The supermodel manager who launched the careers of Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Seymour and Milla Jovovich has his eye on a budding beauty — Paris Jackson, the only daughter of the late King of Pop.
Michael Flutie, creator and star of the new modeling industry reality show “Scouted,” which premiered last night on E!, tells Flash he wrote to 13-year-old Paris in hopes of making her a model.
“I just basically introduced myself and said, ‘If you want to talk about this, there’s an incredible opportunity and I would be very selective,’ ” Flutie said. “I think she’s stunning. I said I would actually become a modeling agent again and only represent her, because that’s how beautiful I think she is.”
After three decades in the high-gloss industry, Flutie knows how to transform girls into glamazons. He discovered 15-year-old Jaime King at an amateur fashion show in Nebraska, signed Rhea Durham (the model wife of Mark Wahlberg) outside a nightclub in Paris, and sent young Crawford on bookings that would turn her into an iconic supermodel.
“Cindy really took high school very seriously,” Flutie recalled. “She didn’t want to leave school, although American Vogue was calling and saying, ‘We want you to work with Irving Penn.’ She was like, ‘I’m not available.’ ”
Flutie’s passion for fashion models inspired “Scouted,” which he calls “the most organic process you’ll watch in a Cinderella, fairy-like docu-series.” That’s Flutie-speak for: It’s a reality show striving for reality.
“Shows like ‘Project Runway’ and ‘Top Model’ have sort of created a misrepresentation of what really the business is about,” he said matter-of-factly. “I know that both of those are very successful shows, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for them, but that’s not how it really happens.”
There are no tense judges’ tables or contrived challenges on “Scouted,” which shows how leggy potential models are plucked from shopping malls and parking lots in the heartland and then shipped to New York, where Flutie and his staff, along with One Model Management head Scott Lipps, test the models for greatness.
The standard is excruciatingly high in what Flutie calls “the Olympic village” of modeling. He is a man who notices imperfection (even if it is endearing) in today’s model standard-bearer Karlie Kloss.
“She doesn’t have a very strong upper lip, but she has incredible character and charisma,” Flutie pointed out.
Some of the “Scouted” contenders get signed, some are rejected and some get to rub bony elbows with One models Bar Refaeli and Selita Ebanks. All are counseled by Flutie, a fast-talking and fabulous natural reality star.
“I’m looking for models with spirit and confidence,” he told Flash. “If we’re going to go away for 21 days, and we’re gonna be on a caravan in Africa, and we’re gonna shoot the next resort story, someone who’s not gonna complain, who’s gonna ride an elephant or walk through the jungle barefoot!”
Paris Jackson, how does that sound to you?
Michael Flutie, creator and star of the new modeling industry reality show “Scouted,” which premiered last night on E!, tells Flash he wrote to 13-year-old Paris in hopes of making her a model.
“I just basically introduced myself and said, ‘If you want to talk about this, there’s an incredible opportunity and I would be very selective,’ ” Flutie said. “I think she’s stunning. I said I would actually become a modeling agent again and only represent her, because that’s how beautiful I think she is.”
After three decades in the high-gloss industry, Flutie knows how to transform girls into glamazons. He discovered 15-year-old Jaime King at an amateur fashion show in Nebraska, signed Rhea Durham (the model wife of Mark Wahlberg) outside a nightclub in Paris, and sent young Crawford on bookings that would turn her into an iconic supermodel.
“Cindy really took high school very seriously,” Flutie recalled. “She didn’t want to leave school, although American Vogue was calling and saying, ‘We want you to work with Irving Penn.’ She was like, ‘I’m not available.’ ”
Flutie’s passion for fashion models inspired “Scouted,” which he calls “the most organic process you’ll watch in a Cinderella, fairy-like docu-series.” That’s Flutie-speak for: It’s a reality show striving for reality.
“Shows like ‘Project Runway’ and ‘Top Model’ have sort of created a misrepresentation of what really the business is about,” he said matter-of-factly. “I know that both of those are very successful shows, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for them, but that’s not how it really happens.”
There are no tense judges’ tables or contrived challenges on “Scouted,” which shows how leggy potential models are plucked from shopping malls and parking lots in the heartland and then shipped to New York, where Flutie and his staff, along with One Model Management head Scott Lipps, test the models for greatness.
The standard is excruciatingly high in what Flutie calls “the Olympic village” of modeling. He is a man who notices imperfection (even if it is endearing) in today’s model standard-bearer Karlie Kloss.
“She doesn’t have a very strong upper lip, but she has incredible character and charisma,” Flutie pointed out.
Some of the “Scouted” contenders get signed, some are rejected and some get to rub bony elbows with One models Bar Refaeli and Selita Ebanks. All are counseled by Flutie, a fast-talking and fabulous natural reality star.
“I’m looking for models with spirit and confidence,” he told Flash. “If we’re going to go away for 21 days, and we’re gonna be on a caravan in Africa, and we’re gonna shoot the next resort story, someone who’s not gonna complain, who’s gonna ride an elephant or walk through the jungle barefoot!”
Paris Jackson, how does that sound to you?
