
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 12, 1993                   TAG: 9308120142
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Short

TAI WON'T PAY: PROMOTER LOSES LAWSUIT

A judge ruled Tuesday that Tai Collins, the former beauty queen from Roanoke known for her massage of Sen. Charles Robb, owes a promoter nothing from her Playboy modeling job.

Circuit Judge Phillip L. Russo said Billy Douthat of Virginia Beach didn't prove he had an oral contract with Collins. Douthat claimed he was owed 20 percent of Collins' $30,000 payment from Playboy, plus expenses, for a total of $6,646.

Collins, the 1983 Miss Virginia-USA, was featured on the cover of the October 1991 issue as "The Woman Senator Charles Robb Couldn't Resist." The feature included nude photos and her assertion that her relationship with Robb went beyond the massage.

Robb has said Collins gave him a massage - nothing more - at a New York hotel in the mid-1980s.

Douthat said he became Collins' agent and manager during a May 3, 1991, lunch in Roanoke, as rumors circulated about the massage. He said he arranged to have Playboy photograph Collins.

Collins, now a screenwriting student at UCLA, said Playboy desperately wanted her after seeing her featured in People magazine several days after the lunch with Douthat. The promoter simply tried to "leech onto" her because he was going bankrupt, she testified.

by CNB