The Secret Lives of Women on WE Network

[WesternSwing]

I received the following email on one of our profiles that is supposedly from a producer for The Secret Lives of Women. It appears they are going to do an episode on swinging women. I haven't had time to check-out the emailer's credentials yet, but if anyone would like to do so and - if fully legit - be involved in this, you can contact her at the email address below.

Mr. WS

First off, I do not wish to disturb or disrespect anyone. My name is Milena and I am a producer at the WE Network (Women's Entertainment) and we are doing a documentary, TV Show entitled "Secret Lives of Women." On the show I am hoping to get an average, everyday woman who is in a marriage that participates in swinging to talk about her experiences. We would like to educate the public and expose this lifestyle to people and hopeful remove the stigma some people might have. There are many couples out there that do not understand what swinging is and therefore are quick to negatively judge it. We are hoping to show factual accounts made by real women with real stories.

Unfortunately, we are unable to pay the people that are on our show, but if you know of anyone who could benefit from the free exposure or has a passion for teaching people through their own experiences, I would love to hear from them.

Our shoot begins in mid December and goes all the way through mid January so we need people ASAP.

If interested you can email me at MC2_Productions@hotmail.com. Please include a brief story about yourself, your contact information, and a photograph.


Thank you so much for your time and I look forward to hearing your stories.

[BradAndJanet]

I'm curious as to why this producer would not use an email address from the WE Network.

Anyone can get a Hotmail account...

[warkman]

I believe they've already done one of these. It's been on from time to time. Maybe they want to do a part 2. Check this thread.

[WesternSwing]

Originally Posted by BradAndJanet

I'm curious as to why this producer would not use an email address from the WE Network.

Anyone can get a Hotmail account...

That was my first question also. But, if you are going to make yourself public for a short period of time for something like this it would be smart to create a temporary email address that you can cancel once the need for it is over. Otherwise you'd end-up with thousands of emails from phishing scams for ever and ever.

Mr. WS

[warkman]

I'd think you might want to contact WeTV and check to see if these people are on the level. There doesn't, however, appear to be much in the way of contact information on their website.

[JustAskJulie]

They did do an episode previously, we talked about it here.

It seems like most of the "producers" or "writers" or whatnot that I've seen around here have used hotmail addresses and I've thought the same thing. Why do they not have email addresses that match their company?
Maybe the companies don't provide them? If it was an issue of creating a short term address they could do that even with a company address and just trash it when they were done.

[rpu3]

In some instances, it is a matter that a producer is independent of the network. Either they've been contracted by the network to make a program, or they are making a program that they are hoping to sell to a network, any network. Or, yet another alternative, it is a subsidiary company of the channel's main company.

That being said, I'd hesitate to send a response only because if they are legit, then why doesn't MC2 Productions have their own website or something, and an e-mail account based out of that. I have my own personal website, and can have e-mails based out of that account. It would lend a bit more credibility to have an e-mail addy out of mc2productions.com than it does from Hotmail or Yahoo. But not everyone has the cash to have a site built, even if it is cheap, or has the basic skills or time to make their own site.

Just FYI, that particular company does seem to exist, and has produced a couple of movies, including one movie on Lifetime in 2007.

The Milena is likely Milena Chiobasu, a director on one of the produced movies.

Sorry, I can't help doing quickie background research even when I'm not at work.

[warkman]

Nice work p.i. rpu3! Your independent producer speculation about the email address, is most likely correct. Now that I think about it, I have a friend who produces shows for the History and Military Channels, and budgets are microscopic, and his base of operations is, shall we say, spartan.

[WeMayTryIt]

A few things tip it off in my mind as a scam:

• A legitimate inquiry would most likely include a FULL name, not just a first name
• The hotmail address
• The fact that "we can't pay you".

The best resource I've found for ratting out illegitimate emails and urban legends is http://www.snopes.com. It's a very credible resource with researchable information regarding the validity of such things. So far, I haven't seen a case where they've been incorrect about the veracity of something. Consequently, they don't have anything on this particular subject. Check back in a week or so--they just may.

[WesternSwing]

Some of this same "it's a scam" stuff was said about Mindy Popplewell in this thread and and her Masters thesis on female swingers and she turned-out to be the real deal. I've even had email contact on several occasions with those at Western Kentucky University that oversaw her Masters program.

Mr. WS

[WesternSwing]

Mrs. WS and I were channel surfing the other night while lying in bed and we came across the original The Secret Lives of Women on swinging wives from 2006. We only caught the last 25 minutes of it, but it was very well done. I didn't catch the producer's name, but they were very thorough and I think showed very well how swinging empowers women. I'd like to see the whole thing, now.

Mr. WS