HBO’s “Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult” — Supermodels, Secrets & a Cult Hiding in Plain Sight

Inside the 1980s Male Supermodel Who Fell Into a Cult

Supermodels, secrets, and a cult hiding in plain sight — HBO’s new docuseries Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult pulls back the curtain on one of fashion’s strangest, most glamorous, and most disturbing hidden histories.

Out June 1 at 9 p.m. on HBO, the series follows the unbelievable true story of Hoyt Richards, one of the very first male supermodels to emerge from the glittering 1980s fashion boom.

Directed by Chris Smith, the docuseries traces Richards’ rise from runway icon to cult survivor — a journey that begins long before the billboards, magazine covers, and New York nightlife.

At just 16, Richards met a Manhattan socialite on a Nantucket beach. That chance encounter led him into a so‑called spiritual group known as Eternal Values, run by the enigmatic and beauty‑obsessed leader Frederick von Mierers.

What followed was a decade‑long entanglement that blended high fashion, manipulation, glamour, and control — all unfolding against the backdrop of 1980s New York, where supermodels were gods and the industry was a world unto itself.

The rest is a glittering, unsettling slice of modeling history.

The docuseries dives into:

• The rise of male supermodels in the 1980s
• How Eternal Values infiltrated the fashion world
• Richards’ double life as a top model and cult member
• The psychological grip of von Mierers
• The beauty‑driven ideology that kept members loyal
• The eventual unraveling of the cult’s influence

Press play and get ready to explore supermodel Hoyt Richards’ experience inside a cult — and the seductive, dangerous world that shaped him.