Friday, October 19, 2018

Four For Friday - The Con

Oh, well you look at the deal this A- list mostly television actress from two very hit shows airing simultaneously has managed to achieve. Not only has she managed to get a sibling hired by the network show she is on, she is using that credit to steal money from even more parents.

You see, the sibling runs a "workshop" for young actors. It is a scam. It preys on parents who want to get their kids in the business. They use the name of our actress and her big hits to get people to pay money. That money is for "workshops," but never amounts to anything that was promised or implied to the parents about the success their kids will have. There is an organization that alerts parents to scams like this and has tried to warn people about the sibling scam. One specific organization that has been at the forefront of stopping them has been trashed everywhere online by a bot farm which was retained by the sibling and her partner. At the same time, the bot farm generates comments and articles on fake websites that praise the "workshops."

It is really distressing that the awful showrunner of the network hit is allowing this to go on with what looks like his approval.


29 comments:

  1. Yhought it was a blind about Chicago comicon, because Hiddles and Olsen made a pannel discussion together and they seem in friendly good terms.
    Also on another comicon was Cumberbatch.

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  2. "A- list mostly television actress from two very hit shows airing simultaneously"

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  3. Parents who want their kids to be entertainers are truly pieces of shit.

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  4. Ariel is both on Modern Family and voices Sofia The First which are airing simultaneously. Her sister Shanelle Workman was a child actress on One Life To Live. I can see her using her background to teach a workshop for child actors on how to break into the Biz.

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  5. Agree with Montana. Her sister runs Gray studios and they have a bunch of workshops. So then Steve Leviathan for the awful showrunner.

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  6. 'Not only has she managed to get a sibling hired by the network show she is on'

    Huh? ariel winters sister is on modern family, since when?

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  7. Nope, I'm not seeing Ariel Winter and his sister Shanelle Workman fitting the blind, who else?

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  8. Best advice I ever got about my children in entertainment was from a father of an actress daughter.

    If you child doesn't love just getting up in front of strangers and doing a song and dance on cue, they will never make it in entertainment.

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    1. Here's some advice...let them be kids and earn your own pay check

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  9. In this day and age no parent should let their child get within 100 miles of Hollywood or any child talent agent.

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  10. does Alexa Breckenridge have any siblings? Sibling could have been hired in a technical or behind the scenes role. In This is Us & AHS, showrunner as Ryan Murphy.

    I feel like this must be someone with a decent role on the show to have this much pull but I'm not finding many people in 2 shows at once that fit.

    Adina Porter is in the 100 & AHS also but I think 100 is "almost network"

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  11. Or Sara Gilbert has the Connors & Living Biblically (CBS)

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  12. Alexandra Breckenridge hasn't been on AHS for years. She was only a regular on Season 1 and briefly appeared as another character in the Witch season. AHS actually revisited the Season 1 Murder House setting on this week's episode but did not use her.

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    1. That episode was amazing. Best ever on AHS.

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  13. Let's not all shit on Shanelle please keep in mind. Shanelle took Ariel in after the crazy mom shit hit the fan. Took care of her until she could get her life and affairs settled. Most importantly, David is an heir to the pepsi fortune. His grandfather was one of the founding members.

    They had the school before Ariel was famous. I don't think this is them. A 2 second google search shows Ariel is not on their website.

    http://graystudiosla.com/press/

    Also, i'm not a bot tyvm.

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    1. Only a bot woulda say I'm not a bot

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  14. Sara has several siblings & "The Con" could be a hint towards "The Conners"?

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  15. Hmmm could the organization be Bizparentz.org?
    They have been great at spotting all kinds of scams peripheral to child performers.

    The other big organization is Paul (The Donna Reed Show) Petersen's A Minor Consideration but that organization caters to both past & present child performers plus he is reasonably well known & liked/supported so that would be my 2nd guess & not my 1st (he is less likely to get or take crap from a bot farm assuming he were being subjected to it).

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  16. I know some parents of talented kids who let them take part in some professional work....BUT...they refuse to be caught up in the dreams the agents build for the kids. They refuse to force their kids into professional work if the kids aren't into it or have better things to do. They refuse to allow their children to be alone on set or photo shoots. They treat it like a fun diversion, not a professional obligation for their children. School, family, hobbies and LIFE come first, not performing for cameras.

    To the kids, it's not even something to brag about at school since the parents treat it like something ordinary, not special, not any more special than sports or the chess club.

    I've been told that if the kids want to seek acting or stage work as a real profession, they are going to have to wait till after highschool and at least a couple years of college.

    There are right ways and wrong ways of dealing with talented kids. Even parents of kids talented in sports or math can go about it the wrong way if they depend too much, personally, on those aspirations.

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  17. Ariel Winter. My clue is that the Casting Associate for Modern Family, Allen Hooper as been a vocal proponent for workshops. His website says he has a side hustle doing them http://www.allenhooper.com/Workshop.htm Sooprise, sooprise, Gray Studios, owned by Ariel Winter sister Shanelle Gray, is on his recommended list of acting coaches http://www.allenhooper.com/Workshop/Coaches.htm
    If this doesn't scream grease-the-palms-for-a-job-on-my-show, I don't know what does.

    When the CSA members were prosecuted last year, he was the guy yelling the loudest about how "wronged" they were even though they were convicted and/or pled guilty. Wouldn't surprise me if he was part of the bot scheme. I remember being surprised that ABC and Steve Levitan would allow Hooper to be such a vocal Trump supporter. https://screenrant.com/modern-family-creator-steve-levitan-leaving-fox/

    My guess would mean Ariel Winter was the actress, Shanelle Gray her sister with the scam, Gray Studios. Shanelle has kids that are actresses with the last name Gray, so maybe they are on one of Ariel's shows? Who is the current showrunner for Modern Family since Levitan left?

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  18. The Bot Farms should be fined. Literally everyone uses them but they are usually only associated with Trump/Russia/GOP. Hollywood and the phony feminists are always crying about "Trump Bots" while using bots to promote themselves and their agendas.

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  19. @Mel

    If you think bots are only attributed to Vlad and his cockholster, you don't get out much.

    Bot farms are a thing. Many times they are hired for advertising with short positive reviews for products or TV shows, sometimes only a "good show, thumbs up!" One can see them everywhere. Two places to watch bot behavior in all it's glory is on Blind Gossip and The Daily Mail. When a bot comment disappears off the first page of the comments, it's repeated again under a different account, the same exact words so it stays on the first comment page under articles. That's the DM way. Blind Gossip is a touch different in that bots post the answer that BG wants out there, over and over again, it used to be hundreds of times before BG was called out and cooled it...a bit.

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  20. Haha maybe CDAN is so nuts that bot farms don't fare well here.

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  21. I think that it's because despite all the personal disagreements, the posters here would collectively lose our shit if this became a bot haven. Oh there are paid posters here and publicist lackeys, but no bots that I can tell. Bots don't do well on boards where personalities and conversations (however nasty) are the norm.

    Other bot spots - YouTube comments sections and Yahoo boards.

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  22. CDaN has A.I.s, not bots. Some more "I." than others.

    They are easily identifiable with their seemingly schizophrenic black//white tone-deafness about certain subjects. @plot can't not defend pedos or not comment negatively about trump, so it pretends to not learn or remember anything. @Viking can't not defend Johnny Depp, yet "believes all women always." @Hamid can't not insult a certain religion, but is completely non-religious. @angela (the dude) can't not be concise, while never providing corroborative links for anything they say, yet can't not believe every word.

    Just some feedback for your programmers to smooth over going forward. The collective inter webs so offended groups are not real life. Only exposing your AI to humans electronically fails to recognize they lie. Exposing them to humans, fails the end goal of exposing your lies.

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  23. Ariel Winter and brother-in-law David Gray:

    https://elevatestudios.org/acting-workshop-with-world-famous-gray-studios/

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  24. What about Emma Kenney - Shameless and The Conners?

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