Complaint Review: Venerable Photography

My wife, Libertad Green, recently entered a pin-up contest hosted by Robert At Venerable.  He (or perhaps his representatives) selected my wife to compete in person as one of twelve finalists in this contest, which he has announced at: facebook.com/events/1502352063380789/

Libertad Green graciously accepted his invitation to compete in person for the top prize, at the Boondocks, and submitted one of the head shots I had taken of her, to appear on his flyers and advertisements for the event.  On or about January 21, 2015, Libertad Green noticed that he had published the flyer with her picture, but with her name misspelled, as "Liberated Green."  She sent him a private, Facebook message, asking him to correct the spelling of her name.  He apologized to her via private, Facebook message, but a week later, had not posted a public correction, nor apology.  Instead, he posted comments about getting drunk and being hung over, as well as pictures of other women.

After a week, when Libertad Green saw that Robert had taken to action to rectify the misspelling of her name, she posted a polite, professional remark on the Facebook event page, informing him and all concerned that she would not be attending the event as advertised, because Robert had neglected to correct the misspelling of her name.

I also posted several polite, professional remarks, including the following:

"First of all, no one should have the gall to expect beautiful, talented women such a my wife, Libertad Green, to provide entertainment for free, so that anyone besides said women can profit from their labor. Secondly, if such a woman is gracious enough to grace your establishment/event with her presence, it would behoove you to spell her name correctly in any and all advertisements of the event. If you misspell her name, and she asks you to correct it, you should publish an apology and a correction, via social media, immediately - not after you recover from a hang-over and post pictures of other women."

I also indicated that I had taken the photo of Libertad Green, which appeared on the flyer, and asked him to remove it, since she and I considered it to be a violation of our copyright.

Within minutes of our postings, Robert "At Venerable" Hernandez apparently blocked us, but removed the flyer, and posted another, without her picture and name on it.  He also removed our remarks.  Then he posted the following:

"Almost a week ago one of the PinUp contestants [presumably Libertad Green] notified me about a miss spelling [sic] of her name.  Two letters were swapped in place of each other. [Actually, a vowel was added between the r and the t, and the last vowel was changed, creating a different word (liberated), whereas my wife's name, Libertad, means liberty in Spanish.]  I am immediately notified my editor [grammar] to take care of the situation, and apologized and told her it would be fixed.  During the events of me being extremely busy with work [and getting drunk and hung over, apparently], this show, etc. I dropped the ball and I take full blame for it not getting fixed.  She announced today that she is withdrawing from the contest.  A friend of hers [Karmilia Cruz, apparently], and her husband [I, the Vaughanster] posted on [there] talking a bunch of trash.  I apologize for that as well.  Again this was my fault for dropping the ball, but there are proper ways and classy ways of handling things.  I will be posting the new PinUp contestant [sic] later today."

Karmilia and I did not "talk a bunch of trash" on Robert's event page; we politely and professionally asked him to remove my wife's head shot from the flyer.

The same day, Robert published another poster, having replaced my wife' picture and name with those of another contestant, proving that he was capable of taking appropriate action in a matter of hours, rather than days or weeks, but  was too busy getting drunk and hung over to do the right thing.

To add injury to insult that day, he, or one of his friends, apparently reported my wife to Facebook, to investigate her for using a fake name on her timeline, because she received a notification the next morning, asking her to provide her real first, middle, and last name, which she did.  Her real name, as shown on her original birth certificate and all of her ID cards and passport, is Libertad Benjamina Green, most often identified as Libertad Green.  If you Google "Libertad Green," you actually get a Google article about her where links to WikiPedia articles usually appear.  Not so when you Google "liberated green"...

Later that day, Facebook logged Libertad Green out, and presented her with a screen from which she could upload a scan or picture of an ID card to prove her name is really Libertad Green, which she immediately did.  Then we noticed that Robert At Venerable had changed his Facebook name to Robert Hernandez, informing the world that "due to threats," he was going to use his real name for the next 60 days.

We reported several of his friends for using apparently fake names, including Veronica Velvet (the person he got drunk and hung over with when he should have been correcting the spelling of my wife's name on his flyer), Maria B. Muah, Kitten De Ville, and various other burlesque queens using their show names as if they were their real names.  Facebook never deactivated any of their Facebooks, as they did my wife's, but hers remains deactivated even though she submitted proof that she was using her real name.