Kids, want to appear in a movie with Selena Gomez from the Disney Channel?

I am having fun with this research -

This "business" has several aka:
ACT, Academy of Cinema and Television, Academy of Cinema and TV, DGS Productions, Edge 1 Productions, NedGam Productions, THE

Here is a statement from the main business contact on BBB
http://www.kpho.com/download/2009/0401/19069954.pdf

That's highway robbery for Pete's sake!

and I looked at some other discussion sites and the amounts were even higher at what some people were taken for ...

This whole thing is really depressing for me.
Not just that linkat could have gotten ripped off if she weren't such a smart cookie.
Not just that others do getted ripped off, with the scam artist laughing at them all the way to the bank.

It's this idea so many people have, especially young people, that somehow they will end up under the bright lights, loved and adored by the masses.

I cringe when I hear some celebrity say they "just always knew they would be a star" Like if you wish it hard enough, the rest will somehow fall into place. Same thing with sports stars.

Oh, and all the people who would say that these kids are willing to do the work, they deserve a chance, they should be taken seriously, need a dose of reality themselves.

I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again. It still makes me sick.

When I first moved to Texas, I took various temp jobs for cash income while I searched for a real job. Did a lot of offbeat things, it was fun. Did a lot of boring stuff, not so fun.

I got a 2 day assignment once, for the weekend, at a downtown hotel where there was going to be a beauty contestant search. Those who "qualified" would be invited to give these people all their money to enter them into contests, promote them, whatever the hell it was supposed to be.

Me and maybe 7 or 8 other people had been hired for these 2 days from various temp agencies, and it was our job to be the initial screeners.

So yeah, I guess I was the person who was supposed to be the expert and choose certain "candidates" for the opportunity to stay and meet with the people from them company.

After about an hour, I could have asked the questions in my sleep, it was so incredibly boring. What was depressing was the number of totally normal, nothing special, regular girls who somehow thought they would "be the one"

I remember the 1st day the big conference room filled up at 8am with 100's of girls between the age of probably 8 and 18, and their parents. The presenter was this woman whoI knew, by the time the dog and pony show started, was a complete ******* wacko. She'd been some Mrs. America or something, so that made her the resident expert. You could tell she had been an attractive woman, nothing special though. With all the makeup and slightly too tight clothes (saved by the fact she was wearing a gold cross of course), and 6 inch heels, she created a presence.

After her blah blah blah, in which she reenacted her winning the Mrs America crown, tears in her eyes, joy in her heart, she led the lambs to the slaughter. Many of the parents were just as convinced as the kids this was their big chance.

Most of these girls I didn't spend more than 1 minute with. I had been told what they were looking for, and our kids weren't it.

Face after face after face of average, and let's face it, homely, pudgy, pasty, stringy haired, eyeglass wearing, zits on the forehead kids. Also some cute, but in no way standout kids, cute smile, easy talking, nice girls. Some of both types who broke my heart, because they couldn't even make eye contact, staring at their lap, but with some really awful yearning to suddenly appear in front of thousands, loved and admired.
Many of the kids knew from the get go they didn't have a snowballs chance in hell, and didn't want to be there in the first place. It was the parents who thought their kids were so wonderful. I really hate those parents. You force your acceptable, adequate, very average daughter to stand up against girls who give you this look like "ewww....why are YOU here" The girls know it, but they are stuck with going through this charade.

I can't remember what I asked these kids, but one of the questions was obviously why they wanted to be here.
90% of the girls couldn't answer more than "I just always wanted to win a beauty contest"
"Always" wanted? You're 11 years old for Christs sake
"Win"....not "be in" "try out for"....win...like that was a given.

There was a morning group, then the afternoon....same spiel by Mrs. America....500 more girls.

Next day, 2 more shows.
Mrs. America showed up hungover as a bitch on day 2. Her makeup less carefully applied. Obviously sick, hands a tad shaky.

But the show must go on.

I had to watch her win the Mrs. America title 2 more times, and give another 300 or so girls 2 minutes each. You do the math, me and 6 other women taking to about 25 girls and hour, for a total of 16 hours. That's a lot of ******* unrealistic dreaming going on there.

Intersperced in all of this were the real pageant contenders. The ones we like to envision all these girls being. The dozen or so with a few titles under their belt, who knew the score, who where dazzingly friendly, shrewd and calculating all at the same time.

Linkat, I'm so glad you said in one of your first posts that your girls didn't have talent.
You're right, they don't.
I don't know that personally, and there's a chance I'm wrong.
But you know them, and you said it.

I'm glad they didn't go there and stand around for hours with other girls with no talent, seeing how some other girls were shining diamonds, making them look, not like the cute kids they are, but something dowdy and unworthy of attention.

Your kids are worthy of your attention, they are cute, even though one of them runs funny.
It's wonderful that your kid knows she runs funny, and is totally fine.
I'm glad they aren't going to be there, and have even one little doubt put in them that they aren't worthy of the attention of the people who really matter.

I agree with you whole heartedly. I would not have even agreed to let my daughter call " other than I did the dumb a$$ easy way out before and said sure if you hear that ad again " you can call. And I promised. So I kept my promise.

My girls are sweet, but I’ve seen them perform and only family would find it endearing (to be honest). I love them and that is why I am truthful " I told them it was unlikely (prior to knowing the hoax) they would be picked " they lack the experience. I figured even them failing at it would be a lesson so what the heck.

They are cute " and my daughter has stopped running funny " although I found that cuter.

And to be honest I am glad they don’t have the talent. I wouldn’t want them to a beauty contest kid or a child on TV or the movies. They have more (at least in my opinion) to offer the world than acting, singing or a empty headed beauty.

But I do wish they had called me " I would have loved to drill them. Alas I am sure somebody else will give me the opportunity to drill them in one manner or another.

Drill baby drill.

I did picture something like you described - going into this huge ballroom - kids dressed up like little caritures of small sized adults with the clothes and make up and then my "normal kids". And parents pushing kids into doing this.

It made me feel a little ill - I think that or something else just nagged at me to check them out.

So this finally made it to the "news" well at least on "Inside Edition". They sent a 17 year old and a reporter to this "audition" undercover. The 17 year purposedly messed up her lines. But the next day she got a call back for a meeting with the Director. They said "I want you to know from my heart that if I did not feel that your daughter had the potential I would not have you be making this investment."

Investment? There was no mention of that in the radio commercial. It's only at the audition that you learn that ACT is an expensive acting school, and they wanted us to pay $6,900 for 12 days of group lessons.

They also had a former employee talk with them. "It's a sad joke." She says they decide who gets a callback based on the parent's ability to pay.

"We looked at jewelry, we looked at the shoes you wore, we looked at your clothing. It had nothing to do with talent, it had to do with, could they pay for the school."

She says parents pay because they think the company is associated with Disney.

http://www.insideedition.com/news/4074/inside-editions-hidden-camera-investigation-into-a-child-acting-school.aspx

Not surprised.

There's a lot of cons out there.

So I called my daughters into the room when this came on the TV. My little one says why do they do that, lie to children? Its mean. I said to make lots of money. She then says why? Money isn't that important. You need it for food and a home, but besides that it isn't important. And I responded- isn't it sad that a 7 year old can understand that, but a grown up can't?

Aw. Smart girl.

Glad that this was publicized, hope it keeps other people from being similarly scammed (lotsa not-smart people out there though).

I think sometimes people are blinded when it comes to their children. We are all to a certain extent, but some are really blind.

Just look at idol and how many horrible singers with supportive parents - any way these parents really believe their children can act and are the best so these types of "agencies" feed off that feeling and the children's excitement.

Wow. We my husband and i, were very skepical going into this open audition our company was called The pronouced Tay, with hundreds of parents. They said the right things but it still rubbed us the wrong way I wish there was more info on this scam so more kids hearts would not be broken. We as adults can see the scam but young kids don't. We went to this having never heard of this process but after being herded in we immediately knew it was a fishing trip not a casting call, hook line and sinker.

The other thing is - they repeatedly change the name of the company and often times change it so a google search is almost impossible. We also got this as "The" imagine doing a google search for "The".