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"The truth is ten times worse": diving into the sordid backstage of modeling agencies

2022-02-14T14:06:57.921Z


The journalist Baptiste Manzinali investigated these agency directors who once ruled the world of modeling. In La Nuit des chasseurs, the author returns to the accusations of rape and sexual assault that led to their downfall. Interview.


They crossed paths with Linda Evangelista, Karen Mulder or even… Melania Trump.

In

La Nuit des chasseurs

(1), journalist Baptiste Manzinali explores the destinies of Jean-Luc Brunel, director of Karin Models, Gérald Marie, European director of Elite Model Management, Claude Haddad, founder of Euro Planning and John Casablancas, founder of the Elite agency, who once ruled the modeling world.

By going back over the trajectories of these influential leaders, from the end of the 1960s to the 1990s, the author reveals the underside of a vast system.

A sordid fresco, sometimes borrowing from fiction - where gray areas remain - in which Saudi princes, renowned artists, financiers, crowned heads, photographers and top spotters intermingle.

Tops who ended up talking;

and precipitate the downfall of those they now accuse of multiple rapes and sexual assaults.

These "night hunters" would have drugged them, before abusing them in the secrecy of their apartments.

One of them, Jean-Luc Brunel, is now behind bars.

Arrested in December 2020 and indicted for rape of minors and sexual harassment, he is singled out for his supposed links with Jeffrey Epstein.

When referring to this system of which Jean-Luc Brunel was, according to him, "only a pawn", Baptiste Manzinali prefers, for his part, to warn us: "The truth is ten times worse" than what is contained in the pages of his book.

The bachelor pads

In "La Nuit des chasseurs", Baptiste Manzinali explores the destinies of Jean-Luc Brunel, Gérald Marie, Claude Haddad and John Casablancas, these agency directors who once reigned over the world of modeling.

(2022.)

Courtesy of Le Cherche Midi editions

Miss Figaro.

- How did modeling agencies operate during the period you describe?


Baptist Manzinali.

-

The 1970s were in opposition to the 1950s, which were more bourgeois and structured.

Previously, modeling agencies were run by kind of mother hens.

Then, during the reign of John Casablancas, the playboys began to take over the agencies.

Models preferred to join their agencies, because they thought they were cooler and they could party.

This new system was like a game of musical chairs.

The bookers (

those who get castings and contracts for models, editor's note

) could become

scouts

(

those who spot future models

), and vice versa.

Photographers also had a role of

scout

at that time.

As soon as they spotted a pretty girl, they took her to an agency and received money.

Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell or Cindy Crawford did not know thisbaptist manzinali



What was the

modus operandi

of the “hunters” you describe in your book?


Initially, there is an observation: many young girls who aspire to be models come from poor, developing countries and from disadvantaged families.

Agencies spend money to bring them to France.

And the models are not always aware that they will one day have to pay them back.

some

scouts

own a kind of bachelor flats, 20 m² apartments located in Paris, where they house three or four models in rooms with bunk beds, making them pay exorbitant rent.

They would have taken advantage of this situation to abuse some of them.

This concerned rather foreigners, in a precarious situation, because French women could take refuge with their families.

Other models, like Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell or Cindy Crawford, did not experience this.



How to explain it?


From the start, a sorting is done.

When the models arrive in the agency, we know immediately if they will have work or not.

Those who will bring in a lot of money do not suffer these living conditions.

But those who don't have a job can't pay their rent.

How to make profitable the investment of the agencies, if the model does not take part in shootings sufficiently remunerative?

They then offer their services in parties or dinners.

Jill Dodd and the Arms Dealer

What happens during these nocturnal events?


Agencies do not sign any contracts.

But a Saudi prince, for example, can give - a lot - of cash and ask that models from the agency go to such a hotel or restaurant.

These evenings are not always subject to slippage, but it is a slippery slope.

Models are advised to be "very nice" to their hosts.

Sometimes they are victims of indecent proposals, touching.



The model Jill Dodd recounts a sexual assault that occurred during one of these dinners...


After her arrival in Paris, this American model said she was raped by Gérald Marie, of the Paris Planning agency

(today accused of multiple sexual assaults and rapes, and under the yoke of an investigation, editor's note)

, his home.

When the latter loses interest in her, she is no longer asked for shootings.

His booker then offers him to go on vacation to Monte-Carlo.

She is introduced to a certain Adnan Kashoggi, a Saudi arms dealer and one of the most powerful men of the 1980s. He woos her and she falls in love with him.

For two years, the model lived an incredible life on the arm of Adnan Kashoggi, who drove her from villa to villa with a dozen women from his harem, and paid for her studies.

Jill Dodd discovers the pot-aux-roses when she surprises Adnan Kashoggi in his office, consulting modeling books provided by agencies.

She realizes that their meeting was orchestrated by her agency.

She has since left the profession and founded the Roxy brand

(Quicksilver's women's brand, editor's note)

.

The Melania Trump Mystery

What comes out most often in the stories of the models you've met?


These agency directors really looked for their weaknesses.

They made these young women believe that without them, they were nothing, that they were going to make stars of them, whereas it is the opposite.

It is thanks to them that they succeeded in the business world and earned money.

Some have even partnered with models, in order to have a stranglehold on their income.

When they wanted to leave them, they realized that the money had disappeared, because it had been used by the

scouts

to finance their own lifestyle, to go to the other side of the world and find other young people. women.

When Melania arrives in America, she already has perfect teeth and a redone chestbaptiste manzinali



What did you learn about Melania Trump's past, to which you devote a passage of your book?


Melania Trump has also met these “hunters”.

But she escaped a lot.

He is an enigmatic character.

In the 1990s, the women who arrived from Eastern Europe to become models generally came from poor families.

They cannot afford the services of a plastic surgeon.

However, when Melania Knauss (

her maiden name, Ed.

), of Slovenian origin, arrives in America, she already has perfect teeth and a redone chest... Her book is empty, and she has hardly ever paraded for great fashion designers.

At the time, this questions.

Moreover, when Melania began a relationship with Donald Trump in 1998, she organized a strange press conference in Paris, with Slovenian journalists.

She maintains that she is one of the 50 greatest models on the market – a

fake news

before its time.

She will, after the formalization of their relationship, the covers of the biggest magazines.

Jean-Luc Brunel and Jeffrey Epstein

What precipitated the fall of Jean-Luc Brunel, boss of Karin Models?


At the end of the 1980s, he was accused of rape and sexual assault in a report by "60 Minutes" magazine, broadcast on CBS.

Ten years later, the BBC's

MacIntyre Undercover” broadcast similar accusations.

Jean-Luc Brunel is forced to sell his shares in the agency.

But he remains in the business as an

independent

scout , and continues to travel the world.

He separated in 1992 from his wife Roberta Chirko and took a lot of drugs.

He becomes a little

has-been, sets up a

cheap

agency

in Miami, no longer evolves in the middle of haute couture.

It was there that he met Jeffrey Epstein.



What were his links with the financier?


Very quickly, Jeffrey Epstein offered him to invest in an agency, which they called MC2 Management.

According to the charges against him, Brunel would then have started to cast girls for the billionaire.

After the first complaints filed against Jeffrey Epstein, Brunel turns against the businessman, accusing him of having made him lose money.

When the Miami police ask him to testify before the authorities, Jean-Luc Brunel accepts, but constantly rejects the interview.

This will never take place.

He will remain an independent

scout

until the Jeffrey Epstein affair breaks out.

The Me Too Revolution

What happened to the models you interviewed?


Since the advent of the Me Too movement, these women have begun to speak out.

With Carré Otis, they have formed a collective, Model Alliance, and want all this to lead to a trial for Jean-Luc Brunel and Gérald Marie.

Because today there are still none.

The first is in prison, awaiting a possible trial - the other is not worried at the moment.

These agency directors took advantage of their time Baptist Manzinali



How to explain that these men were able to rage for so long, with complete impunity?


A revolution has taken place since the Me Too movement.

These abuses occurred in a libertarian era.

Because morals have been liberated, justice was less interested in the victims.

I am thinking in particular of a model, Emmanuelle Dano, found dead at the time.

John Casablancas had discovered her lifeless body, with bruises around her neck.

But the case was covered up.

Casablancas refused to testify because he did not want to implicate high-ranking people.

In my opinion, agency directors took advantage of their time, of the freedom that was given to them.

Today, models are more independent, manage their business via Instagram... and are less at the mercy of men.

(1) La Nuit des chasseurs

, by Baptiste Manzinali, published on February 3, 2022, published by Le Cherche Midi, 224 p., €20.

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Source: lefigaro

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