> I spoke to Derek Hay of LA Direct who’s been in touch with both an attorney and a casting director from the proposed Fox TV reality show My Bare Lady.

“They wanted me to send talent to cast,” says Hay.  “Not being my first time round the block I wanted to talk about terms before we cast not after. I discovered that they are not wanting to pay the cast at all. That’s nothing, zero, nada. For five weeks of work, two weeks in Los Angeles and three weeks in London, my hometown and unquestionably the most expensive city in Europe.”

Hay was in receipt of the following e-mail from Michelle Seañez Attorney at Law:

“Derek, Thank you for your interest in our show. At this time I am scheduling casting meetings for girls who are interested in participating in the show, however there is no compensation for any of the girls that are attending the casting meetings. Unfortunately, at this time, your quoted daily/weekly rate for your models is not feasible due to budgetary constraints.

Nonetheless, should any of your models wish to participate, please note the casting meetings are being held Monday, June 19 through Wednesday, June 21 in Los Angeles. A larger casting call, which will include a number of the girls attending the June casting meetings, will be held and shot on July 17, and for the girls selected will continue for 2 weeks in LA. If picked as a finalist, the girls will be traveling to London August 25 and returning September 19.

Should they be one of the top finalist that are going to London, each girl will receive travel, hotel accommodations, transportation, and a per diem during her stay in the UK. Promotional days, possible photo shoots or feature dancing while in the UK are being discussed. Again, we appreciate your interest.”

Hay’s of the belief that the rest of the industry should be aware that girls weren’t being paid for this promotion. Hay asked if I thought it was surprising that Fox is doing this. Surprising, I said, if they’re not volunteering this information up front.

“It’s been my experience in this kind of thing, that they will not mention it,” states Hay. “And this particular show has not mentioned it, obviously. But this is what I find typical, that they will not mention that there’s no fee.”

According to Hay, the punch line usually comes after the project’s been presented to actresses and sold to them as something attractive – something that they’d want to do and want to be part of.

“And after the build up is in place,” Hay continues, “it’s revealed to them that there’s no fee. At the same time it’s promoted as great exposure where so many people are going to see it, etc.

“The sting in the tail is that a lot of girls will be sold on this,” Hay continues. Accordingly, if he can help it, Hay won’t encourage his girls to participate.

“I think this is outrageous,” he says. “If a girl wants to do this, it’s her choice. But at least I will discourage my girls to do it. It’s five weeks of work for nothing to work for a major TV show.” In his exchanges with an attorney for the show, Hay was led to believe that there was a “small” budget; whereas the producer was more specific that there was no money for the cast.

“This is not something that’s unheard of,” says Hay. In a similar vein, Hay got a call from a woman who was casting for a photo shoot for NY Times Magazine.

“They wanted our girls to come and shoot for relatively nothing ($150)- they thought the girls would be excited to do this. The casting director is undoubtedly getting paid. The makeup artist is getting paid. The photographer is getting paid. The UPS guys that ships the film from Los Angeles to NY is getting paid. It seems that everyone is getting paid except the model.”

From what I gather, Fox is paying hotel, travel expenses and a per diem.

> I spoke to Wankus yesterday and he told me that Cytherea was going to be on his KSEX show tonight. But I’m also hearing this won’t happen because there are conditions attached that Wankus might not be able to agree to. One of those being that she doesn’t talk about her split with Plus One. Meanwhile, KSEX would have been out of their Burbank studios lease today, except the deal to move to another location blew up in their face and they’re sitting tight for the time being.

> The Grand Vizier of Porn calls me: Eastern Video, a huge distributor, been around for 20-30 years went broke Thursday. They even filed bankruptcy. The guy has been around a long time in the multi-billion dollar adult business. He couldn’t pay anybody and he sunk like a rock.

> Jack Lawrence leaves a message for me about the rumors of him and Annie Cruz splitting up: “Can you please take that story off? She [Cruz] was asking about a divorce attorney for her friend. There’s no problems with us. I don’t need those kinds of rumors going on and speculative journalism. So please take that off and put a correction that she was talking about a friend. My phone’s blowing up. I don’t need that kind of drama. So please me a responsible journalist and take that off. I’m not happy.”

Gene sez: I wonder if Lawrence was being equally responsible when he gave me an interview about a director in Hollywood who was trying to allegedly seduce Lawrence who was wearing a gladiator outfit at the time. I heard from that not too happy director as well when Lawrence left me dangling in the wind. In any event my source, swears to the story he/she gave me. Here’s what was printed earlier: “I guess the fact that Annie Cruz asking Pamela Peaks if she knew of a good divorce attorney was more than casual conversation. Jack Lawrence got hit with the news yesterday that Cruz wants a divorce.

Gene adds: The conversation between Annie Cruz and Pamela Peaks went something like this. Cruz asks Peaks for the name of a divorce attorney. Cruz asks why. “Because I’m divorcing Jack,” is Cruz’s alleged reply. Doesn’t sound like she was asking for someone else.

Gene adds: Later this motning Pamela Peaks left a message and said the story wasn’t true that Cruz was calling her on behalf of a friend.