AMODELIZER GLOSSARY
Thing = a model
Civilian = women who are not models
"We talk about it all the time, how hard it is to go back to civilians," says
George. "You never meet them or make an
"It's easier to get a model into bed than it is to get a civilian with a career
to put out," says Sandy. Sandy's an actor with brilliant green eyes. "Civilians,
they want stuff from guys."
THINGS DISSECTED
Thursday night at Barolo. Mark Baker, the restaurateur and promoter, is
throwing one of his special parties. Here's how it works: The promoters have
a relationship with the agencies. The agencies know the promoters are
"safe"—i.e., they're going to take care of their girls, entertain them. In turn,
the promoters need the modelizers to take the girls out. The promoters don't
always have the money to take the girls out to dinner. The modelizers do.
Someone's got to feed them. The modelizer meets someone like Mr. Roque.
Mr. Roque wants girls. The modelizers want girls and they also want to hang
out with Mr. Roque. Everyone is happy.
Outside, on this Thursday night, there's pandemonium on the sidewalk.
People pushing, trying to get the attention of a tall, mean-looking guy who
could be part oriental, part Italian. Inside, the place is jammed. Everyone is
dancing, everyone is tall and beautiful.
You talk to a girl with a fake European accent. Then a girl from Tennessee
who just returned from a trip back home. "I was wearing bellbottoms and
platform shoes, and my old boyfriend said, 'Carol Anne, what the hell are you
wearing?' And I said, 'Get with it, honey. This is New York.'"
Jack slides by and starts talking.
"Even if they're dumb, models are very manipulative. You can split them
into three types. One: The new girls in town. They're usually really young—
sixteen, seventeen. They go out a lot. They might not work that much, they
want something to do, they need to meet people, like photographers. Two:
The girls who work a lot. They're a little older, twenty-one and up, they've
been in the business for five years. They never go out,they trevel a lot ,
you almost never dee them.
And three: The supermodels. They're looking for a big-time guy who can do
something for them. They're all obsessed with money, maybe because their
careers are insecure. They won't even look at a guy who has less than twenty
or thirty mil. Plus, they have the 'big girl' complex: They won't hang out with
any girl who's not a top model, and they ignore other models or bitch about
them."
You go down to the bathroom with Jack and hang out in the men's room.
"By the time they get to be twenty-one, these girls have tons of baggage," says
Jack. "They have a history: Children. Guys they've slept with. Guys you don't
like. Most of them come from broken homes or fucked-up backgrounds.
They're beautiful, but in the end, they don't do anything for you. They're
young. They're uneducated. They have no values, you know? I prefer the
older ones. You have to find one without baggage, and I'm on the search."
GET ONE, GET THEM ALL "The trick is to get
one big girl—like a Hunter Reno or a Janna Rhodes," says George. "These are
girls who have done covers in Europe. If you get one, you can get them all. At
a nightclub, you pay attention to the older girls. They always want to go home
early because they have to get up and work. You walk them out to a cab, being
a gentleman, then you go back in and attack the young ones,"
"These girls just want to be comfortable," says Mr. Felske. "They're so
young. They're just finding their way in a grownup world. They're not fully
developed, and they meet these guys who know all the tricks. How hard can
it be?"
Back in the loft, Barkley opens a bottle of Coke and sits on a stool in the
middle of the room. "You think, Who's prettier than a model. But they're not
so smart, they're flakey and fucked up, they're a lot looser than you think. It's
way easier to screw a model than a regular girl. That's what they do all the
time. It's the way regular people are when they're
on vacation. They're away, so they do things they wouldn't normally do. But
these girls are away all the time because they travel from place to place. So
that's what they're like all the time."
Barkley takes a sip from his Coke and scratches his stomach. It's three in
the afternoon, and he just woke up an hour ago. "These girls are nomads," he
says. "They have a guy in every city. They call me when they're in New York,
and I always imagine that they call someone else when they're in Paris or
Rome or Milan. We pretend that we're going out when they're in town. We
hold hands and see each other every day. A lot of girls want that. But then
they're gone." Barkley yawns. "I don't know. There are so many beautiful girls
around that after a while you start looking for someone who can make you
laugh."
"It's amazing sometimes what you'll do to be with these girls," George
says. "I went to church with one girl and her daughter. I've started to hang out
with older girls almost exclusively. I've got to retire soon. They keep me from
getting work done. They make me fuck up my life." George shrugged and
glanced out the window of his 34th-floor office at the view of midtown
Manhattan. "Look at me," he says. "I'm an old man at twenty-nine."