| CREDIT: Bryan Bedder, Getty Images | Canadian model Jessica Stam walks the runway at the Dior show in May in New York. Earlier in her career, Stam won the L.A. Looks Model Search Contest. |
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Former aspiring model Caitlin Williams claims in a US$1.5-million lawsuit against New York Model Management that the agency had "chosen ? Stam? to be the winner" of the 2002 competition ahead of time.
Ms. Stam was pole-vaulted straight into the final stages of the L.A. Looks Model Search Contest, whereas Ms. Williams and other contestants had to compete in local events, the lawsuit claims.
It also says the competition's rules said contestants had to be legal U.S. residents, but that Ontario-born Ms. Stam "was neither a U.S. citizen, nor a U.S. resident eligible to work in the U.S." when she won first prize, billed as being worth US$100,000.
"Model Jessica Stam, who had not competed in any of the local competitions, was ? permitted ? to enter the New York Regional Competition, where she was then chosen ? to advance to the final competition," says the lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Among other successes since she won the contest, Ms. Stam, 21, was featured in the May issue of American Vogue as one of a crop of new supermodels.
Ms. Williams later abandoned her modelling ambitions, saying in her lawsuit that she never saw a cent of the US$75,000 she claims contest officials promised her in work.
The entire experience left her "discouraged and disillusioned," her claim says.
"Model agencies owe a great responsibility to young models who place their hopes and dreams in their hands," said Anthony LoPresti, Ms. Williams' lawyer.
"It's obvious here that these empty promises of wealth and fame came with a high price."
Ms. Stam had her own differences with New York Model Management in 2004, when the agency sued her for alleged breach of contract after they had paid US$600,000 to promote her career. The case was settled, and Ms. Stam is currently with IMG models, where her representative Maja Edmonston and the company's fashion division spokesman Zach Eichman did not answer inquiries for comment on Ms. Williams' lawsuit.
New York Model Management has previously settled two claims said to be similar to Ms. Williams', but has yet to reply in court to hers.
"The lawsuit is frivolous, but we don't comment on on-going litigation," said Howard Alperin, lawyer for the company and its sister agency L.A. Models, which is also targeted in Ms. Williams suit.
Nineteen-year-old Ms. Williams hails from suburban Philadelphia, where a talent scout her lawsuit says was connected to the contest approached her in spring 2002.
To enter the contest, she says she had to hand over US$600 and make monthly payments of US$19.95. Later she was told she could win "prize money, guaranteed income, and an exclusive modeling contract," the lawsuit says.
The papers say that after she came in second, she was always "willing and available" to work, but that the agency sent her on "pointless and inappropriate" assignments that "failed to generate income."
She describes one instance where the agency sent her to a modelling competition in Brazil, where she was "severely injured" when the glass runway collapsed.
Instead of compensating her, the agency "billed [her] for the resulting costs, the lawsuit says.
On other occasions, agency representatives were so unprepared, they would "even borrow money" from her.
Ms. Williams is now a business major at Philadelphia's La Salle University.
