THE “KIM DAWSON LAW”

SPATS Next month, the new Texas Talent Agency Act begins the state’s crackdown on those marginally ethical agencies whose motto might be “Give me your money and I’ll make you a star.”

At issue are the not quite tall enough, talented enough, or “structurally pretty” enough wannabe models who are generally ignored by the large SAG/AFTRA agencies like KIM DAWSON, SARAH NORTON, JOY WYSE, and PEGGY TAYLOR,but get plenty of encouragement (for a price) at smaller agencies that sometimes cut ethical corners. Now, under the TTAA, all talent agencies (as defined by law) must be registered and bonded.

Dawson, who’s been pushing for the legislation for 12 years, believes it will help rid the industry of rip-off artists. But JACK BUCKLIN, a Dallas casting agent who runs Media Enterprises, claims that the original TTAA would have made it impossible for the small, non-franchised agencies to stay in business. Bucklin wrote an eight-page open letter calling Dawson a “vigilante” and sent copies to dozens of industry heavyweights, legislators, the governor, and the Texas Board of Labor and Standards. He believes his efforts resulted in a subsequent amendment weakening the bill.

Bucklin says his anti-Daw-son tirade has resulted in bomb threats and “eerie voices” on his answering machine, SYLVIA GILL director of Kim Daw-son’s talent division, says she believes Bucklin is “crazy,” while Dawson herself says she’s never even met him. Yet Buck-lin remains convinced that what he calls ’’the Dawson Clique” (made up of Dawson, Wyse, and Norton) has been trying to put him out of business for years now. Bucklin says his integrity “has been hit hard,” so he’s closing down his business to write a book on “the whole dern thing. I’m sick of the ego trips and the unrealistic expectations. You can’t be in the modeling business anymore without people, young girls and their mothers, expecting you to rip them off.”