Miami- Eli Thomas from Alternative Modeling will no longer be known as Eli from Alternative Modeling. It’s now GoldStar Modeling-Miami. That’s because there was a merger this week that brought Eli’s company and Blue Max, a modeling agency in New York run by Joe Max, under Joel Lawrence’s talent agency awning.

Eli says the impetus for the merger came during the recent Internext show in Florida when he had a lengthy chat with Lawrence.

“Joel was down for that weekend and we had lunch,” explains Eli. “We’ve known each other and have been friends for awhile. We shared business information here and there. So we had this conversation. I was discussing how I was moving west and opening an LA office, that I was re-grouping and getting out there after the robbery.”

“I was stubborn and tried to build my own national-thing for a long time. After we got talking, Joel and I felt working together would make for a much more successful organization. Joel said he wanted to do more stuff in Miami. And, frankly, I got tired of travelling back and forth from Florida to California. The more Joel talked I felt like I was looking in a mirror when he talked about his business plan. He felt the same way. It was an amazing conversation.”

“This is a big benefit not only from the talent in Florida we represent and Joel’s talent in LA, but for the producers in the Florida market,” Thomas continues.

“Now they have my undivided attention. I’ve built up a fairly large business in Florida and actually helped many of the producers to succeed. And they really needed it. But I had spread myself thin going to the Los Angeles market, and the producers down here felt neglected a little bit.”

Thomas felt he’s built a network of very strong relationships and the merger now makes a greater difference in what he can accomplishment.

“So if a producer in Florida wanted to book one of the girls from GoldStar Modeling in Los Angeles, he can do it through you?”

“Correct, says Eli. “Absolutely and we are going to have three websites. The Gold Star Modeling site will stay as it exists and there will be links. The domain name will be goldstarmiami.com and there will also be the link to goldstarnewyork.com.”

According to Thomas, the Florida market is “exciting”.

“It’s driven by the amount of talent that’s available down here,” he adds.

“A lot of the companies down here are content providers.”

By his estimation, Thomas says he probably works with about 30 different producers altogether including the more well known Bang Bros., Reality Kings and Score.

“Their business depends on the talent available. Now they’ll have the benefit of the more attractive, more professional and amazing talent from Gold Star.”

“Consolidating is where it’s at right now,” Thomas believes. “The merger will work out better for everybody. The girls will be making more money. We can keep the schedules very busy. We can keep the model houses full of girls and keep them busy also in New York and Los Angeles. If a model slows down in one market, we move her to the next.”

Thomas says he and Blue Max have already been working out such arrangements for the better part of a year.

“Whenever I had a model running slow here, she could fill a gap up in New York. Joe Max and I had been talking for some time about creating this national-thing together. Then when the conversation with Joel came up, I thought this could really be good for everybody. And Joel was ecstatic when I told him what Joe had been doing in the New York market.”

“So Joel has been in New York the last week hunkering down and doing a lot of pushing with Joe up there for the Exxxotica New York show. Every day we’re just grinning ear to ear and excited about the things that are happening. And the girls from Gold Star have been coming down here and just knocking it out of the park. They’re doing really good work and making good money comparable to what they’re making in LA. They’re happy.”

Thomas had about 70 girls of his own prior to the merger.

“But we know we’re going to have some fallout,” he concedes. “But I’m known for bringing new talent into the market. And that will continue to be my focus with the new company.”

I wondered if Thomas ever got to the bottom of who broke into his office in May.

“There’s theories,” is all he would say, and Thomas also gave the impression that the police weren’t particularly interested in being involved in a robbery case concerning the adult industry.

“They put very little effort into it and if you talk to Fisher Studios, it was the same thing,” Thomas adds.

“He had to do his own investigation. I have my ideas to what possibly happened.”

Other than that, Thomas wouldn’t add more, or speculate publicly what those theories were.