Model Behavior?

By: Matthew Felling
Topics: Media Issues

(AP Photo/Rick Maiman)

News broke yesterday about Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo being blackmailed with photos that she originally posted on the web – news that, unsurprisingly, was promptly splayed on New York City tabloids this morning. Not that they're salacious, because they're not. Really:

Reigning Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo told reporters Thursday that someone has threatened to go public with years-old, not salacious pictures of her if she doesn't give up her crown…. Polumbo said that she received copies of between six and a dozen photos—which she and her attorney would only describe as not revealing—in the mail on June 25, accompanied by a letter threatening to publish them unless she relinquished her crown to first runner-up Ronica Licciardello.

Given the fact that this story comes out mere months after also-from-New-Jersey American Idol contestant Antonella Barba's steamy pictures made their way into the public discussion, we here at Public Eye feel the need to supply something along the lines of a Public Service Announcement. Because we're always looking out for the kids.

I, [state your name], being of sound mind and lithe body:

Will no longer seek out the cute guys with cameras at the parties I go to, no matter the number of [drinks consumed]/[games of beer pong played]/[promises that it's just for 'his collection']/[reality TV shows I've submitted applications for]/[compliments I get about the outfit I'm wearing from boys and/or girls]

Will realize that a picture my boyfriend takes is only is as sacred as long as we date; after that, it's Smoking Gun fodder. (That shoebox of pictures under the bed or in the closet? It's now known as the World Wide Web.)

Won't assume that I'll be bailed out by Donald Trump if things get really hairy.

Will not – when/if presented with photos of my wild behavior, particularly those that I posted on my own website or posed for – try to shift the blame to an outside party. It wasn't the photographer's fault. It wasn't the Jager. Maybe you could have, I don't know, given a School Photo-Style Innocuous Smile and moved on.

We here at Public Eye understand that photographers are ubiquitous, whether they're carrying a Canon around their neck or holding a cell phone in their hand. Walking anywhere on Earth nowadays can turn into a wicked game of "Candid Camera." (Even when the images are as innocent as track and field photos.) But there's simply no need to flirt, cavort or perform before every camera that you come across. Just because the person taking the picture may be a friend, the picture itself is not.

Remember: You've got about twenty years until you're allowed to have youthful indiscretions.

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