I have not watched MTV's new reality show, "8th & Ocean", but when I first started hearing about the show, I immediately was able to deduce that the agency the show was based on was Irene Marie because, well, simply put it is located on 8th and Ocean Drive in Miami Beach.....actually Wet Willies, the margarita bar is on 8th & Ocean and Irene Marie is a few buildings down if I remember correctly.

I worked as a model for many a season in South Beach but am repped by Elite and can remember very distinctly that Irene Marie wasn't one of the agencies that you wanted to have a contract with. Elite, Ford, Next, Mega, and Wilhelmina were and still are the agencies that a model would want to have rep them, they are the powerhouses not only in Miami, but internationally as well.

So, this brings me to why I have titled my blog posting the way I have. Legitimate modeling agencies never charge a model any up front costs. You do not pay an agency to look at your pictures and see if they want to rep you, you do not pay for anything. Period. What does happen is that any expenses you may incur while in the agency's market, such as lodging, comp cards, tests, etc. are deducted from your payroll checks. Basically any money you need to start off your career with is advanced to you, it is never expected from you as the model to pay directly out of pocket.

Well, to my surprise, my cousin who is a newbie model wanted to submit her pictures to Irene Marie after watching a few episodes of the show (she's 15). Seemed glamorous, whatever. When she emailed her pictures she was contacted by the agency and told that she needed to pay a $5 fee to have her pictures "looked at". WHAT?! That is absolutely absurd. Not only is IM getting tons of exposure and revenue from the MTV show....but now they are making heaps of money from all the naive girls and boys, who after watching the show, are now wanting to submit their shots in order to be the next IM model. And believe me, agencies get thousands of submissions per week....$5 a pop? That's sheer greed.

I am & have been repped by top agencies worldwide and have never once had to pay anything out of pocket much less a fee to have some receptionist check out my pics and probably never even pass them along to a booker. It's pretty dishonest and outrageous if you ask me. Irene Marie has all of a sudden gotten a lot of notoriety from this show and they are taking advantage of it and a lot of wannabe models that dont know any better. And yes, Irene Marie is a real agency, they do get their models jobs, two of my former roomies in Miami were repped by them. Why they need to start charging this type of fee is beyond my comprehension.....oh yeah....I think I already said it...greed.

So if you have modeling aspirations, please be warned....Irene Marie's practices are not all kosher. Go submit to any other legit agency and you will not be asked for a dime. If they like your pics they'll welcome you on board, if not, then you probably won't hear back from them, but you also won't be out $5. And yes, five bucks isn't a lot of money but it is the principle behind it (or lack thereof) that irks me.