate certificate to Instagram, expecting her account to get a blue tick, but Instagram never got back to her. She sent it again and again, still nothing.

I have tried. It must have been about four times and I have still not become verified. I don't know whether it's because I don't have a lot of followers. I don't know.

And then a friend of hers got in touch.

She was saying that she heard that Playboy has actually finished. They're not actually published anymore. He's not really working for them. I was just like, oh my gosh.

If Luis isn't working for Playboy, then what the hell did Fiona pay five grand for?

I would love to know the answers. This must be one of the biggest scams out there today.

I'm Ellie Flynn and from the team at Novel. This is the Bunny Trap, Episode four, Pay for Play. Along with the certificate, fi owner was sent a copy of the Playboy magazine she was published in back home. I take a closer look at it with my producer Eleanor. It's my first time seeing one of Luisa's Playboy magazines in real life. Okay, this is Playboy Portugal. So on surface, at the jit it looks like other Playboy magazines that

High speed internet porn allows you to essentially be on there twenty four hours a day.

And you can just click online. Porn pretty much obliterated the demand for traditional men's mags. People didn't need Playboy to get off anymore, and the original audience for the magazine was literally dying off. Playboy needed to reinvent itself. Funny and playmids remain, but Playboy rebuilds its brand. In the twenty tens, Playboy went through an identity cris editors banned nudity.

There will be a Playmate of the Month, but the poses will be more PG.

Thirteen. Unsurprisingly, that didn't work, so they unbanned it. And then in twenty seventeen.

We have some breaking news for you tonight. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has died at the age of ninety one.

Without its founder, Playboy was lost. By twenty eighteen, circulation of the magazine had fallen to roughly two hundred and ten thousand copies a month, down from three point one million in two thousand. Playboy USA decided to cut its losses and go fully online. And its final magazine was printed in March twenty twenty, and yet Luis published Figona in several Playboy magazines in summer twenty twenty, months after

I've been in like three of them now. I've been in Playboy Spain, Playboy Croatia, and Playboy Portugal.

And it wasn't just Fiona, what Playboy were you? Published in Playboy Portugal Portugal? I was in the Portugal mag International playboys are sold like franchises and operate independently to Playboy USA. Playboy USA has been selling international licenses to external publishers for decades. As far back as the seventies, there have been global editions of Playboy magazine. In the early noughties, there were around twenty international editions in circulation.

He's outsourced everything he could outsource and has really focused on making Playboy a licensing business.

A licensing business aka monetizing Playboy's famous bunny logo for cold hard cash. Any Tom, Dick or Harry with enough money could buy a Playboy license for anything, water bottles, air fresheners, or international magazines. Some of these magazines do seem legit with actual editorial teams, but Playboy HQ no longer vet the teams or have editors or oversight, which means that basically anyone suddenly gets access to the biggest glamour brand in the world. This is how people like

I don't know if enough people realize how that business model works anymore. There's a very big difference between Playboy USA, which is the flagship brand, and other franchises around the world.

That's Nino Batista. He's the photography instructor who first met Luis in twenty fifteen and a longtime industry insider.

If you shot for Playboy in nineteen ninety seven, then almost certainly you were commissioned and or employed by Playboy and it was a big, big deal. That business model has changed radically. Most of the international Playboy franchises work very differently than that.

Armed with my new knowledge about in national Playboy magazines, I take another look at FI owners and something strikes me. It's got no barcode. So that's odd because you wouldn't be able to scan it in a shop. And my producer Eleanor investigates why.

Playboy Portugal it is not available to buy the UK, is not available to buy anywhere. In order to get a copy of the magazine, you need to buy it off a site called Magster.

Magster is like an online newsagent that stocks everything. They've got time. They've got The Guardian, Evening, Standard, Daily Style, Daily Express. Yeah, that looks legit. Men's Magazine too.

We go.

They also sell Luis's own homemade magazines and multiple editions of international playboys that he's shot for. Many of these playboys share a publisher, and it's not Playboy Enterprises Untapped World Publishing. They seem to be the biggest publisher in this space, Untapped World Publishing. I hadn't heard of them, but it looks like Luis has shot with them for years. This private company based in South Africa seems to be leading the international playboy publication market. Oh my god. They

Something is off, no website, the number is defunct. I've emailed all the people that I've found associated and only one got back to me. And she thought that the company had closed down.

Right, So if you look up Untapped World Publishing as one director and his name's Dirk's team Camp. Dirk lives in America now and he makes himself out to be a bit of a media magnate. He even appeared on the podcast talking about how he's made a career out of purchasing international magazine licenses.

I started my own thing. I got a license for a magazine called Fighters only for the South African region. It's been a couple of years later. Now we're publishing fifty odd titles in four different countries.

But nowhere in this interview does he mention anything about glamor magazines. And there's nothing on his Instagram page about the International Playboys either. Everyone on the team has reached out to him via Instagram by email that does not want to talk. We've not left him alone, No, we've been handing why might Dirk want to keep his international

The entertainment business is a very dirty business. Anybody who goes into it should be very weary and not trust anybody except your lawyer, and even your lawyers, you don't want to really trust them all that much.

And listen to me. That's Drew Sherman, a lawyer from Los Angeles who specializes in the entertainment industry. After almost two decades in the business, he thought he'd seen it all until he was blown away by a new case. Drew was contacted by a model who told him that she'd been scammed in twenty sixteen by both Dirkstein Camp and a photographer working with him. To be clear, this

Maxim is a legitimate magazine, but we alleged and we believed that the people that were licensed to these various versions internationally, this one person at least was using that right that they had to then make other illegitimate versions and swindle people out of their money.

The model claimed she paid a photographer to be published in Maxim South Africa, a magazine Dirk owned. The license for The fee was ten thousand dollars in total. Four thousand went to the photographer for shoot and six thousand went to Dirk to get her on the cover. Then, she says, the publisher and photographer told her that they could get her and even more Maxim magazines if she paid more money to.

Dirk, Maxim Nigeria and a Maxim Middle East.

But when she only received digital versions of these magazines and no hard copies, she became suspicious, so she hired people on the ground to do some digging for her.

The persons that she hired in Nigeria and Dubai couldn't find them because there is no such thing. Those Maxims never existed at all.

The model brought a claim against Maxim, Dirk and the photographer, accusing them of fraud. By the time the model brought the claim, Maxim had already cut ties with Dirk for unknown reasons.

Maxim came to us right away and said we didn't have anything to do with it. We didn't allow this, we didn't know about it.

Blah blah blah.

I mean, that's what happens.

Everybody di dies.

Maxim denied all allegations and brought a claim again against Dirk for being a co conspirator who was quite negligently and intentionally responsible for what had happened. The model ended up retracting some allegations against the photographer, and all parties eventually settled, but Drew still thinks Maxim should have taken more responsibility. And I agree.

We alleged that Maxim had an idea of what was going on. Maybe they didn't authorize it and weren't part of it, weren't making money off of it, but they knew what was going on and didn't do anything about it.

Herd the Houseworth was a journalist at the New York Post who got a tip off about the lawsuit. After looking into it, she found the Maxim case wasn't a one off.

Effectively, any woman can be a magazine cover role these days if she's wanting to pony up the doll.

Basically, if you have the money.

Then you too can be a cover role, and you can be on Playboy Sweden or a Maximum South Africa or play Woie Australia.

She gave it a name pay for play. But even though Header cause it a scandal, many models still think paying for appearances is worth it.

Maxim and Playboy are huge publications. Then one way to get verified that coveted blue check is to be published. And obviously once you're verified on Instagram and you have a certain follow account, then you can strike deals with brands and then you make money. It's how people are making their living, you know. It's that whole figure till you make it mentality at its core.

It's clear that the major glamour brands know about pay for play.

Maxim and Playboy are not actually slapping down on this at all.

They're not raining in these rogue actors. They're not cleaning up the mess. I went to Playboy and Maxim for comment. Maxim never got back to me, but they did give a statement in response to Heather's article. Certain so called international editions of Maxim are unauthorized and are in no way connected to Maxim magazine. Maxim's flagship USA edition does not condone any form.

Of pay for play. Playboy did get back to me with a statement. At trips to a company spokesperson, they told us the following. While the magazine is still printed in several other countries through licensing partnerships, neither Playboy nor its affiliates request payment by models. Any sort of request for payment by models is not authorized nor endorsed by

We have a special rate of six cond of bounds in British waves editorial in Playboy. Huge editorial production for Playboy in July each year, have to pay only eight hundred dollars. Give me a prize of sixteen hundred dollars.

He will just try and get you to pay as much money as he can get out of you.

One thousand, nine hundred and fifty dollars. That is the cost for an editorial in Playboy maximum FHM. I have an editorial in Playboy in next month. It's one thousand, nine hundred and eighty dollars each. Three thousand, nine hundred and eighty dollars this one.

Just think people paid that? Yeah, so many girls did. They got a front cover, like a four page spread. The most I've heard of a model paying Lewise is ten thousand pounds for a playmate title. I've spoken to so many models who say they paid Lewise going as insane ounce of money. Over the years, that money was often hard to find. Some of these women were on the breadline, out of work, with kids, in debt, and so desperate for a break that they even borrowed cash

I've been published in someone's picture book that they've made.

It isn't going to help your career.

You're wasting your money.

You should be scouted and put in a magazine because you're a good model, not because you've paid for a publication that's completely backwards.

The experience was traumatic, and I've gained nothing from it.

This honestly makes me feel I went back to Playboy with everything we found out about Luis and his pay for play practices. They said they stand by their previous statement, adding that Playboy expressly prohibits its international publishing licensees from accepting content from photographers or models on a pay to play basis, But they also added in something new which

According to him, who did, he didn't want to give me contact. He would never really like get into it.

Craig Block is an American glamour photographer. He's a big guy with glasses and a shock of spiky, dark brown hair. He says he first met Luise in twenty sixteen.

We would see each other at a couple of events. We were talking. We would joke around a little bit. So if he saw my work, he'd liked my work, maybe we could work together.

According to Luis's website, Craig became the US director of operations for Universe one three seven Studios, Luisa's company. But now he tells me he'd like to see Louise behind bars, and that's putting it mildly.

They call him to Venezuela and tapeworm the He's the definition of parasite. He's an organism that feeds off of others to their detriment.

Craig said he could record this interview at his place of work, which I imagined would be a photography studio. Turns out it's actually an incredibly loud factory on Long Island, New York.

Called on one second, Sorry, it's a cert One of the fellows in the machine shop had to do something.

This gives me a clue as to why Craig might hate Louise Yes, because despite Craig's slick Instagram, which boasts endless pictures of scantily clad models, he is not living a glamorous life. He's grinding hard at a factory. Something's gone wrong, and Craig says it stems from his decision to go into business with Luis in twenty eighteen.

He said to me, hey, I feel the universe has put us together with good friends. We're supposed to be doing something together. Honestly, he really did a great job of convincing me that he was actually interested in being friend.

At the time, Craig was still fairly new to the industry, so he was flattered that Louise wanted to work with him.

The business idea he can Playboy franchise.

Playboy Costa Rica, to be exact, this was massive, the chance to take out an international Playboy license and become a publisher, all thanks to Luis Gomers. Craig says. Louise told him, if they made it big, they could be earning up to three hundred and sixty thousand dollars from the franchise alone, and twenty percent of that would go straight to Craig. But first they need to invest. Took me through the investment that you made. How much did he ask for? What was the first payment?

I saw? It gets embarrassing. First payment was my retirement fine, and that was about eighty thousand.

Dollars, roughly eighty thousand dollars. Unlike many things with Luise, things quickly turned sour as.

Soon as we started the agreement. Apparently they became some problem the Playboy and they weren't doing that anymore. So who knows, but that d materialize. I'm just taking his word from that. This is how it's all done. It's a long term strategy.

Craig says. Louis always had a backup plan and he always needed just a bit more cash from Craig to make it happen.

There will always happen to him. You so pop up that. He would be like, look, I need fifty thousand dollars. I need forty thousand dollars so I can buy into this. We can buy into that, we can get this, we can get that.

According to Craig, another opportunity to get a Playboy license came up. This time it was Playboy Portugal, but there were other people interested in the franchise. They'd have to move fast.

Well, he said to me, look, we're going to lose Playboy Portugal if I don't have sixty thousand dollars. So they're going to give it somebody other. Blah blah blah blah blah.

By now, Craig was running dry, but he still had faith in Luise and their partnership, so he decided to give it one last shot. He took out a loan against his own business to pay for the license.

I said, look, this is a six month loan. I either two thousand dollars a week payment on this loan. I can't live with that. So you got to tell me when I'm going to start getting the money.

Instead, Craig says he got excuse after excuse.

He would just say, well, it's not time yet. It takes time.

In case it's not obvious, Craig thinks Luise ran off with his money.

Well, he couldn't send me a red penny, and.

Now Craig's totally broke.

I said to him, you've led me dry. It's time to leave. I've gone to an attorney that didn't seem to do anything. My father a complain online with the FBI. I haven't heard anything back. Nobody seems to want to deal with it. I gave up on retirement. That's not going to happen.

Craig says he has nothing to show for the estimated quarter of a million dollars that he invested in Luise's playboy fantasy. When he was giving you this dream, when he was telling you that you guys were going to be business partners in what sounds like a bit of a Glamor Empire. What would that have meant to you if that had all come off?

Oh would have meant I mean, that would have been fantastic. He knows this. So for me to be able to do something like that where I could travel and not have to be changed to a machine chart, that would mean the world to me. Yeah, and that's what he exploited.

Knowing what I know now about Louise being blacklisted by Playboy in twenty nineteen, the Glamor Empire, he promised Craig

Glamour Universe seven studios.

Yeah, okay, now, oh my god, I actually can't believe that we're doing this.

Thanks to the women who shared their stories with us. We contacted Luis Gomes multiple times for comment, but we never heard back. He has not been charged with any crimes and is presumed innocent under the law. We also

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