May 27, 1999
Media Contact: Jenn Meale
Phone: (850) 245-0150
Children's Talent Agency Charged With Deceptive Trade Practices
FORT LAUDERDALE -- A Boca Raton company has been charged with deceiving parents into spending thousands of dollars to promote their children as models and actors, Attorney General Bob Butterworth announced today.
A civil complaint filed in Broward County Circuit Court against Tomorrow's Star's Inc. and its owners, Edward J. Bauer and his wife, Helen S. Bauer, seeks consumer restitution and penalties of up to $10,000 per violation of the state's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The attorney general's action was taken in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission, which filed similar charges in New Jersey federal court against the company and its national affiliate, Screen Test U.S.A.
"This is nothing more than a crass money-making scheme that takes cruel advantage of every parent's dream that his or her child is special," Butterworth said. "This kind of flattery-for-profit is heartless and inexcusable."
Butterworth said a five-month investigation revealed that Tomorrow's Stars:
- Asked imposters to pose as outside talent agents and producers to convince parents that their children would gain fame and fortune in show business as company clients.
- Charged parents $45 for a video screen test and "objective" evaluation of their children as potential models and actors but gave virtually every child high test scores to entice parents into spending more money for photo sessions. - Assured parents their phones "would be ringing off the hook" with calls from talent agencies offering "guaranteed" jobs in show business and modeling, and said Tomorrow's Stars "never had a child who did not find work."
- Instructed parents to mail their childrens' photographs to Florida's "most reputable" talent agencies on a list provided by Tomorrow's Stars, even though many of the firms on the list had gone out of business and others considered the quality of Tomorrow's Stars photographs sub-par and unprofessional.
Butterworth said the company, which is located in an office complex at 5301 N. Federal Highway in Boca Raton, grossed more than $500,000 a year in fees for talent tests and photo sessions. He said his office received 35 complaints from south Florida parents who paid thousands of dollars to the company.
The FTC's charges against Screen test U.S.A. also involve the use of flattery and deceit to encourage parents to spend hundreds of dollars for so-called screen tests and photographic sessions.
According to the FTC's complaint, Screen Test U.S.A. operates franchises along the east coast of the U.S. using a common Internet home page, sales literature, office displays and sales pitches to tell consumers that Screen Test U.S.A. has created more stars than any other company and that its clients appear in national advertising campaigns.
"In fact," the FTC complaint said, parents who buy the talent promotional services from Screen Test U.S.A. and its affiliates "do not have a high rate of success and are not likely to obtain (professional) agency representation, or acting, or modeling jobs." Florida's complaint was prepared by Assistant Attorney General Robert Julian.