My two girls were approached by Shawnae Jebbia (Miss USA 1998, yes she did mention that!) at The LA County Fair. They were told how cute they were and were asked to come to a "Casting Call" for a commercial! She gave us a business card with her name and phone number on it, 310-863-8037. I called the number and there was a recording describing how they will not ask for any money and details of where to come for the casting call. You are also told there will be directors there and people from SAG, yada yad yada.
I actually looked Shawnae Jebbia up on the internet and saw that she is who she says she is so I thought ok this might be legit. So I took five hours off work and drove 150 miles round trip. There was a line of kids there, maybe 20-30. Shawnae was there with a big smile on her face, she put a mark on our paperwork (she probably gets her commision for getting us there.) They will ask your kid to stand in front of some guy on a couch who says "Slate" Your child is suppose to Say their name and age. He then tells you to go to another room where there is a nice guy in a chair. Your child then stands on a stage in front of a green screen and is on camera. He asks them questions and says how good they look on camera, how they could be Disney Kids and how comfortable they look up there.
About 2-3 days later you get a call for a second appearance. We had realized the scam by then and did not go but we did get two calls from Gary Spatz Film inviting our child back. We have since found out this is nothing more than an acting school, a very high priced acting school and was never a casting call for a commercial. We feel stupid that we got sucked into this waste of time and money but with a former Miss USA using her influence, we fell for it. Their school may very well be all they say it is but why do they have to misrepresent themselves in this way. Larry San Diego, CA
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