CultNEWS101 Articles: 5/25/2026

[Patrick Ryan]

Culture & Media

New Docuseries 

HBO: Original Documentary Series BRING ME THE BEAUTIES: A MODEL CULT Debuts June 1

"BRING ME THE BEAUTIES: A MODEL CULT chronicles Hoyt Richards, who, at 16 years old, meets an enigmatic Manhattan socialite on a Nantucket beach and is pulled into his spiritual group, Eternal Values. Soon after, Richards ascends to fame as one of the first male supermodels of the 1980s.

Eternal Values, the cult-like group, and its larger-than-life leader Frederick von Mierers, leveraged the glamorous world of 1980s New York to prey upon a community of young models and professionals, seducing them with his New Age cocktail of metaphysical and spiritual teachings, and entangling them in a web of fabrication and exploitation.

Told through intimate, first-person narration, the series tracks Hoyt’s involvement with the group and its charismatic guru. Richards, who met von Mierers in high school, was captivated with his worldly wisdom and teachings on spirituality, love and self-improvement. After graduating college, Hoyt moved into Frederick’s New York City apartment where he became a devoted follower of von Mierers, all while rising to fame as one of the world’s first male supermodels."

New Video

ICSA: Luncheon Talk: Paul Martin Memorial Lecture

The Paul R Martin Memorial Lecture honors and celebrates the work of Paul Martin by highlighting in accessible terms and for an inter-disciplinary audience the key advances in research on cults and cultic abuse and the successful treatment of the victims of this abuse. 

In the inaugural Paul R Martin Memorial Lecture, Rod Dubrow-Marshall will summate on the body of research that Paul Martin led and co-ordinated in his lifetime as the Director of the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center in Ohio. This will include a summary of research undertaken by Paul Martin and several colleagues on the Wellspring treatment approach and outcomes, the identification of a distinct pattern of harm arising from cults and the legal and policy implications of these findings. The lecture will also summarise possible next steps for advancing the research pioneered by Paul Martin and others at Wellspring.

Updates

Legislative & Legal

LGBTQ Nation: The LDS church sued him for telling LGBTQ+ Mormons’ stories. Now he’s fighting back.

The podcast has seen a huge spike in its audience since the lawsuit.

"The Church of Latter-Day Saints (aka. the Mormon Church) has filed a lawsuit against a podcast whose host interviews LGBTQ+ Mormons. The church is accusing the podcasters of trademark infringement, claiming that the branding around the podcast Mormon Stories deliberately misleads people into thinking the podcast and its content are affiliated with the church. The podcaster says that’s not true.

“Defendants’ use of Church trademarks and copyrighted materials has caused and will continue to cause individuals to be confused and mistakenly access Defendants’ content, believing it comes from, is affiliated with, or is endorsed by the Church,” the church claimed in its lawsuit.

“This is not by accident. Defendants adopted a blue MORMON STORIES logo with a light-rays design prominently used by the Church, showing Defendants’ intent to capitalize on and increase confusion. Defendants’ logo was calculated to imitate the Church’s logos by using confusingly similar color, font, and other design elements.”

Mormon Stories is a podcast hosted by John Dehlin, a psychologist who was once part of the church. The long-form episodes include interviews with ex-members of the church, people who converted to the faith from around the world, and experts on religion and the church.

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultMediation.com   

Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources about: cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations, and related topics.

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