Reality TV show director arrested

APOPKA, Fla. - Police charged an aspiring reality show director with blocking four women - half of a cast billed as ordinary girls hoping to become "princesses" - from leaving the central Florida house where the show was being shot.

Marc Brilleman, 33, identified as the chief operating officer, director, and writer of "Pauper to Princess," was arrested Saturday on a charge of false imprisonment.

According to the show's website, its concept was to build the eight women's self-esteem and help them grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. As with many reality shows, the women lived in a house while the program was taped. Producers were trying to sell the show to a television network.

Four of the women told investigators Brilleman blocked and locked a door when they tried to leave the house, where they had been since February and had been able to leave on weekends, said Jerome Miller, a commander for Apopka police.

Brilleman initially denied stopping the women when questioned by police, then said "they could not leave because they were being disciplined," Miller said. Brilleman also told them they could not leave because they were under contract, the police report said.

According to the report, the women were also upset that they had not been paid for the past five weeks of filming.

Miller said the case would be forwarded to state prosecutors.

Brilleman posted a $3,000 bond and was released hours after his arrest. Miller said Brilleman is from South Africa, but his immigration status is unclear.

Calls and e-mails to the show went unanswered.

Jim Johnson, the show's executive producer, told the Orlando Sentinel the women who asked to leave were allowed to do so.

"Nobody was being held against their will at any time," Johnson said. "This show was an honorable show. We took them to the opera, we took them to fashion shows, we took them to modeling training, and we took them to etiquette training."

Johnson did say the producers took the women's cellphones away, but he said that was done according to the contract the women signed. Even though the contract said the women had to remain in the house for 13 weeks, the producers had been letting the women leave on recent weekends, he told the newspaper.