Karen Mcdougal

Karen McDougal (born March 23, 1971) is an American model and actor. She is known for her appearances in Playboy magazine as Playmate of the Month for December 1997[1] and Playmate of the Year of 1998.[3] In 2001, the readers of Playboy voted McDougal "No. 2 Sexiest Playmate of the 1990s."[4]

McDougal taught pre-kindergarten before winning a swimwear competition and beginning her career as a glamour, promotional, and swimsuit model. Since her appearances in Playboy, she has extended her career into a wide variety of appearances in mainstream media, including other magazine modeling, television commercials, and minor acting, with mixed success. She has been a successful fitness model, with multiple magazine appearances including being the first woman to appear on the cover of Men's Fitness magazine. She starred in The Arena, a direct-to-video film, and inspired the creation of a fantasy art statuette and a doll. As of 2007[update], she is pursuing work as a television host.

McDougal is a fitness enthusiast, since childhood ballet study and high school sports, and still noted for ability to perform the straddle split in modeling sessions. She is an avid motorcycle and car collector. Since her Playmate days, she has maintained a largely private social life, though in 2007 the paparazzi reported her dating actor Bruce Willis.

In 1997, McDougal tried out and won her local Venus Swimwear swimsuit competition in Michigan. Her victory caught the eye of Playboy photographer David Mecey.[4] Soon after that she was approached by Playboy for a test shoot at Playboy Studio West which she accepted.[6] Upon completing her test shoot, she was promptly selected to return for a complete photo and video shoot and chosen as Miss December 1997.[4] Her pictorial, which was shot by photographers Richard Fegley and Stephen Wayda, has a winter theme[1] and its outdoor portion was shot in the snowy fields near Park City, Utah.[8] Her video, the "Playmate Profile", was featured on Playboy TV soon after her magazine debut.[2]

In May 1998, she was announced to have been chosen by Hugh Hefner and fans as Playmate of the Year (PMOY) of 1998 at a luncheon at the Playboy Mansion.[9] As her reward, she was awarded $100,000 and a special edition silver Shelby Series 1 convertible with a customized Michigan license plate "PMOY 98".[3] In contrast to her Playmate pictorial, her PMOY pictorial in the July 1998 issue of Playboy has a tropical theme and its outdoor portion was shot at Saint Lucia.[3] According to her interview in her Playmate of the Year "Video Centerfold" which was released soon after her PMOY issue debuted, she believes her physical imperfections are her "funny" smile, her crooked pinkies which she inherited from her grandfather and her "ugly feet" which she wishes others would not look at.[5] Because of the popularity of the VH1 television series "Pop-up Video" at the time, one of the segments in her PMOY video was done as a Pop-up Video parody filled with factoids about her and Playboy.[5] During her appearance on The Magic Hour to promote her PMOY issue, McDougal demonstrated her signature pose, straddle split on TV in front of a live studio audience.[10] Playboy has continued to publish her material in Playboy Cyber Club, Playboy Special Edition publications and Playboy Videos.[11][12] In an online chat in 2002, McDougal expressed interest in posing for Playboy again if offered.[12]


Source Wikipedia Karen McDougal