Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer announced a crackdown on talent agents and managers who illegally charge their clients upfront thousands of dollars for representation and other expenses.
This should come as a wake-up call to aspiring performers: You should not pay your representative until they have obtained work for you.
But there are other danger signs, so please beware and watch out for...
DOUG'S DOZEN: 12 SIGNS THAT YOUR AGENT IS SCAMMING YOU
1. He requires your credit card number before he takes your call.
2. His office is behind a gas station and you drop a quarter in his door to see him.
3. All the pictures on his wall came with the frames.
4. Every time he sends you out on a casting call, your place gets burgled.
5. He takes you out to lunch at his mom's home - then disappears when she brings the check.
6. He charges you for head shots - which he makes by holding your face down on his copier.
7. Your agency contract says "car loan application" and your name goes under "co-signer."
8. He convinces you to act for free in a student film playing a house painter; it turns out to be his house.
9. He insures your life for a million dollars, then flies you in to network at a film festival in Mosul, Iraq.
10. After your role in a medical show no one ever heard of, you realize you are missing a kidney.
11. He keeps coming over to your place at night to help you rehearse for a big porn role.
12. He tells you, "Just sit back and I'll do all the work."
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Read's Doug's comic novella series, Full Moon Fever: Monster, He Wrote, and Full Moon Fever: Pure Silver