Michael Flutie
Encyclopedia
Michael Flutie is an American model agent, talent brand manager, and New York City
-based media personality.
, Michael Flutie began his career in the fashion industry working at Elite Model Management
in 1982 when founder John Casablancas ran the agency. Throughout the 1980s, Michael worked with top models of the time including Stephanie Seymour
, Cindy Crawford
, Tatjana Patitz
, Frederique van der Wal
, Carré Otis
, Milla Jovovich
, among others.
In the late 1980s, Michael moved to Paris
and worked at City Models, an agency run by ex-model Louise Despointes. While in Paris, Michael worked directly with models such as Carla Bruni
and Famke Janssen
.
Company Management in 1990 with the help of his mother and two brothers. Focusing on non-traditional beauty and developing models with extensive editorial background, Michael became a new force in the modeling world.
By the mid-1990s, this boutique agency became a major player in American modeling and was considered a rival to top agencies Ford Models
and Elite. He discovered hundreds of new models and developed the careers of Beri Smither
, Amy Wesson
, Jaime King
, Rhea Durham
, Alexis Bledel
, Frankie Rayder
, Jamie Rishar, Kristine Szabo, Sarah Murdoch
(née O'Hare), Carina Wretman, and Bridget Moynahan
.
Michael Flutie advocated for the fair treatment of models and even voiced support for a model's union or guild to protect their interests.
Flutie became directly embroiled in the heroin chic
modeling controversy that dominated the fashion world in the mid-1990s and lobbied against the glamorization and use of drugs in the fashion community. This came to a crescendo when young fashion photographer Davide Sorrenti
died of a overdose from heroin in February 1997. Davide’s girlfriend at the time, Flutie’s rising star Jaime King
, was taking a break from modeling and was battling drug and alcohol addiction of her own. Later that same year in 1997, Flutie again garnered attention when he fired and sued his model Amy Wesson
when she was battling her own addictions and kept missing job bookings.
In the late 1990s, Michael wore a new hat as a publicist
when he started a PR firm called Flutie Media that complemented the modeling agency. Around the same time, Michael’s brother Robert Flutie established Flutie Entertainment, a talent management firm for actors and entertainers eventually based in Los Angeles.
After experiencing a major downturn in business, being targeted by a class action lawsuit by models, and other struggles, Company Management eventually stopped representing models after the turn of the millennium. The corporate entity filed for bankruptcy protection in the fall of 2002.
talent and experts for brand partnership and licensing deals beginning in 2003. Flutie called this new venture MFO and clients initially included Thom Filicia
and Kyan Douglas
from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Flutie orchestrated Thom’s endorsement deal with Pier 1 Imports
in 2003, Xerox
in 2004, and numerous other projects. Flutie put together a deal for Kyan to be a spokesperson and product advisor for L’Oreal in 2004. The Pier 1 and L'Oreal deals were considered groundbreaking in terms of an openly gay person representing a major corporation’s products.
Flutie worked with country music
superstar
Tim McGraw
on his fragrance with Coty, Inc.
called McGraw, launched in the summer of 2008. The McGraw fragrance won two prestigious FiFi Awards
in May 2009. Flutie then collaborated with Tim McGraw's wife superstar
Faith Hill
on her Coty fragrance called Faith Hill Parfums, launched in late 2009.
Other clients of MFO include fashion stylists Mary Alice Stephenson and Annabel Tollman
, models Beri Smither
and Kristine Szabo, and the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund.
on the E!
Television Network focusing on discovering models.
Michael appeared in the Style Section of The New York Times in 1999 with a profile on his fashion sense.
Michael Flutie appeared in the MTV
Made (TV series)
broadcast in the fourth season in 2004 on the episode about two sisters Megan and Katelyn Gelber wanting to become movie stars. Flutie was the expert guiding them throughout the episode and helping to achieve their dream.
Michael Flutie has publicly commented on topics ranging from the Kate Moss
cocaine scandal in 2005, Madonna
dating young Brazilian model Jesus Luz in 2009, and the feasibility of a Michael Jackson
fragrance in 2011.
Michael Flutie co-produced the reality show America's Most Smartest Model
on the VH1
network in 2007. The series featured Flutie client and fashion expert Mary Alice Stephenson as a co-host of the show.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
-based media personality.
Early career
After graduating from New York UniversityNew York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, Michael Flutie began his career in the fashion industry working at Elite Model Management
Elite Model Management
Elite Model Management is a large modeling agency based in New York and Paris. It is a subsidiary of Elite World S.A.-History:Founded in France in 1972 by John Casablancas and Alain Kittler, it was rebought in 1990 by Nicholas Farrae. Elite World S.A. is the parent company of Elite Model...
in 1982 when founder John Casablancas ran the agency. Throughout the 1980s, Michael worked with top models of the time including Stephanie Seymour
Stephanie Seymour
Stephanie Michelle Seymour is an American model and actress. Seymour has modeled for many notable fashion magazines and designers, and has been photographed by several well-known photographers including Herb Ritts, Richard Avedon, Gilles Bensimon, and Mario Testino.-Career:Born in San Diego,...
, Cindy Crawford
Cindy Crawford
Cynthia Ann "Cindy" Crawford is an American model. Known for her trademark mole just above her lip, Crawford has adorned hundreds of magazine covers throughout her career. She was named #3 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of the 90s...
, Tatjana Patitz
Tatjana Patitz
Tatjana Patitz is a German model and actress who rose to international prominence in the 1980s and 1990s, representing top fashion designers, campaigns, and collections, and who continues to model today.-Modelling career:...
, Frederique van der Wal
Frederique van der Wal
Frederique van der Wal is a Dutch model, best known for her appearances in Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan, and Victoria's Secret. Van der Wal grew up in the city of the Hague. She attended college in The Netherlands and earned a bachelor's degree in economics...
, Carré Otis
Carré Otis
Carré Otis is an American model and actress.-Early life:Carré Otis was born in San Francisco, and raised in Marin County, California along with her older sister Chrisse and her younger brother Jordan...
, Milla Jovovich
Milla Jovovich
Milla Jovovich December 17, 1975)is an American model, actress, musician, and fashion designer. Over her career, she has appeared in a number of science fiction and action-themed films, for which music channel VH1 has referred to her as the "reigning queen of kick-butt".Milla Jovovich began...
, among others.
In the late 1980s, Michael moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and worked at City Models, an agency run by ex-model Louise Despointes. While in Paris, Michael worked directly with models such as Carla Bruni
Carla Bruni
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is an Italian-French songwriter, singer, actress, and former model...
and Famke Janssen
Famke Janssen
Famke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress and former fashion model. She is known for playing the villainous Bond girl Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye and Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men film series .- Early life and education :...
.
Company Management
Michael returned to New York and founded his own modeling agencyModeling agency
A modeling agency is a company that represents fashion models, to work for the fashion industry. These agencies earn their income via commission, usually from the deal they make with the model and or the head agency....
Company Management in 1990 with the help of his mother and two brothers. Focusing on non-traditional beauty and developing models with extensive editorial background, Michael became a new force in the modeling world.
By the mid-1990s, this boutique agency became a major player in American modeling and was considered a rival to top agencies Ford Models
Ford Models
The Ford Modeling Agency, or as it is known today Ford Models, is a modeling agency in New York City. It was established in 1946 by Eileen and the late Gerard W. Ford.-Company:...
and Elite. He discovered hundreds of new models and developed the careers of Beri Smither
Beri Smither
Beri Smither is an American model.Immediately after high school, Smither left Oregon to begin her modeling career in Paris, France. From the 1990s onwards, Smither achieved success. She has graced numerous magazine covers including Vogue, ELLE, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and New York...
, Amy Wesson
Amy Wesson
Amy Wesson is an American fashion model from Tupelo, Mississippi.- Career :Wesson was discovered at age 16 while working at a clothing store in a shopping mall...
, Jaime King
Jaime King
Jaime King is an American actress and model. In her modeling career and early film roles, she used the names Jamie King and James King, which was a childhood nickname given to King by her parents, because her agency already represented another Jaime — the older, then more famous model Jaime...
, Rhea Durham
Rhea Durham
Rhea Durham is an American fashion model. She was born in Lakeland, Florida. She has appeared on the cover of several major fashion magazines, including French Vogue, Italian Marie Claire, and British and American ELLE and has walked in the 2001 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show...
, Alexis Bledel
Alexis Bledel
Alexis Bledel is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Rory Gilmore in the television series Gilmore Girls and Lena Kaligaris in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.-Early life:Bledel was born Kimberly Alexis Bledel in Houston, Texas...
, Frankie Rayder
Frankie Rayder
Francesca "Frankie" Rayder is an American model who appeared in the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show four times and in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue twice. She has an extensive portfolio of covergirl appearances for numerous high fashion magazines and was once a VH1/Vogue Fashion...
, Jamie Rishar, Kristine Szabo, Sarah Murdoch
Sarah Murdoch
Sarah Murdoch is an Australian model and actress.-Career:Brought up in Sydney, Australia, Murdoch attended The McDonald College of the Performing Arts, a performing arts school in Sydney, where she studied ballet...
(née O'Hare), Carina Wretman, and Bridget Moynahan
Bridget Moynahan
Kathryn Bridget Moynahan , best known as Bridget Moynahan, is an American model and actress. After graduating from Longmeadow High School in 1989, Moynahan pursued a career in modeling. She was signed by a modeling agency, which led her to appear in department store catalogs and the covers of...
.
Michael Flutie advocated for the fair treatment of models and even voiced support for a model's union or guild to protect their interests.
Flutie became directly embroiled in the heroin chic
Heroin chic
Heroin chic was a look popularized in mid-1990s fashion and characterized by pale skin, dark circles underneath the eyes, and jutting bones.The look, which promoted emaciated features and androgyny, was an alternative that stood in direct contradiction to the "healthy" and vibrant look of models...
modeling controversy that dominated the fashion world in the mid-1990s and lobbied against the glamorization and use of drugs in the fashion community. This came to a crescendo when young fashion photographer Davide Sorrenti
Davide Sorrenti
Davide Sorrenti was a fashion photographer, son of photographer and advertiser Francesca Sorrenti; and brother of Mario Sorrenti , and Vanina Sorrenti Davide Sorrenti (July 9, 1976 Naples, Italy - February 4, 1997 New York, USA) was a fashion photographer, son of photographer and advertiser...
died of a overdose from heroin in February 1997. Davide’s girlfriend at the time, Flutie’s rising star Jaime King
Jaime King
Jaime King is an American actress and model. In her modeling career and early film roles, she used the names Jamie King and James King, which was a childhood nickname given to King by her parents, because her agency already represented another Jaime — the older, then more famous model Jaime...
, was taking a break from modeling and was battling drug and alcohol addiction of her own. Later that same year in 1997, Flutie again garnered attention when he fired and sued his model Amy Wesson
Amy Wesson
Amy Wesson is an American fashion model from Tupelo, Mississippi.- Career :Wesson was discovered at age 16 while working at a clothing store in a shopping mall...
when she was battling her own addictions and kept missing job bookings.
In the late 1990s, Michael wore a new hat as a publicist
Publicist
A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a public figure, especially a celebrity, a business, or for a work such as a book, film or album...
when he started a PR firm called Flutie Media that complemented the modeling agency. Around the same time, Michael’s brother Robert Flutie established Flutie Entertainment, a talent management firm for actors and entertainers eventually based in Los Angeles.
After experiencing a major downturn in business, being targeted by a class action lawsuit by models, and other struggles, Company Management eventually stopped representing models after the turn of the millennium. The corporate entity filed for bankruptcy protection in the fall of 2002.
MFO and Talent Brand Management
Michael Flutie began managing celebrityCelebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
talent and experts for brand partnership and licensing deals beginning in 2003. Flutie called this new venture MFO and clients initially included Thom Filicia
Thom Filicia
Thom Filicia is an interior designer, most famous for his role as an interior design expert on the American television program Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. He is also a co-author of a book based on the show.-Biography:...
and Kyan Douglas
Kyan Douglas
Kyan Douglas was the grooming expert on the American television program Queer Eye.-Biography:Born as Hugh Edward Douglas, Jr. in Miami, Florida, Kyan Douglas was raised in Tampa and Tallahassee. He has a sister, Kelli...
from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Flutie orchestrated Thom’s endorsement deal with Pier 1 Imports
Pier 1 Imports
Pier 1 Imports Inc. is a Fort Worth, Texas based retailer specializing in imported home furnishings and decor, particularly furniture, table-top items, decorative accessories and seasonal decor. The chain operates over 1,000 stores under the name Pier 1 Imports in the United States, Canada, Mexico...
in 2003, Xerox
Xerox
Xerox Corporation is an American multinational document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies...
in 2004, and numerous other projects. Flutie put together a deal for Kyan to be a spokesperson and product advisor for L’Oreal in 2004. The Pier 1 and L'Oreal deals were considered groundbreaking in terms of an openly gay person representing a major corporation’s products.
Flutie worked with country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
superstar
Superstar
A superstar is a widely acclaimed celebrity.Superstar or superstars may also refer to:-People:* Warhol Superstar, associates of Andy Warhol* WWE Superstar, the term used to refer to entertainers from the WWE...
Tim McGraw
Tim McGraw
Samuel Timothy "Tim" McGraw is an American country singer and actor. Many of McGraw's albums and singles have topped the country music charts with total album sales in excess of 40 million units in the US, making him the eighth best-selling artist, and the third best-selling country singer, in the...
on his fragrance with Coty, Inc.
Coty, Inc.
Coty, Inc. is the world's largest fragrance company, founded in 1904. It is also a beauty products manufacturer whose main businesses are fragrances , followed by color cosmetics , toiletries and skin care...
called McGraw, launched in the summer of 2008. The McGraw fragrance won two prestigious FiFi Awards
FiFi Awards
The FiFi Awards are an annual event sponsored by The Fragrance Foundation which honor the fragrance industry's creative achievements and is the most prominent and prestigious celebratory event of the fragrance industry...
in May 2009. Flutie then collaborated with Tim McGraw's wife superstar
Superstar
A superstar is a widely acclaimed celebrity.Superstar or superstars may also refer to:-People:* Warhol Superstar, associates of Andy Warhol* WWE Superstar, the term used to refer to entertainers from the WWE...
Faith Hill
Faith Hill
Faith Hill is an American country singer. She is known both for her commercial success and her marriage to fellow country star Tim McGraw. Hill has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and accumulated eight number-one singles and three number-one albums on the U.S...
on her Coty fragrance called Faith Hill Parfums, launched in late 2009.
Other clients of MFO include fashion stylists Mary Alice Stephenson and Annabel Tollman
Annabel Tollman
Annabel Tollman is the former fashion editor of Interview Magazine. She was born in Brussels and raised in both London and New York. She is currently a stylist, fashion director, and soon-to-be star of a Bravo reality series...
, models Beri Smither
Beri Smither
Beri Smither is an American model.Immediately after high school, Smither left Oregon to begin her modeling career in Paris, France. From the 1990s onwards, Smither achieved success. She has graced numerous magazine covers including Vogue, ELLE, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and New York...
and Kristine Szabo, and the YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund.
Madwood
Michael Flutie collaborated with business partners to establish Madwood Media in 2007. Madwood produces and creates new content for television and online portals. Projects include an online series Under the Arch focusing on NYU undergraduates and various reality shows including ScoutedScouted
Scouted is an upcoming reality, television series that will chronicle the discovery process of the next big name in the modeling industry. The show is scheduled to premiere on Monday, November 28 2011, on E!.-Overview:...
on the E!
E!
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...
Television Network focusing on discovering models.
Media work and appearances
Michael Flutie has frequently appeared in television, newspapers, magazine and online content, usually in recognition for his expertise in modeling and corporate endorsements.Michael appeared in the Style Section of The New York Times in 1999 with a profile on his fashion sense.
Michael Flutie appeared in the MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
Made (TV series)
Made (TV series)
MTV's MADE is a self-improvement reality television series broadcast on MTV. The series follows teens who have a goal and want to be "made" into things like singers, athletes, dancers, skateboarders, etc. The teens are joined by a "Made Coach", an expert in their chosen field, who tries to help...
broadcast in the fourth season in 2004 on the episode about two sisters Megan and Katelyn Gelber wanting to become movie stars. Flutie was the expert guiding them throughout the episode and helping to achieve their dream.
Michael Flutie has publicly commented on topics ranging from the Kate Moss
Kate Moss
Kate Moss is an English model. Moss is known for her waifish figure and popularising the heroin chic look in the 1990s. She is also known for her controversial private life, high profile relationships, party lifestyle, and drug use. Moss changed the look of modelling and started a global debate on...
cocaine scandal in 2005, Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
dating young Brazilian model Jesus Luz in 2009, and the feasibility of a Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
fragrance in 2011.
Michael Flutie co-produced the reality show America's Most Smartest Model
America's Most Smartest Model
America's Most Smartest Model is an American reality television show that aired on VH1. The hosts are Ben Stein and Mary Alice Stephenson. The show attempts to find brains behind beauty in a series of challenges, and will grant the winner $100,000, a feature in an upcoming V05 ad, and the title...
on the VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
network in 2007. The series featured Flutie client and fashion expert Mary Alice Stephenson as a co-host of the show.