I Need Some Help getting PAID by Gallery Magazine $$$$
 

I need some help from my fellow photographers, webmasters, and anyone else that might have some advice on this subject.

I submitted some pictures I took of Nicole Graves aka CoCo to Gallery Magazine's GND in early 2006 and they liked them enough to hire Nicole to shoot for their November 2006 issue of Gallery Magazine's "Girl Next Door" of the month. She did the shoot with Steven Hicks crew on 06/20/06 and of course Steven and his crew are awesome and it was a great shoot, one of Nicole's favorite, and Nicole appeared in Gallery's magazine as a result.

Our problem is this, Nicole ($2500) still hasn't been paid by Gallery Magazine's parent company Montcalm Publishing and neither have I ($500) as the submitting photographer. I don't know if Steven got paid, but I hope he did so he isn't going through what Nicole and I are going through.

I've spoken to Brian Orenstein the CFO of Montcalm Publishing and have gotten nowhere with him and he just gives me the run around and excuses. Is there anyone out there who has any suggestions on how to get paid by Gallery and Montcalm Publishing? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

We all love and admire Nicole's work and no one she has worked with has ever stiffed her until now. She did her shoot over a year ago on 06/20/06and still hasn't received a penny for her work. Is there anyone else out there who is having the same problem?

Nicole appears in Gallery's GND November 2006 issue as CoCo and it is an awesome shoot, but Nicole and I just want to get paid for what they contractually agreed to pay us.

All suggestions are welcome!

I have heard about them doing this to their other shooters. Talk to Mutt about this he knows more. Sorry to hear about this man after hearing about these problems I would never shoot a girl for them. They have done this before and will do it again. Why don't they just throw in the towel if they don't have the money?

Remind them of the hours you spent holding up their magazine with one hand.

Adult magazines have almost always done this delaying routine with photographers. Payment up to a year or more after the photos were published is not uncommon. This policy was a relic of the days (1980s and 1990s) when the mags had a lot more power and were the main avenue for photographers to sell their photo sets of naked girls. It was and remains to this day, total bullshit. The fact that almost every publisher of adult magazines is pretty much out of business or irrelevant at this point is just desserts. The people that actually work at adult magazines (other than the fat cat owners who made their money years ago and don't really run the mags day to day anymore) are typically really low paid employees who can't get anyone in the office to cut a check anyway. Good luck getting your money!

Do you have anything in writing ?

Sorry to hear that.
Sucks when stuff like that happens.

Hit me up on icq 284440298. Im Mutt's photographer, John.

what he said - you have very little chance of getting paid anytime soon.

that shit doesn't fly in the adult Internet business because of boards like GFY where you can lose your reputation - um ........ actually you can get away with this shit in this industry if you're a 'bro' and you can always re-invent yourself.

anyway good luck, it's not fair.

Non payment, doesn't that void the release forms? Sue them!

I'd be havin' a chat with my company lawyer. Perhaps a well-worded letter from an attorney might light a fire under their accountant's butt.

Good luck dealing with the Orensteins

I completely understand...
 

I completely understand, but not paying the model in this case Nicole Graves is ridiculous! She did her job and has shot for all of the top magazines dozens of times and they have all paid her immediately or within a couple of weeks. Gallery is the only one who has flaked and it is almost going on a year and a half.

So I would at least like to get her paid as you can imagine! She works hard, everyone loves working with her, and often goes above and beyond the required shoot requirements to satisfy her obligations so this is retarded that they won't pay her at the very least.

Thanks for your input.

Yes....
 

We both have a contract.

Did that....
 

We did that and we got no response from them so our attorney told us to take them to small claims court, but they probably wouldn't show up. Therefore you get a judgement against and still have to collect it.

So I'm hoping for recommendations from anyone.

Thanks,

Man that is such bullshit.

Absolutely...
 

I'll hit you up on Monday.

Thanks,

if you get a judgement then you can have real fun.You can have the sheriff padlock their business and put it up for sale to satisfy the judgement.

Fuck that... I'd just make a run down to small claims... unless they did this through a corp, then all parties have to retain council... sometimes getting lawyers involved can just slow things down even more.

Nothing says "Good morning!" like the sheriff standing outside your door with an arm load of papers...

Judgments are fun... default judgments can be a bitch, you have to make sure the complaint was served right down to the letter of the law, otherwise they can move to have the judgment set aside and then you get to have a trial all over again.

Where are you located and where are they located ?

As for small claims - if your attorney is telling you thats your only recourse then I suggest another attorney. There are several claims here beyond just breach of contract, but that depends on where you/them are located.

I suggest a C&D on the publisher from a lawyer followed by the phone call. If the complaint has to be filed, let them know before hand that you will not settle without attorney's fees being paid.


If you waited this long have some fun with it. You are in the driver's seat.

kind of glad this is out in the open - Dawson Miller is owed the same $2,500, Jewel is owed $2,500, Crissy Snow is owed $2,500 - with Dawson they've literally pulled the 'check is in the mail' routine on her and said they sent it to the wrong address and they were re-sending to her correct address - of course no check ever got to her new address.

but who i really feel sorry for is this girl Brandy, she is last year's Girl Next Door of the Year winner, Melissa Midwest was GND of the Year a few year's back too - anyway Gallery had ads all over the Net and on their website for their GND of the Year contest - winner gets $25,000. Brandy won - when she found out she was thrilled. She works as a computer whatever, putting together systems for offices, she's not wealthy, probably makes 40K a year and when she knew she had won $25,000 she went and renovated her little house knowing she had won $25,000 from what she thought was very established mens magazine. She hasn't seen one dime from them and it's well over a year now. The Orensteins should be fucking ashamed of themselves - it's bad enough they take advantage of photographers but not paying the models who take off their clothes for them is reprehensible. These people are loaded - even with the magazine biz hurting - these people have published tons of different mags for decades, all filled with ads for phone sex, porn sites etc plus the magazine sells for 10 bucks on the newsstand. I'm going to file a complaint with the Attorney General of New York for her - you can't fucking run a $25,000 contest and then not award the prize to the winner.

http://www.bratcash.com/gnd/brandygnd.jpg

http://www.bratcash.com/gnd/brandygnd2.jpg

Totally agree Mutt. I hope you get a little justice for brandy.

We are in Houston and they are in NY....
 

Hit me up on ICQ if you get a chance. Mine is 290-379-826 I would love to speak with you.

Thanks,

Mutt I'm Happy to help....
 

Nicole and I are happy to help any way we can. I know there are contest laws about running fraudulent contest that can put people in jail so maybe there is something there.

Hit me up on ICQ 290-379-826 and we can exchange phone numbers.

Thanks,

Hey its Jewel! I did my gallery shoot almost a year ago and I also have not been paid :(
Show me the money baby!

these are from Jewel's Gallery GND shoot. Pay up you sleazy old bastard! I mean Mr Orenstein, not John who is also a sleazy old bastard.

http://www.thisyearsmodel.ca/gnd/gndjewel_1.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.ca/gnd/gndjewel_2.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.ca/gnd/gndjewel_3.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.ca/gnd/gndjewel_4.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.ca/gnd/gndjewel_5.jpg

http://www.thisyearsmodel.ca/gnd/gndjewel_6.jpg

I am an attorney and I have done commercial collections. If you do not get this resolved give me a shout at [email protected]

Class action lawsuit anyone?
 

Mutt, you or anyone else interested in a class action lawsuit against Gallery Magazine, Montcalm Publishing, and Brian Orenstein?

Let me know I am contacting attorneys now!

Thanks,

It sounds like they know they are going to fold operations in the near future and plan on including the contest winnings and model fees in the bankruptcy. I can tell you that as of around March 2006, when I was still running adult bookstores, that Gallery sales were practically non-existent. If we got 50 copies of it in each month we would have to return 49 of them to the vendor for credit. Even though the owners are rich from their other ventures they probably have Gallery tucked away under a separate business entity, so if they do fold they can file bankruptcy and you won't be able to collect anything. If you are going to do something I would do it soon just in case. Between 2004-2006 I can think of at least 20 formerly popular adult magazines that disappeared into the night...

I bet they made some good coin off those photos aswell... I hate people that don't fucking pay....

Bankruptcy laws as of 10/15/05...
 

As long as we file prior to or after they file bankruptcy as a creditor or debtor we will be included in any funds distributed in perportion to the total assets collected by the trustee. Whatever they can find will be given to each creditor as a percentage of the total outstanding debt owed to all entities.

So a class action suit would be a larger percentage of the total funds conviscated then if we all file individually. I would be interested in any attorney willing to help all of the models and photographers who got screwed and do this together!

There is power in numbers!

Hit me up if you are interested in being part of the lawsuit?

Thanks for your input!

Lawsuit for those who got screwed by Gallery Mag!
 

We are gathering all information for any photographer or model that has not been paid by Gallery magazine's parent company Montcalm Publishing and their CFO Brian Orenstein.

There are many aspects to this potential lawsuit. Contest fraud for the winners depending upon the state you are located in or the state you shot for Gallery in and a class action suit for all those who haven't been paid no matter how small the amount might be we want you to join us!

So if this pertains to you or anyone you know that might have been screwed by any of the entities listed above, please let me know, we have an attorney who is willing to do this on a contingency and we are gathering names now.

Strength in numbers will force their hand to pay or face the consequences! Please contact me at [email protected] if you are interested in being a part of this lawsuit.

Companies like Montcalm Publishing give our industry a bad name and take advantage of the very models who make us all a lot of money! We should do all that we can as industry professionals to help these models whenever we can!

I hope I have your support and I've already heard from dozens of you supporting this, so I hope more of you respond to this fight for what is right in this industry, against what is wrong with this industry. Without people who care about what we do for a living we as an industry will fall.

Thanks for your support,

And this is why the porn industry over all has such a crapy reputation.... They got away with it for a long long time, and well, look where it got them. Serves them right.

Also... anything Mutt says is golden. He's a smart man.

well i'll tell all the girls especially Brandy to contact you but the thing is all these girls are students or just girls making a living working - they aren't going to have much money to put into attorney fees - which is exactly what the Orensteins and those like them count on.

all the girls involved and owed money are Canadian except Dawson.

you might want to contact Adri from HotAdri.com - she was a GND of the Month winner as well and shot by Stephen for Gallery. I'm sure she hasn't been paid her $2,500 either.

i've always wondered if they were close to going under - they used to have this huge circulation but maybe it is so far down in the toilet now they could just be playing out the string and playing photogs and models for fools as they plan their exit strategy. They are rich people - very rich, Park Avenue rich.

Mutt hit me up when you can....
 

ICQ 290-379-826 I would appreciate it.

Thanks,

They aren't going under.....
 

I have it from a very reliable source that they are not going under. Montcalm Publishing is a very big and profitable company this is just how they do business. Very dishonest.

As far as money none of these girls will have to pay a dime to be a part of this lawsuit. We have an attorney who will take this on contingency if we get enough photographers and models to join the suit. So they don't have to worry about money.

The case is a solid one and easy to prosecute with enough plaintiffs and I already got dozens so the more the merrier and more effective we will be. Plus there are some contest laws they may have broken in several states that could cause them big problems.

Hit me up on ICQ or office phone.

Thanks for your support,

damn that sucks, hope you guys all get your money

although, $5k will get someones kneecaps broken (literally) and you can pretty much guarantee youll see your money within a few days, after something like that happens

:)

Jeff --- It was great talking to you today and am looking forward to working with you on this issue. Obviously, Montcalm believes that can continuously fail to pay small amounts based upon the theory that no one will bother to try and collect and no attorney will handle it.

Luckily, plaintiffs in California are blessed with B&P 17200 and 17500 which not only allows for damages but for also disgorgement of profits and attorneys fees.

Please contact Jeff if you have any information as to other models and photographers that have not been paid in regards to this contest. He will be forwarding me all of the information so that we can get started. It makes no difference whether you live in California or not.

hi john!!!

hey Brian! gimme a call when you get a chance

well hopefully Brandy will come post in this thread and join this fight.

i sent Dawson the link to the thread.

good luck findin someone ")

Intersting, hope you get paid. BTW the affiliate links for their program have been giving 404 server errors for almost 2 months. I emailed them a few times without a response. :(

Anyone with legal signed contracts that hasn't been able to collect in a reasonable amount of time... feel free to get in touch with me, and I can point you to an incredibly thorough and timely recovery agent...

Mutt hit me up when you can....
 

Hit me up on ICQ 290-379-826

Thanks,