Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult digs into the story of Frederick von Mierers, founder of the youth- and beauty-obsessed group Eternal Values in the 1980s

Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be any more crazy cult stories to make multi-part documentaries about, HBO Max has announced a new one that has everything from wealthy socialites and gorgeous models to new age mysticism and UFOs. Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult, tells the story of Frederick von Mierers, founder of the youth- and beauty-obsessed Eternal Values group, and it’s set to premiere June 1. 

Von Mierers was a Manhattan socialite, who used his wealth and status to cultivate a devoted following of up-and-coming models and young professionals in 1980s New York City. One of his most notable recruits was Hoyt Richards, widely considered to be the first male super model. 

Richards anchors Bring Me the Beauties, and the new trailer opens with him recalling the day von Mierers first approached him on a Nantucket beach and started talking to him about “Eastern religion and astrology.” (Richards was just 16 at the time.) The clip goes on to feature other acolytes describing von Mierers’ lifestyle — filled as much with lavish parties as deep spiritual meaning — and his perennial request: “Only invite the beauties,” as Richards puts it. “Not your friends, just the beauties.”

But von Mierers was also financially exploiting Richards and his other followers, while offering them in exchange ”healing” gems to ease their physical and mental woes. Von Mierers even claimed he was an alien “walk-in” (a “higher being had stepped into his body,” as one interviewee puts it) and had his own public access TV show to further promulgate the tenets of Eternal Values. And while von Mierers at first preached sexual abstinence, those restrictions loosened over the years, pointedly against the backdrop of the burgeoning AIDS crisis. 

Along with Richards, Bring Me the Beauties will feature interviews with other Eternal Values members Paul Hinton, Dar Dixon, and Elissa Melaragno, plus models like Fabio Lanzoni, John Pearson, and Jacki Adams. The film will feature a slew of archival material of von Mierers, who died in 1990. 

Bring Me the Beauties was directed by Chris Smith. Following the June 1 premiere, the second episode will air June 8 and the finale will follow on June 15.