Porn Valley- Not too long ago, James Bartholet started up a public relations company called Galaxy, and, so far, he’s been doing pretty well filling his roster with stars.
But, as any of us doing business in the adult sector come to learn sooner or later, the check isn’t always in the mail. Or, if it is, don’t count your chickens until they’re cashed. Bartholet learned that with a male talent named David Goldwyn- not to be confused with Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
Goldwynn, who’s with Foxxx Modeling, approached Bartholet for some representation then promptly wrote a bad check. [Talent agent Skooby pulled the same shit on me a couple of years ago.]
“He broke contract,” says Bartholet. “He told me about a book that he wrote and stuff. Then we tried to contact the publisher to find more information and couldn’t get hold of the publisher. He wrote a book about dating and how to make love to a woman and all these other kinds of tips.
“He e-mailed me a manuscript and we were, okay, we’re going to set this up and get you a book signing but we need to hear from your publisher to get this set up. We waited and never heard anything. Then red flags started going up, and I told the kid we need to get some money here. He gave me a hundred bucks in cash then wrote a check for $650 which bounced. We checked with the bank and he put a stop payment on it.”
“I was told by the bank you can go to court but you’ll have a tough time trying to collect,” Bartholet goes on to say. “He could say he doesn’t have any money and you’re screwed. You go to one of those TV judges. I said I didn’t have the time to do it. They said the TV judge will make sure you get paid and all the court costs are paid. Something like that. But this is such a nightmare.”
Bartholet says his other clients pay on time and he hasn’t had any problems till now.
“I’m very fortunate that I have clients that aren’t flaky, except in this instance,” states Bartholet.
Goldwyn, who apparently lives in West Hollywood, left Bartholet one e-mail to the effect that he was sorry about the situation and was going to take care of it. Besides, Goldwyn also gave the impression that his parents were well off.
“He was driving a couple of brand new cars,” says Bartholet. “I asked where he got them, and he said mommy and daddy got them for him. Hmmm, I wonder if mommy and daddy know you’re a porn star?”
According to Bartholet, Goldwyn fed him a story about his being a big model with Armani.
“We believed all of this stuff,” says Bartholet. “He told me to call at his house which we’ve done. There’s an older gentleman that answers and I’ve called several times. We ask are you the roommate, are you the father? He won’t say anything, of course. We ask when is he going to be back. The answer is I don’t know. Does he live there? Yeah, he does. Is he getting any of these messages?”
“I’ve been to the bank several times and his bank, Wells Fargo says we’re really sorry but this guy stopped payment,” Bartholet continues, having been told by the bank that Goldwyn had plenty of money in the account. Other than that, the bank couldn’t help him more than that.
“There’s something really, really wrong there,” states Bartholet.
Bartholet figures, as it stands, that this will be a lose-lose situation for Goldwyn.
“I have no qualms whatsoever suing the kid. We have spent the time and the man hours putting out press releases. We had one going out on him and nixed the story.”
Bartholet says he’s incurred a bunch of fees of his own because of Goldwyn’s check bouncing.
“I would love to get this thing resolved,” says Bartholet. “If I can’t get the kid on the phone, how does his agent?”
According to what Bartholet’s being told, Goldwyn hasn’t been seen around for weeks.
“We’re a good publicity company,” Bartholet goes on to say. “We’re small, we’re just starting out, but we try to do the most we can for our clients. We don’t charge an arm and a leg and try to do everything we can to help their careers. I’ve gotten a couple of girls on magazine covers and we’re trying to help them out with some mainstream things.”