Tanya Kersey | Hollywood Career Strategist | Hollywood Career Coach | Entertainment Industry Consultant | Hollywood Career Resources

Scam­mers are as Amer­i­can Pie to Hol­ly­wood as red car­pet pre­miers. Des­per­ate to be a part of the glitz and glam­our of the enter­tain­ment indus­try, many jump at the first oppor­tu­nity that presents itself, regard­less of how much time and money is required. Next thing you know, they’ve forked over a bus­load of cash to some­one they had no busi­ness trust­ing in the first place.

On Mon­day, August 2^nd, high-profile enter­tain­ment attor­ney Dar­rell Miller stopped by Inside Urban Hol­ly­wood to talk with Tanya and Tiffini about how to avoid scam­mers and a host of other top­ics. Dar­rell Miller is a promi­nent attor­ney with more than 18 years of expe­ri­ence in enter­tain­ment and busi­ness law. His clients range from music moguls Ludacris, Andre Ben­jamin of Out­kast, and Mel B of the Spice Girls, to Golden Globe Award Nom­i­nated Actor Brian Under­wood and Acad­emy Award Nom­i­nated Actress Angela Bassett.

Dar­rell blamed the preva­lence of scam­mers to hun­gry indus­try hope­fuls who don’t do their due diligence.

Often I find peo­ple don’t ask the ques­tions. I just think you have to go back to good ole com­mon sense and if a per­son tells you, any­one, not just a lawyer, if any­one says they can do some­thing for you, the first thing that my com­mon sense tells me to ask is what have you done before.

Hol­ly­wood is a mind­field of cre­ative tal­ent. Unfor­tu­nately, many of those cre­ative tal­ents lack the busi­ness acu­men to make it work. Dar­rell argued learn­ing about the busi­ness would also pro­tect hope­fuls from get­ting taken advan­tage of and bet­ter pre­pare them for the hur­tles they’re up against. With the Inter­net pro­vid­ing a plethora of Hol­ly­wood resources, it’s easy to learn just about any­thing. Before spend­ing $18,000 on doing some­thing you’re not 100% sure about, it’s smart to spend $2,000 ensur­ing you’re tak­ing the right course.

For film­mak­ers inter­ested in learn­ing more about enter­tain­ment law, Dar­rell rec­om­mended going to your local law library and tak­ing a quick read of an install­ment from Matthew Ben­ders “Nego­ti­at­ing Enter­tain­ment Contracts.”

To hear Darrell’s advice for work­ing with lawyers out­side of Los Ange­les, land­ing a high-profile enter­tain­ment attor­ney such as him­self, and more infor­ma­tion on how to sniff out scam­mers, lis­ten to the episode below.

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