Caribbean’s Next Top Model runs into $$ problems

Ten days’ work for Douglas Brunton amounted to $14,000. For Brent Webster, it’s $17,439.84. Brunton and Webster are two members of the production crew of Caribbean’s Next Top Model who claim they have not been paid for working for an additional ten days on the Wendy Fitzwilliam-produced show.

 

Three weeks after the show premiered on TV6, amid much publicity for the former beauty queen turned producer, the crew is demanding payment from Fitzwilliam. And in a bid to claim their earnings, the crew, including the technical team as well as service providers, is threatening legal action to recoup money that they say is still owed to them.

 

The directors of Caribe NTM are Fitzwilliam and her sister Dionyse. Fitzwilliam is host of the show and the sisters share the executive producer title. The show is sponsored by TSTT/LIME, Caribbean Airlines, Sasha Cosmetics, Blue Waters, Domino’s Pizza, Micles, Galleria and the Trotters Group.

 

The crew told the Sunday Guardian they worked on the production from October 10 to November 20, 2011. They claim they were originally contracted to work for 30 days but when the scheduled period was up and production was not completed, they were asked to continue for ten extra days. However, they were only paid for 30 days and payment on the extra ten days remains outstanding.

 

“We were brought in for a 30-day shoot and on the 28th or 29th day we realised we had to go over the time,” said Brunton, who worked as the lead story producer and writer on the show. “A meeting was held with the executive producer and Ian Royer (creative director) on behalf of Caribe NTM and we were told we would have to work an additional ten days. I got paid for the 30 days but I haven’t been paid for the ten. They owe me $14,000.

 

“I am a freelancer,” he added. “I live hand to mouth. I was promised a down payment, never got it. I was avoiding my landlord, bailiffs. I was under severe pressure. The $14,000 that they owe me will go a long way.” Webster, who worked as the technical producer, says he is owed $17,439.84.

 

“Dionyse and Wendy said in August that they are in talks and when the show airs everybody would be paid. When the show aired I gave them a call, but: nothing.” CNTM is currently on its third episode and apart from T&T, shows throughout the Caribbean on CaribVision and CBS affiliate One Caribbean Television.

 

In addition to the crew, two service providers are also claiming they are owed money. Robin Foster, who worked as the head sound person, told the Sunday Guardian he is still owed $21,000 for equipment rental, while Steve Hosein, who says he supplied food to all the locations where the show was filmed, is owed $60,000.

 

“I put out money for two and a half months to feed the crew. I was paid $9,000 but they owe me $60,000 still. I’ve called and called, written letters, spoken to Wendy, Shane Ram (the director of Business Development for Caribe NTM, who was mainly responsible for HR issues and government relations).

 

“It is totally demoralising. I went ahead and borrowed money and paid my staff. I owe people, I have credit card debt,” he says. Danielle Dieffenthaller, who was the director of the production and was responsible for the crew, says out of 60 crew members, only eight were paid right away.

 

“There are people who were paid the 40 days, so any conversation about them [the producers] not knowing about the 40 days is negated by that.” She says at a meeting on December 5 the crew members were all given post-dated run over

 

 

Workers claim they’re still owed

...for the Wendy Fitzwilliam-produced show cheques to cover the initial 30-day contract. However, the cheques bounced. In an e-mail dated December 12, Dionyse explained that the account had not been funded.

 

“The Scotia TT account has not yet been funded, but will be shortly and you will be advised. We apologise for the delay and understand that people have commitments and there are certain suppliers etcetera who are still to be paid, so we are working on this real time,” she wrote.

 

Dieffenthaller says payments were eventually made on December 23, 2011 but before that she sought her attorney’s counsel when, she says, the producers tried to renegotiate the contracts.

 

 

Dieffenthaller held on to the footage, demanding Caribe NTM pay the money owed, and says security guards were sent to seize the footage. After a four-month battle, in which the T&T Film Company was called in to mediate, Dieffenthaller was paid all her money and she handed over the footage.

 

“Dionyse said they didn’t have money but they needed the footage to get investors and then they would be able to pay us,” claims Amir Mohammed, who worked on the production as a locations manager and assistant director. He says he is owed his ten days plus compensation for bills accrued. When contacted via Facebook, Royer declined to comment, saying: “Due to the confidentialities I signed, I am unable to make a comment.”

 

 

No contracts
Fitzwilliam, on the other hand, remains unapologetic. While she acknowledges that the crew did work for the period to finish the production, she says there was no agreement to pay for the extra ten days. She says neither Dieffenthaller nor Royer—who resigned on December 9, 2011—was authorised to make such decisions.

 

 

She points to a clause in Dieffenthaller’s contract which says: “The contractor shall have no authority, either expressed or implied, to enter into any such agreements or contracts on behalf of the company or to otherwise bind the company in any way.”

 

She says her sister told the group that payment had to be discussed. “There was never any decision by the executive with regard to the ten days.” When asked why the crew was allowed to continue filming, she said, “At the end of the 30 days they could have walked away, but they chose to stay.”

 

Wendy says apart from Dieffenthaller and her assistant Alastair Waithe, no one else had a signed contract.

 

 

Dieffenthaller drew up revised contracts for all of the rest of the crew when the 30 days were up. She sent them via e-mail to Dionyse on December 5, writing: “This is the spreadsheet with which I am working. It is the one based on the contracts from November 12, which was the last day of the initial contract. I negotiated with some people until November 22 and others preferred to keep their initial date and negotiate the ten days at the end.

 

“Based on a discussion with yourself, Shane and Ian, it was agreed that you would pay people the extra ten days two weeks after this initial payment. I recall us calculating that it would take us to the 22nd of December.”

 

Admitting that she was busy in her role as on-air talent and didn’t realise what was happening behind the scenes until late, Fitzwilliam accuses Dieffenthaller of going over budget on the production and blames Waithe, who was the production manager, for not keeping track of the costs.

 

Fitzwilliam also reveals that after getting her sister to buy and rent equipment in the US for US$175,000 and assuring nothing else was needed, Dieffenthaller handed them an invoice of $58,000 for equipment rented from her own company Diefferent Style Production, that they knew nothing about. The invoice, which Fitzwilliam showed to the Sunday Guardian, is dated November 22, 2011.

 

She also claims that if the service providers could produce documentation that shows they performed their particular service, they would be paid. Kalloo’s, which provided transportation, was paid, she says.

 

 

On the issue of the caterer, Fitzwilliam counters that Hosein had no contract and nothing to prove he delivered food to any of the locations. However, the Sunday Guardian received an e-mail showing receipts signed by Princess Donelan, first assistant director, for collecting the items he delivered.

 

 

‘I would like to pay the crew’
Saying neither she nor some of the on-air talent have been paid, Fitzwilliam says despite everything, she would like to pay the crew. “We are working towards it, cause they gave blood. The cameramen were amazing; they gave blood and were delightful to work with. “We all wanted this project to work and what happened in this context was miscommunication. “

 

She says her payment and any further payment to the crew would be based on the success of the show, post-production of which was done by Blue Collar Productions in the Los Angeles. “The crew or anyone else destroying it would be a loss to us and the Caribbean,” Fitzwilliam commented. Meanwhile, the crew members are considering filing an injunction against the show if their money is not paid.

 

Crunching the numbers
Fitzwilliam says Dieffenthaller’s initial budget was $750,000 but by the end it was revised to over $1 million. A summary of estimated budget costs that Dieffenthaller submitted on October 1, 2011, shows the estimated budget to be $935,453 and the working costs to be $1,300,148.

 

A look at the accounts from then accountant Eileen Cogdell shows accrual expenditure—that is, expenses incurred between July 1, 2011 and February 1, 2012—was actually $3,362,036.61 out of the $9,582,492 budget.