In the summer of 1978, Hoyt Richards visited Nantucket with his family. One of six children, the 16-year-old adored the annual trip to this Massachusetts island, a paradise of crystal-clear waters, jet skis, and endless sunshine.
But while he was sitting on the beach with a friend, a man spread out a towel, sat down next to Richards, and started talking. "I heard about him from a friend of mine, a guy from New York who was into astrology and ancient religions," Richards recalls. "I remember him saying, 'Oh, you're very smart, so you'll understand this.'".
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The man called himself Frederick von Mierers, and the two quickly developed a friendship that would follow Richards through his studies at Princeton and throughout his later life as one of the world's first male supermodels. But what Richards considered a collective deeply committed to mysticism, spirituality, and personal growth quickly evolved into a controlling cult called "Eternal Values," where Mierers wielded absolute power. Richards considered them family. Now he calls it something else: a cult.
HBO's new documentary series "« Bring Me the Beauties: The Cult of Models, Coming out June 1st, it explores the origins of the enigmatic 1980s group Eternal Values and the attractive models who made up its ranks. The three-part series was directed by Chris Smith ( «The Hundred-Foot Wave» , «"Hit! »"), and it also explores Mierers' teachings and claims, as well as his real history, which he tried to hide behind claims of otherworldly power. The title itself comes from a common demand Mierers made of his followers, stemming from his desire to surround himself with the most attractive people he could find: "Bring me beautiful women.".
«"The hope and vision of the group lay in an altruistic pursuit of self-actualization and an attempt to help people become better versions of themselves. That's what people were hoping for," Smith says. Rolling Stone . »Once we started [digging], things started to unfold and expand in ways that I don’t think we were fully prepared for.”.
The Promise of Eternal Values
Mirers lured followers with talk of enlightenment and mental clarity, often touching on diet, exercise, celibacy, and the willingness to renounce material possessions. But once people were fully captivated—many moved into his Manhattan apartment—he revealed his true message. Mirers considered himself an "alien," an extraterrestrial who had assumed a human body on Earth. He taught that his home star was Arcturus, the spiritual center of the universe, and that only he could save his followers from a coming catastrophe that would destroy much of the world. If they followed his teachings, which included the purchase of healing crystals, they would be saved during the Earth's calamities and returned when they ended to lead a new era.
«"From the outside, you might look at a story like this and think, 'I would never get involved in something like that,'" Smith says. "But many people have connections to cults in their lives that they might not even be aware of, whether it's political affiliations or religious affiliations.".
Mirers was able to afford a lavish lifestyle, relying on the financial support of his followers. While studying at Princeton, Richards was discovered by the Ford Model Agency and quickly became a highly paid male model. After graduating, he moved to New York, where he donated almost all of his earnings directly to the Eternal Values organization. "My career was booming, and I thought it was because I was involved with this group and had consciously decided to dedicate myself to God and spirituality," he says. Rolling Stone . At one point, he was earning nearly $90,000 a month—and Mirers was getting almost all of it.
«"I ignored signs and opportunities simply because I wanted to believe in Freddie's narrative, the possibility of joining this group and this movement that was supposed to help the world," Richards says. "I clung to it so strongly that even when information clearly contradicted reality, I simply blocked it out and self-censored it because I was so determined to maintain the original narrative. You become your own worst enemy.".
Growing tension
The group believed they were achieving spiritual enlightenment by listening to Mirers and abandoning comfort, often sleeping in luxuriously furnished rooms and lounging in heaps on the floor. But Mirers pitted the group members against each other, encouraged control, and began launching "attacks"—harsh and loud criticisms that came out of nowhere and attacked the group members for everything from their appearance to their actions.
Former Eternal Values member Paul Hinton also claims in the documentary that Miers' teachings implied he was above sexual desires, yet the leader secretly engaged in intimate relationships with male sex workers. Hinton believes this behavior ultimately led to Miers' contraction of HIV/AIDS.
The documentary series includes previously unseen archival footage and personal interviews with former members of Eternal Values, many of whom took years to recover from their relationships with Mierers. One former member was supermodel Jackie Adams, who joined the group after reading about Mierers in a book by journalist Ruth Montgomery. «"Aliens Among Us", released in 1985.
During Adams's time in the group, she met John Andreadis, a member of the Eternal Values. Mirers believed Andreadis had also "arrived," destined to become the group's next leader. But when Andreadis and Adams fell in love and married, Mirers considered their relationship a betrayal and turned his back on them. Adams, convinced the group could no longer be trusted, gave a candid interview to a reporter. Vanity Fair , calling Eternal Values a cult and exposing Mirers' practice of charging group members thousands of dollars for cheap gems and crystals.
But in 1990, Mirers died of complications from AIDS, leaving a power vacuum and a split in the group. An article was published shortly afterward. in Vanity Fair , further alienating Adams from her former friends and causing the remaining members of Eternal Values to become even more withdrawn.
«"I don't know if we could have made this [documentary] without Hoyt or Jackie. Hoyt's rise in the modeling world was also a catalyst for the group, but Jackie was the catalyst for its downfall," Smith says. "She was the one who realized that this [group] wasn't what it seemed and that it was an unhealthy environment. Her departure was kind of the beginning of the end.".
An important lesson
After Mirers' death, Richards says, the group became even more brutal, frequently restricting his food intake, verbally abusing him, and even once shaving his head to make it difficult for him to get modeling gigs. His family tried unsuccessfully to intervene at least once, and it took Richards two attempts to leave the group. After years of earning millions, he was left with only $3,000. He fled and moved in with his close friend Fabio Lanzoni—a favor he says still saves his life.
«"I was in a state of severe trauma and panic, suffering from complex post-traumatic stress disorder," Richards says. "Fabio was so empathetic that he said, 'Okay, something really did happen to my friend. He's like a shadow of the guy I know, but if I just give him a safe space and normalize the situation, when he's ready, he'll come and talk.' That's what gave me time to start processing this whole experience.".
Now 64, Richards says he was involved in the project «Bring Me the Beauties» not only for the sake of catharsis, but also to show people how easy it is to succumb to the influence of a charismatic personality.
«"I describe my experience as a 20-year cult-like relationship with a group. I believe cult-like relationships are part of human nature. They're relationships in which we unconsciously give up our power to someone else and then suffer for it," says Richards. "People are drawn to stories like these because, subconsciously, they've experienced something similar, much more subtle, but with the same dynamics. It's truly universal.".
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