As recently as January, the U.S. Supreme Court was debating whether TV networks should be fined for showing a bare body part–in this case, a woman’s butt—on an episode of ABC’s “NYPD Blue.”

A lawyer arguing for the network noted enforcement could lead to complaints about the Summer Olympics in Beijing: During the opening ceremonies, a statute of a bare-breasted, bare-bottomed woman was plainly visible.

A decision isn’t expected until June, but no matter the result, the very fact this is a matter before the highest court in the land troubles historian Mike Foster.

America remains surprisingly prudish, or at least hypocritical, about nudity, says Foster, co-author with his wife, Barbara, of the biography, ”A Dangerous Woman: The Life, Loves, and Scandals of Adah Isaccs Menken.”

“Officially, we’re uptight about nudity,” he says, “but happy to watch it in the media. Advertisers use nudity to make a buck, publishers to sell product, and protesters take it off to make a point.”

Lindsay Lohan’s nude spread for Playboy earned her $1 million and was pirated on the Internet. Helen Mirren, at 64, posed topless for a puff promoting “Love Ranch.” PETA women, who strip in public for attention to animal rights—‘go naked instead of wearing fur’—have been joined by their men.

The “ultimate fantasy commercial” for this year’s Super Bowl featured a beautiful Colombian model looking stark naked. It was done with paint and 100 million viewers feasted their eyes on a nude illusion.

Foster says our nude hypocrisy stems from the Victorian era, when actress Adah Menken was dubbed “The Great Bare” by writer/admirer Mark Twain. The Civil War-era bombshell singer and actress became famous as The Naked Lady for her starring role in “Mazeppa,” a drama in which she rode a stallion up a four-story stage mountain, apparently in the buff. She actually wore a flesh-colored body stocking, but the audience gasped—yet another nude illusion.

It’s mystifying that in Western Europe, the birthplace of many American traditions and values, billboards, TV shows and commercials featuring nudity are commonplace. Nude sunbathers enjoy their nations’ beaches—and don’t go home with awkward tan lines.

One hopeful sign that America’s easing up: At actress Betty White’s televised 90th birthday tribute, Tina Fey claimed the older actress told her: “Never let anyone tell you that you are not good enough to pose nude.”

Yes, our favorite “Golden Girl” did it, decades ago. Yet another “dangerous woman” ahead of her time?

Whoops?

We haven’t seen the pictorial yet, but someone leaked the cover of Lindsay Lohan’s issue of Playboy, showing her naked, straddling the famous bunny logo.

The legally troubled actress was paid a fortune to bare it all for Playboy, but her mother, Dina, has promised that the spread will be “tasteful” and will not show full-frontal nudity.

Lindsay graces the cover of the January/February 2012 issue of the magazine, and we’re sure that curiosity will drive sales.

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According to TMZ, Lindsay Lohan will appear in Playboy Magazine, which is a stark contrast to her most recent appearances in court.

The troubled starlett was spotted heading to the photo shoot on Tuesday, and her mother reported to X17online.com that the shoot “went well.”

The Boston Globe reports that Lohan will earn around $1 million to grace the pages of Playboy.

Lohan’s reps would “neither confirm or deny at this time.”

Rashida Jones is Playboy’s November issue 20Q subject (issue on newsstands and on i.Playboy.com Friday with the complete interview available at www.playboy.com/jones).

In the 20Q, Rashida talks about why she doesn’t believe in marriage, growing up with Michael Jackson and how they used to drive around super soaking people at movie theatres, her close relationship with Frank Sinatra and Miles Davis as a youth, behind the scenes at Parks and Rec, why she wants to walk around nude in an Apple store, her thoughts on The Office post-Steve Carell and more.

Jones—the daughter of music mogul Quincy Jones—sat down with PlayboyContributing Editor David Hochman and discussed growing up around stars like Frank Sinatra and Miles Davis, what she would do if she were anonymous for a day, her desire to go into politics and why she believes marriage is on the outs. Following are selected quotes from the interview:

On the many famous musicians she has met: “Major musicians were definitely around, for sure. Nobody was cooler than Miles Davis. I remember his scratchy voice. Even the way he’d say ‘What’s up?’ was cool. Frank Sinatra was another supercool cat. I went to see him in Vegas as a teenager, and my sister and I were having problems getting backstage. We finally did and told Frank about it. He was like, ‘Who did you have problems with? Who do I need to talk to? I’ll take care of it.’ He was going to crack some skulls.”

On growing up the daughter of famous parents: “Look, I have parents who have accomplished so much. I have a father who came from nothing and conquered the world. The last thing I’m going to do is sit here and spend his money and try to look pretty. That’s not interesting to me at all. I’ve been acting professionally for 15 years, and I’ve had to prove myself. Someone may think, Oh, everything was handed to her, but it doesn’t work that way. The nice thing about comedy in particular is that it’s a meritocracy. Funny people aren’t going to have you around because you know other people. You have to make people laugh.”

On what she would do if she could be anonymous for one day: “Probably do something naked somewhere. Streaking through a large crowd has always been a secret fantasy of mine. Disneyland would be fun. Or maybe just showing up at the Apple Store naked and picking up an iPod shuffle and pretending like nothing was wrong or different.”

On reactions she receives while out in public: “People are mostly cool. They also sometimes misrecognize me. It’s not just the typical ‘Didn’t we go to high school together?’ which does happen. It tends to be more specific. In my 20s everyone thought I was Fiona Apple. Now I’m either the wife from “The King of Queens” or somebody on Community. But I’m not going to sit here and complain about standing out. It’s part of the fun. And in L.A. it still doesn’t matter. I call up a restaurant and say, ‘It’s Rashida Jones,’ and I still get, ‘Sorry, we don’t have another reservation for a month.’”

On attracting lots of male attention: “On New Year’s Eve this guy came up to me really drunk and was like, ‘Oh my God, I love you. This is the best night of my life. I can’t believe I’m seeing you. This is amazing.’ Then he goes, ‘What’s your name?’ So that didn’t work out. We’re not getting married.”

On why she’s not a fan of marriage: “This whole marriage-monogamy thing, in some ways, hasn’t worked for everybody. Statistically it’s pretty clear, since half of couples stay married. And then, of the people who are married, at least 25 percent have admitted to cheating. I think in the next 50 years relationships and intimate relationships will be redefined, because they have to be. I don’t know about polyamory and polygamy, but something’s going to shift. There are so many options now, so many outlets for people to meet and get together, so many distractions. I imagine we’ll get to a point where we can have meaningful relationships that are finite. We don’t get married till death do us part.”

On if she ever had sex in the White House while dating presidential speechwriter Jon Favreau: “Oh my God, no. I mean, have you been to the White House? People are sitting around watching you from every angle. They’re also, like, planning on how to keep us from economic collapse. They’re protecting our nation. They’re not having sex. Well, I mean, I know sex has occurred in the White House. Just not with me.”

On how often the cast of “Parks and Recreation” uses improv: “Often. We do something called fun runs. Once we have the scene in the can, we get an opportunity to do whatever comes into our heads. My patented move is to do a penis joke. In an episode of Parks and Rec last season, Amy Poehler’s and Adam Scott’s characters are going on a road trip together, and she wants to make it as unsexy as possible so she can avoid having feelings for him. I say, ‘Why don’t you make him a mix tape with, like, German glockenspiel music and Roosevelt’s great speeches on it?’ Then I say, ‘Why don’t you ask him about his penis?’…They ended up keeping the line in the episode.”

On her thoughts on the future of The Office without Steve Carell: “It’s still a hilarious show, but Steve definitely made it the sensation it was. I honestly didn’t think I was going to make it when I first got there because Steve was just too funny. In one of the first episodes I shot, we had a crazy conference room scene in which he was doing some insane presentation and being outrageously hilarious. I cracked a couple of times and thought for sure I would get fired.”

On who makes her laugh: “Aziz Ansari is so funny, though nobody thinks he’s funnier than Aziz. He’ll ruin a take because he’s laughing at himself. I love that man. The Inappropriate Yoga Guy from YouTube is such an a**hole in the funniest way. I also love the guy behind the My Son Is Gay? video. Crazy fun.”

On her desire to run for public office someday: “I would like to. I’d love to be senator, governor or even work for a nonprofit, just to do something for the public sector. Life is long and really unpredictable, but I’d like to do a lot with the time I have. My dad told me a long time ago to live life in love and not in fear. I know that sounds really vague and hokey, but it can be applied so often. When I make decisions based in fear, they’re always wrong for me.”

Blonde bombshell Amber Heard, who plays Bunny Maureen in the highly-anticipated NBC series The Playboy Club, which premieres Monday, September 19, sat down with the magazine that started it all to discuss the new show. “What I like about The Playboy Club is that it’s about women who were being independent and earning as much as their fathers. It was their chance to live their own life, to do whatever they wanted on their own terms.” Amber’s complete 20Q interview appears in the September issue of Playboy (issue on newsstands, online at www.playboydigital.com, and on i.Playboy.com Friday, August 12, with the complete interview available at www.playboy.com/heard).

Heard—one of Hollywood’s most beautiful rising stars—began her career as a model and later moved to LA to pursue acting. She’s appeared in movies, including Zombieland and Pineapple Express and will appear in the upcoming films The Rum Diary and Drive Angry. The actress sat down with Playboy Contributor Eric Spitznagel to discuss filming nude scenes, her bad driving habits and Hollywood’s pressure to be thin. Following are selected quotes from the interview:

On watching her weight: “Like most girls, I constantly have to watch my weight, because if I didn’t, my curves would get ahead of me. I naturally have some curves, like most women—unfortunately just not like most women, in Hollywood. I’m considered curvy only in Hollywood. It’s a weird town…Every pound for a woman in the real world is seven pounds for an actress. I don’t want to play into the perception that all women should look like 14-year-old boys. I don’t want to add to that pressure for young girls. But in Hollywood there is a constant pressure to look a certain way.”

On feeling over-the-hill in Hollywood: “Hollywood actresses age in dog years. I’m 25 to the rest of the world, but I’m about 48 in actress years. I’m just around the corner from my midlife crisis. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Hollywood can be a draining industry.”

On appearing naked in several movies: “When I came to Hollywood, I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t have any connections. I did what a lot of people have to do in the real world and just worked from the bottom up. And that meant taking a lot of roles as the girl at the party who loses her shirt. But now I’m doing things I find artistically and emotionally fulfilling. I’m not opposed to nude scenes if they’re appropriate. I’m not against them morally, but I personally no longer find movie nudity to be worth my while. That may change in the future. I’m keeping an open mind, as always, because that’s what you have to do.”

On whether or not she used drugs while filming The Rum Diary: “Not at all. Trying to film a movie on a diet is hard enough; I can’t image how it would be on drugs. I stayed true to his [Hunter S. Thompson’s] spirit in other ways. I kept his book in the pocket of my cast chair the entire time we were filming. That made me feel connected to the bigger picture, of our goal to do justice to a wonderful piece of literature and a legend.”

On dropping out of her Catholic high school at the age of 16: “For as long as I can remember I’ve been the kind of person who goes against the grain and questions authority, and that doesn’t make for an ideal religious follower. I always felt like an outcast at school. I had good friends but none I truly related to. I lost my best friend in a car accident when I was 16, and as you can imagine, it was incredibly tough. But that wasn’t the reason I left school. I’d already been on this path toward questioning religion and questioning my place within it. I had always been a reader and a skeptic, so when I was old enough to break away from organized religion, it just came naturally.”

On coming out last December: “First of all, to say I came out implies that I was once in. Let me be straight about that—no pun intended [laughs]—I never came out from anywhere. I’ve always lived my life the way I’ve wanted and have been honest with myself and everyone around me. It didn’t really affect anything in my career. I don’t think the producers and directors I’ve worked with care one way or another…I don’t want to be labeled as one thing or another. In the past I’ve had successful relationships with men, and now I’m in this successful relationship with a woman. When it comes to love I am totally open. I don’t want to be put into a category, as in ‘I’m this’ or ‘I’m that.’”

On her bad driving record: “It’s pitiful…When I was preparing for Drive Angry the stunt coordinator took me out to the parking lot to show me how to spin out and fishtail and do all the things you’re not supposed to know how to do. After two seconds of being a passenger in my car, he realized it was an exercise in futility—because I had that sh*t down.”

On shooting guns with her father as a child: “My dad used to take me and my younger sister, Whitney, to the firing range, and he’d stand behind us as we’d shoot. We were tiny girls—only about 10 years old at the time—so when we’d pull the trigger the recoil would send us flying backward. But he’s stand behind us and make sure we were safe. I’ve been around responsible gun ownership my whole life.”

“I didn’t want to learn about the back-alley process. I wanted to know how to make it perfectly, the absolute purest meth, and what equipment and chemicals to use, because that’s what my character does. So if I had to, I could make more than just meth; I could make really, really good meth. [laughs] It has created a very healthy sideline for me if this acting thing ever stops working,” jokes Bryan Cranston about preparation for his role as a meth dealer on Breaking Bad in Playboy’s August 20Q (issue on newsstands, online at www.playboydigital.com, and on i.Playboy.com Friday, July 15, with the complete interview available at www.playboy.com/cranston).

Cranston—who’s received three consecutive Emmy’s for his leading role on Breaking Bad, which returns for its fourth season on July 17— entered Hollywood in the 1980s and has become an acting sensation. He’s well known for his roles on major sitcoms such as Malcolm in the Middle and Seinfeld and blockbuster movies like Larry Crowne, which is in theaters now. The long-on-talent actor sat down with Playboy Contributor Eric Spitznagel to recount sex scenes with Julia Roberts, goofy pranks and why Jon Hamm wants to kick his a**. Following are selected quotes from the interview:

On his three Emmy Awards: “All three are in my office. I walk by sometimes and the glistening gold catches my eye and I think, I cannot believe that happened! Our show isn’t eligible for an Emmy this year because AMC decided to push the premiere of our fourth season to the summer. So now people have been coming up to me and saying, ‘You can’t be nominated for an Emmy! You must be freaked out! That’s horrible!’ And I’m thinking, Are you kidding me? Not being nominated is a relief to me in many ways.”

On Jon Hamm telling the press he’ll kick Bryan’s a** if he wins another Emmy: “Jon’s a younger man, and I’m pretty sure he could kick my a**. Somebody asked me if AMC delayed the airing of Breaking Bad to give Jon Hamm a chance to win an Emmy. That’s such a hilarious conspiracy theory. I can just imagine that secret board meeting: ‘We’ll take care of Cranston. Tell Jon Hamm to prepare his speech!’”

On his wife’s friendship with Tom Hanks’ wife Rita Wilson: “My wife, Robin, and Rita have been friends since college. She was a bridesmaid in Tom and Rita’s wedding, so I was there too. I think actors have a tendency to want to hang out with other actors, and there’s a reason for that. When you’re out there with civilians, you get the same kind of questions again and again…But when you’re around other actors, you can talk about other things. Nobody’s asking, ‘What’s it like to be in movies?’ Because we all already know.”

On his sex scene with Julia Roberts in Larry Crowne: “Before we shot the movie, I went on a diet and bleached my teeth and got one of those spray tans. I wanted it to seem like we were at least viable as a couple. So we’re doing the scene, and right away I’m lying on top of her. I met her maybe a month before, and now I’m lying on top of her. Our noses are touching, we’re waiting, and we hear Tom Hanks, the director, say, ‘Okay, we need to make an adjustment on the camera. Hang on.’ So there I am, lying on top of Julia Roberts, and we’re making small talk. ‘So…how are you? You have kids, right?’ We’re talking about family, whatever, just passing the time. It was probably more awkward for me, because under the sheets, she was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Tom kept tugging on her shirt. ‘Aw, Julia, Julia. Come on, we’ve got to show something. We’ve got to show a little skin.’ And me, I’m just wearing a c*ck sock.”

On his c*ck sock: “It’s a sock that goes over your junk. Literally, you stuff your junk into this sock that’s attached to a string, which you tie around your waist with a little bow. I’ve always been like, ‘And this protects me how?’ I don’t understand how it’s less embarrassing than if I didn’t have on anything at all.”

On whether or not he’s ever tried meth: “Never meth, but I’ve had several drug experiences. Pot always just made me sleepy. As a teenager I had friends who wanted to get high and go to concerts. But if I smoked a joint, I would pass out before the first song.”

On filming Breaking Bad in New Mexico: “One of the best parts about spending any time in this state is getting acclimated to the culture. The biggest question you get when you come here is, ‘Red or green?’ That would be chilies, the red and green chilies that are indigenous to this area. I have a fondness for the green. They’re hot, really spicy and go on everything. I put them on my ice cream.”

On keeping the mood light when filming intense scenes for Breaking Bad: “I’m always looking for opportunities to goof off. Just last week I was doing a love scene with Anna Gunn, who plays my wife. We are in bed, making out, and I’m naked. There’s a moment in the scene when I get up and walk to the bathroom, and you see my a**. Without telling her, I put on these big adult diapers. After we made love, I go out of bed, and I could hear her laughing behind me. I finally turned around and said to her, ‘Next time can we try one of my fantasies?’”

On not knowing how much money he makes: “Honestly, I don’t have a clue how much money I make. It really doesn’t matter to me. My agents know, and sometimes they ask me, ‘You want to know how much you make?’ I don’t care. I’m sure it’s fine. I mean, I don’t want to sound glib. I know money is important, but ever since I stopped worrying about finances, I’ve made more money than I ever thought I’d make in my life. The fact that I make a dependable income at all is just amazing to me.”

“I had a close friend in school, and there were rumors that we were gay. These rumors were started by—who knows?—people who were jealous, people who had been picked on, girls who had been picked on. So they started these rumors. I like it now that people said I was gay. It’s kind of cool,” says James Franco when asked about the origins of speculation about his sexuality. Franco sounds off on this topic and others in Playboy’s August Interview (issue on newsstands, online at www.playboydigital.com, and on i.Playboy.com Friday, July 15, with the complete interview available at www.playboy.com/franco). 

The actor opens up to Playboy Contributing Editor Stephen Rebello about co-hosting the Oscars, getting arrested during his teenage years, his simultaneous pursuit of multiple college degrees, answering his critics and why he is officially done with Twitter. Following are selected quotes from the interview:

On his roles as bisexual and homosexual characters, including in his upcoming film The Broken Tower: “I have a film coming up that I directed about the poet Hart Crane [The Broken Tower], and I give a blow job in the movie…‘Straight’ and ‘gay’ are fairly recent phenomena…Between World War I and World War II, straight guys could have sex with other guys and still be perceived as straight as long as they acted masculine. Whether you were considered a ‘fairy’ or a ‘queer’ back then wasn’t based on sexual acts so much as outward behavior. Into the 1950s, 1960s and so on, the straight and gay thing came up based on your sexual partner. Because of those labels, you do it once and you’re gay, so you get fewer guys who are kind of in the middle zone. It sounds as though I’m advocating for an ambiguous zone or something, but I’m just interested in the way perception changes behavior.”

On his many academic and creative endeavors: “I’ve been perceived as this guy yelling, ‘Hey, look at me. I want attention.’ I’m not going to school to get articles written about me. I’m just going to school. I write. I make movies. I’m going to school. I hosted the Oscars. I take these projects seriously.”

On his initial response when approached about hosting the Oscars: “When they asked me to do it, I laughed and said, ‘How am I going to get out of this?’”

On hosting the Oscars with Anne Hathaway: “[The Oscars telecast] is hard to talk about because it’s like assigning blame. They told me they knew I wasn’t Chris Rock and that they had designed the show around me…For three or four weeks we shot the promos and the little film that played in the opening. In the last week, when we really started focusing on the script for the live show and did a run-through, I said to the producer, ‘I don’t know why you hired me, because you haven’t given me anything. I just don’t think this stuff’s going to be good.’”

On reactions to his hosting of the Oscars: “After the show everybody was so happy, and Bruce Cohen, the show’s producer, hugged me and said, ‘Steven Spielberg just told me it was the best Oscars ever!’ As far as having low energy or seeming as though I wasn’t into it or was too cool for it, I thought, Okay, Anne is going the enthusiastic route. I’ve been trained as an actor to respond to circumstances, to the people I’m working with, and not to force anything. So I thought I would be the straight man and she could be the other, and that’s how I was trying to do those lines. I felt kind of trapped in that material. I felt, This is not my boat, I’m just a passenger, but I’m going down and there’s no way out.”

On why he tweeted during the Oscars: “As a way to say, ‘Whatever you’re seeing and hearing, those are other people’s words. I’m lifting the curtain and you can see a little bit of what’s going on.’ It was cutting-edge. I was trying to do the best job I could. I didn’t try to sabotage the show. I didn’t get high. I went to the rehearsals I said I was going to. I played the lines as I thought they should be played.”

On why he closed his Twitter account: “Someone at an event asked, ‘Why is your Twitter account closed?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it’s over. I’m not on it anymore,’ and suddenly it became ‘James Franco declares social media is over.’ Which is like saying nobody’s going to talk on the telephone anymore.”

On his long-term relationship with actress Ahna O’Reilly: “It’s over. That lasted about four or five years. We’d been living together in L.A. and then came to New York to go to school for two years. Then I signed up for more school at Yale. I think that was it for her.”

On Your Highness, the film he starred in with Natalie Portman: “I didn’t write that movie. I was just doing my job. I think I’m fine in it. They knew there were problems with that movie a year ago. Just because it comes out after the Oscars, it’s like ‘Oh, here’s backlash.’ Well, you have the year’s best actress Oscar winner in it, so wouldn’t that boost ticket sales? And people want to blame me for that? It’s just ridiculous. There’s this feeling about me like, ‘He’s doing too many things. Let’s get him.’”

On his desire to be a part of the Twilight movie series: “I had my agent tell [director] Bill Condon that I’d’ be happy to do anything in Breaking Dawn, but that was because it was supposed to be part of a multimedia project at Yale. I was working with a Yale undergraduate who had written an autobiographical play about putting on a theatrical production of Twilight in which I was a character. So I was interested in Twilight because I was going to be part of that play. I thought what a great connection it would be if I were also involved with the real Twilight.”

On his upcoming film Rise of the Planet of the Apes: “Here’s my guess: Critics will be out to kill this movie and blame me for it just because they are out to kill me. Last year people were pretty nice. This is the year when people are going to have fun going after me.”

On his 44 appearances on the TV soap series General Hospital: “Generally, people think actors start on soaps, and if they can, they move up the ladder. Early in my career I auditioned for soaps and didn’t get on them. Until going on General Hospital, I was like, ‘Of course I’m not going to go on a soap, that lower form of entertainment.’ I don’t view it that way anymore; it’s all entertainment, just for different audiences.”

On the trouble he got in growing up: “I was arrested for a lot of petty crimes. It added up. I was a ward of the court and was put on probation. Finally, I’d had enough chances, but they gave me one final chance, and fortunately I didn’t get into any trouble after that. Otherwise I guess it could have been like Lindsay Lohan, when she’s on probation and then she’s accused of stealing a necklace, and it’s a kind of small thing that becomes a big thing.”

On when he lost his virginity: “In high school with my girlfriend. I think girls liked me, but I was awkward, shy and emotionally immature, so I didn’t have a ton of girlfriends. I had short-term relationships and always got dumped, I think because I was too slow for them.”

On why it’s a great thing to be dissed or underestimated: “Because if someone from Gawker or any of those blogs wants to say I’m ‘the superstudent’ or ‘the stoner student,’ it takes the edge off this public persona that others have created for me. I can just slip under the radar and do my work without being bothered. They will perceive you however they want to anyway.”

On bloggers who have written negative things about him: “People from these horrible blogs came to my book party for Palo Alto last year. Normally I don’t care, but it’s like your worst enemy showing up at your birthday party, like, ‘Why are you here? Get the f*ck out of my party.’ But it gave me a chance to see that a lot of the people writing for these blogs are just people my age who are in the same writing programs I was—or trying to get into those programs. So it was like, ‘Oh, so you’re just one of my classmates who doesn’t like me. That’s what this is all about?’”

“It sounds complicated to everybody else, but it wasn’t to us.  Honestly, the only thing I was worried about before I said yes to that movie was being asked that question.  I knew at some point we’d have to promote the film and people would say, ‘Oh my God, that’s so weird that you two dated for four years.’  I don’t know what else to say except the truth, which is that we’re friends.  We don’t talk to each other all the time, but we respect each other, and on some level we’ll always love each other – but in our new capacity as friends,” says Justin Timberlake when asked if it was awkward to work alongside his ex-girlfriend Cameron Diaz in Bad Teacher. Timberlake opens up about this experience and others in Playboy’s July Interview (issue on newsstands, online at www.playboydigital.com, and on i.Playboy.com Friday, June 17, with the complete interview available at www.playboy.com/timberlake).

The modern day Renaissance man sat down with Playboy Contributing Editor David Hochman to discuss his new summer films – “Bad Teacher” and “Friends with Benefits” – as well as the future of his music career, dating, his days as an ‘N Sync heartthrob, smoking pot and some of the biggest names in the music industry.  Following are selected quotes from the interview:

On filming sex scenes with Mila Kunis for Friends with Benefits: “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t completely awkward.  I couldn’t tell you the number of people in the crew watching me and my bare a*s, but it was a lot.  The producers and I agreed we would shoot a big chunk of the movie before we got down to the sex scenes, which was a good idea.  That allowed Mila and me time to get comfortable…Most of the sex scenes are actually played for laughs, and she’s such a gifted comedian…a lot of the time it was just me making a fool of myself.  You can’t be shy with comedy even when you’re standing there naked.”

On internet stories about his romantic relationships: “None of it’s true, so I shouldn’t even dignify it with an answer.  The thing is, I’m not going to sacrifice my friendships with people who are my co-stars I meet in the business.  I’m not going to avoid spending time with people because someone who doesn’t know me makes assumptions about what’s going on.  That’s bullsh*t…My life is not on the internet.”

On why he tends to date celebrities: “You probably gravitate toward people who understand your scenario.  At the end of the day you just want someone who gets you, who can be a friend.  That’s kind of the point of Friends with Benefits.  As corny as it sounds, the ‘friends’ part counts just as much as the ‘benefits’ part, if not more.”

On whether or not he’s had any “friends with benefits”: “I don’t think I’ve ever had that type of relationship.  I get hooked on every level when I get close to someone.  If you build enough chemistry to want to be intimate like that, someone’s going to catch feelings, and usually it happens quickly.”

On Lady Gaga: “She’s a force…she’s legitimately talented.  I’d love to see her come out with another record a couple of years from now that’s completely different, maybe something Tori Amos could do.  If I were Lady Gaga, I’d do whatever I wanted, which it looks like she’s doing.  She’s just plain old good.  But I don’t know what the future holds for her.  Her sound is so big.  She’s got the outfits and she shocks you, but you kind of wonder how an act that big stays around forever.  That’s why I’m curious to see her mix it up a little.  I think she’ll continue to make interesting music.”

On Justin Bieber: “Justin’s great.  He’s obviously a talented kid.  I just hope he has a good support system, because I think back on myself wearing cornrows.  It’s awkward growing up in front of the public.  Justin’s probably dealing with that on some level now.  Somebody like Usher mentoring him is great because Usher is somebody who’s had a lot of ups and not a down that I can remember.  He’ll teach him that you can’t just ride this out.  You need to have somewhere to go.  You need to have a plan…Otherwise, before you know it, there’s going to be some kid who’s younger than you.  We just live in that age.”

On Prince: “I look at people like Prince, who, to me, is the greatest musician who has ever lived.  He keeps producing, keeps writing, keeps making unbelievable music – all because he’s true to his passion…Everything he says, every note he sings, it’s just like, man, that guy is so far ahead of the rest of us.  One of my best experiences onstage was at his house during a party.”

On Christina Aguilera and other former co-stars from The All New Mickey Mouse Club: “What’s funny is I didn’t know at the time that the people around me would go on to so many great things.  The exception was Christina Aguilera.  She was the prodigy.  She could sing better than the adults who had huge deals at the time.  We always felt she was going to become Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey…I still love to see people from those days making good on their talent.  It’s a special connection.”

On the Jersey Shore cast: “[They are] awkward in an awesome way.  I’ve never seen the show, but I met them backstage at the MTV awards and they were this fearsome group, storming around the hallway.  They looked pretty awesome.”

On American Idol: “It seems the point of American Idol is to find singers who fit America’s mold of what a talented person should be.  That bothers me.  I don’t know whose place it is to tell somebody he or she is good or not.  Everybody is just different.  It shouldn’t be a contest.”

On his Saturday Night Live appearances: “My favorite thing in the world was to make people sing – until I made people laugh.  Then that became my favorite thing in the world.  SNL gave me a place to do that, and all my experiences there have been tremendous.  I think it made people notice me in a different way.”

On when he’ll release new music: “I don’t have a single song ready to go.  People keep asking me when a new song or album is coming out, and I don’t know what to say.  Music is not my focus right now.  It may be someday.  It could happen next month or next year but right now it’s not where it’s at for me.”

On why he hasn’t recently released new music: “Unfortunately, the business of music is what taints an artist’s desire to make music…I love making music.  I honestly love it.  But there is a level where making music becomes a total life-s*cking commitment.  For instance, to do an album and a tour, you have to be absolutely certain that whatever you have to say is from the heart, because you’re going to say it a thousand times – and on nights when you don’t feel like performing.  You need to feel inspiration to get to a level where you’re performing like that.  But I haven’t felt that level of conviction the past few years.  And without that conviction it’s crazy to put yourself out there.”

On his early passion for singing: “Not a lot of 10-year-old Caucasian kids were running around Millington, Tennessee, signing Stevie Wonder and Al Green songs, which were the songs I felt most connected to…I wasn’t cool with the white kids because they thought I wanted to be black.  And I wasn’t cool with the black kids because they thought I wanted to be black.  So I was looked at as a traitor and an intruder or an imposter.  I had to find solace in just being me.”

On pushing his single “SexyBack”: “When I put out the first song, ‘SexyBack,’ radio thought I was a joke.  I couldn’t let that go, so I started calling radio program directors.  I’m pretty tenacious like that.  I was like, ‘This is my record.  Give it a chance’…I’d say, ‘I know it doesn’t sound like me, but just please give the record a two-week period or even a one-week period.  Just let the music get out there’…I was that relentless.”

On the success he experienced with ‘N Sync: “You couldn’t keep what we were doing on the shelves.  It was bigger than bubblegum.  Sometimes I think back on the time we did five nights at Giants Stadium.  That was the moment I just looked around and thought, There’s nowhere for this to go but down.  It’s never going to get bigger than this.”

On ‘N Sync’s female fans: “I hate to disappoint you, but I was the youngest one in the group, so the other guys were getting more of that [girl] action, and they were protective of me…But yeah, the girl stuff definitely was a heavy part of it, and it would play with your mind.  I remember looking down once – we were playing Madison Square Garden for an HBO special – and this girl put her arm out.  She had a mural of me tattooed along her whole arm.  I just remember looking at it and thinking, Holy sh*t, that’s never going to come off.”

On his fashion faux pas: “God, I feel I’ve gone to therapy just to erase some of them.  The cornrows I wore with ‘N Sync.  That was pretty bad.  Britney and I wore matching denim outfits [to the 2001 American Music Awards].  Yeah, another bad choice.  I’d probably pay good money to get some of those pictures off the internet.”

On why he’s been successful: “I think people sometimes don’t pay enough attention to what they do.  I’ve done well, but the reason is pretty simple: I’ve worked my ass off.  Anything I’ve done well has taken many, many hours of preparation.  And then the trick, of course, is making that work look invisible.  The toughest thing a performer can do is make it look as if it comes easy.”

On why some celebrities experience more than 15 minutes of fame: “I think it’s about process.  If you care about the process of what you’re doing, you can care about the actual work.  You’ll stick around.  The other thing is, you always need to be learning something new.  In whatever I’ve done, I’ve always looked at myself as a beginner.  Hopefully I can continue to do that for the next 30 years as I grow into an older man.”

On smoking pot: “Absolutely [I’m a pot smoker]…The only thing pot does for me is it gets me to stop thinking.  Sometimes I have a brain that needs to be turned off.  Some people are just better high.”

On relaxing and enjoying life: “At some point in my life I wish I had learned to say no.  From the beginning of my career, I was a guy who said yes all the time to everything…For years I was constantly chasing, chasing, chasing.  Then I thought, Well, maybe I’m actually running from something rather than chasing something…Who knows?  Whatever it is, I feel I’m just getting to a point in my life where I’m looking around, going, There’s a lot to enjoy if I can just sit still, actually stop and take more time.”

“The great thing about doing movies with lots of stunts is that it feels as if I’m having the athletic experience I never had in high school,” says Olivia Wilde when asked about filming action scenes for her upcoming film “TRON: Legacy” in Playboy’s December 20Q (issue on newsstands and online at www.playboydigital.com on Friday).  The brunette beauty goes on to explain, “I was a theater nerd, and I always envied my friends on the field hockey and soccer teams.  They had a relationship with their coach that was so supportive…working with these movie stunt teams, I’m finally able to experience that.  You can show up weak and scrawny for a movie, with 80 percent body fat, and they’ll say, ‘You can do these stunts!’  For actors who weren’t athletes in high school that’s an amazing feeling.”

Wilde, oft deemed one of the sexiest women in Hollywood, sat down with Playboy Contributor Eric Spitznagel to discuss her upcoming movies — “TRON: Legacy,” which opens on December 17, and “Cowboys & Aliens,” which comes out in July 2011; being married to an Italian prince; her opinion of blondes; Jeff Bridges; Hillary Clinton; and Megan Fox. Following are selected quotes from the interview:

On the skintight suit she wears in TRON: Legacy: “My costume is actually the toughest, most bada*s thing I’ve ever seen…It would be difficult to be a stripper in that suit because it’s almost impossible to get it off.  It would be a three-hour striptease and you’d need at least five assistants onstage with you.”

On her TRON: Legacy co-star Jeff Bridges: “The thing about Jeff is, in a lot of ways he really is the Dude [from The Big Lebowski].  He has an inner peace I tried to learn from and this easy-going, come-what-may, go-with-the-flow attitude that’s such a joy to be around.  Nothing really fazes him.  With Jeff it’s all going to be okay.”

On Megan Fox’s declaration that Olivia is so sexy it makes her “want to strangle a mountain ox”: “I thought it was a witty, clever choice of words.  There are a lot more boring ways to compliment someone, and it’s rare when actors in this business compliment each other…Shortly after Megan said that, a writer on House who’s also one of my best friends drew a mountain ox on my dressing room mirror and underneath it wrote SAVE ME, OLIVIA! PLEASE MAKE OUT WITH MEGAN!”

On how she’s made her onscreen lesbian kisses believable: “Acting is acting.  It’s not as if I play myself most of the time and kissing a woman is one time I depart from that.  It’s fun to play things that are different from you.”

On her wedding, which took place on a school bus: “The bus was the only place we could be completely alone.  The wedding was a secret, and we wanted to do it someplace where we could hide with our best friends.  It was all about the intimacy of the promise we were making.  When I go to weddings it’s usually all about the party and the place settings and the dress and the flower arrangements.  Our wedding wasn’t about any of that.  I mean, come on, we got engaged at Burning Man.  We were hippies.  We lived on that bus for months.”

On being an Italian princess through marriage: “I never call myself [a princess].  I occasionally get mail that says ‘Principessa.’ It’s all part of being this lucky person who has been welcomed into an interesting family with a long history…How many people get to say ‘This castle has been in our family since the 1400s’?”

On her parents, both of whom are journalists who travel to war-torn countries: “They still travel to some amazing places.  In fact, my mom’s getting ready to go to Yemen for 60 Minutes. It’s actually kind of adorable; they try to pretend my job is more interesting than theirs.  We’ll have conversations and they’ll act as though fighting fake aliens in a movie is more exciting than my mom going to Yemen.”

On changing her last name from Cockburn to Wilde when she was a teenager: “I always thought having a pen name was so romantic.  I honestly didn’t foresee that people would look at it as a sexy name, like ‘She’s wiiiild!’  Anytime a story is written about me, the title is usually some pun on my last name – ‘Born to Be Wilde’ or ‘Take a Walk on the Wilde Side.’  (laughs) I don’t mind it; it’s just not something I ever considered when I picked the name.”

On whether or not blondes have more fun: “No, that’s bullsh*t.  It’s not true at all.  But I have to give credit to blondes.  Having been raised by one and being one, it’s great to surprise people when they have low expectations.  Often stupid people expect nothing from a blonde, and then the blonde can shock them by being Hillary Clinton.  I’m pretty sure she has fun.  I mean, she gets to travel everywhere, eat amazing food in all these different countries – you know she’s having a great time.  And she probably enjoys being underestimated just so she can blow people away.”

On winning a pancake-eating contest in Australia by eating 33 pancakes: “I entered the contest only because they said a woman could never win, and that’s a surefire way to get me to do something.  I’ve always had a huge appetite and don’t get full easily, so I guess I was meant to be a competitive eater, the way some people are born to be long-distance runners.  But I’d never do it again.”

On her dream car: “I think I own it – a 1958 Chevy Biscayne.  It’s cool because I grew up wanting the 1954 Bel Air, but that car is almost too perfect.  There’s something about the Biscayne that’s a little funkier…The great thing about driving one of these cars is that it makes other drivers happy.  People smile at you and let you cut in.  It’s as if they’re grateful you’re still driving it.  But the cars are not exactly discreet.  My life has changed so that I try to blend in more…Now the last thing I want to do is drive down the street and call attention to myself.  That’s what driving my Biscayne does.”

“Not having done drugs for literally five or six years is a lifetime,” says actor Robert Downey Jr. in Playboy’s November issue (on newsstands and available at www.playboydigital.com Friday, October 15). “I think of myself as someone who has no desire, use for or conscious memory of that life.  And yet I don’t shut the door on it, and I don’t pretend it didn’t happen.”

At the age of 45, Downey has already been through hell and back after a much-talked-about battle with drug addiction, but is now a model of the turnaround success story. His career re-surged with roles in three major films — “Iron Man,” “Sherlock Holmes,” and “Tropic Thunder” — and he now finds himself in the company of such bankable stars as Will Smith, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Playboy Contributing Editor Michael Fleming — who conducted Downey’s first Playboy Interview in 1997 — sat down with the actor again at his Venice, Calif. office to discuss his upcoming film Due Date with Zach Galifianakis, his biggest fears, overcoming personal challenges, and why he loves prison shows. Following are select quotes from the interview:

On working with co-star Zach Galifianakis and director Todd Phillips on the upcoming comedy Due Date: “Due Date for me was such a return to a felt sense of community with a small, like-minded group of peers. To me it was like big-budget summer stock…My confidence level lately has been so high that I’m happy to go with people who have a preexisting relationship [The Hangover] and who just experienced something together that was unimaginably successful, enjoyable, smart and a little bit different.”

On his love of prison shows: “First of all, I enjoy reenactments that aren’t done so well that I’m buying it. That creates a certain aesthetic distance. Then I like interviews with someone having some catharsis. It always starts with ‘I kind of had a feeling I shouldn’t be doing this.’ [laughs] It’s never ‘I strapped the hashish around my midsection just knowing it was all gonna pan out for me.’ And they never say on Locked Up Abroad, ‘This was the first time I ever tried this.’ They just describe the time they got busted. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I am part of a culture that is equally fascinated, disgusted and soothed by the socialization of the random suffering of others.”

On the struggles of his past: “Sometimes it’s necessary to compartmentalize the different stages of your evolution, both personally and objectively, for the people you have to love and tolerate. And one of those people, for me, is me. I have a very strong sense of that messed-up kid, that devoted theater actor, that ne’er-do-well 20-something nihilistic androgyne and that late-20s married guy with a little kid, lost, lost in narcotics—all aspects of things I don’t regret and am happy to keep a door open on. More than anything I have this sense that I’m a veteran of a war that is difficult to discuss with people who haven’t been there.”

On taking responsibility for one’s actions, including his own: “To me, here’s the only thing: You take responsibility, whether you’re outraged by the results or not, that you in some way participate in and create what you’re experiencing. It’s people who stay stuck—and I relate to this because it’s a card I’m happy to play when I’m tired or overwrought—who think, I’m a victim; I’m being victimized! You’re out of line! Can you believe this? I didn’t do anything wrong! Well, actually you did…when it’s going down, when the bust is on, there’s never a good time to have your house raided. You just think, Man, all those times I was stuck at the window in my underwear, sweating mortar shells and thinking the cops were coming, and they never came. I would think back on those other thousand times and relax. Then they came.”

On his biggest fears: “Infidelity. Losing my sense of true humility. Looking back I think, Oh my God, I could have been done. I could have been so fried and so bad off and, oh my God, such a cautionary tale. [laughs] And I still could be. By fear of infidelity I mean I have a passion for how delicate it is to maintain things that are really pure. And I don’t find myself tempted because I don’t put myself on a frequency that temptation likes to go. I keep myself in overtly pheromone-free interactions with all women, except my wife. She deserves it.”

On his belief in fate, and whether he thinks it played a role in his current success and happiness: “I don’t necessarily believe I’m meant to be anywhere, but I know there are a lot of probabilities…A lot of my peers who have led pretty healthy lives have been dealing with some serious health problems the past couple years. I put myself at risk for a bunch of years and find I’m perfectly healthy…I have known relative happiness—and by happiness I mean having a sense of peace and not just waiting for the other shoe to drop—for only five or six years.”

On the public’s tendency to rush judgment of celebrities, like Mel Gibson: “I feel for the kind of zeitgeist diagnoses that are being applied to certain of my peers lately, and I think it’s unconscionable…If I’m friends with somebody now, I don’t talk about them for public consumption. But remember, I was in jail, and I don’t want to discredit the doctor, but somebody just decided I had some disease in my brain. Sight unseen they needed to publish it and capitalize on this ‘truth.’ More power to them, misguided or not. But the real problem is this: When you’re in the hood, don’t be alarmed by gunfire. That’s as simple as I can put it. For me, the hood was northern Malibu and my own isolation and dependency therein.”

On his devotion to the newfound discipline in his life: “Discipline for me is about respect. It’s not even about self-respect; it’s about respect for life and all it offers. And not indulging. I have happily reconsidered my position on a bunch of things I didn’t want on my ‘no’ list despite all evidence that I couldn’t handle them. At the end of the day, anything I think I’m sacrificing I’m just giving up because it makes me feel better.”

On the sources of his present feelings of confidence: “My age and my recent set of experiences, which have left me feeling I’m in the zone. This is just the sweet spot of my career and my life so far, and strangely, they’ve come at the same time.”

On playing the role of a superhero: “Probably the person resisting it the longest was me. I resisted being open to thinking of myself in that framework, that I could do the superhero thing. But maybe I could look like I was six feet tall, in the right boots. I could get my arms a little bigger and not move my face so much when I talked. I could jump in a jeep with a bunch of military guys cracking jokes and then not look like a b*tch when the bomb goes off. I might even look like the kind of guy who designs those big bombs. By the way, that’s more likely me. He’s not a hero in the beginning and has no intention of becoming a hero. He’s injured by his own creations. I just love that.”

On Stan Lee, creator of Iron Man: “I feel connected to Stan Lee on some trippy level in that I was wearing nappies when he was creating this character who went through all these transitions and was for years considered a second-tier superhero. By the way, if he had been considered anything else, the movie would have already been made. And so every single thing about it was right.”

Blast recently had the pleasure of speaking with a bartender. So what you say? Well slappy, this bartender happens to have posed for a little periodical recently. Playboy.

The Bar was Whiskey’s on Boylston Street. The girl was Bethanie Badertschel (Don’t try and pronounce it phonetically. You’ll bleed out your ears).

BLAST: Let’s just get the normal interview standards out of the way first. How old are you?

BETHANIE BADERTSCHEL: 23.

BLAST: Where are you from originally?

BB: Tucson, Arizona.

BLAST: Was this the first time you’ve posed wearing only your vagina for a public forum?

BB: Well, Playboy was my first nude photo shoot. But I’ve posed for some of their stuff before. Some college editions. Some Cyber Girl stuff. Other pictorials with them.

BLAST: Since you’ve appeared in Playboy in the past, safe to say your family knows about the spreads?

BB: Well yeah, they know I’ve posed. They haven’t seen the spreads, though! Weird, haha!

BLAST: Knowing that, how many guys do you think your dad has slugged in the jaw, with the assumption they’ve seen his daughter’s naughty bits?

BB:Oh yeah. There’s like, a couple of guys still in the hospital because of the damage he did!

BLAST: Multiple choice: “I’m only doing these photo shoots to pay my way through: A — College. B — The pricey divorce, or C — The overwhelming Valium addiction.”

BB: Haha! College!

BLAST: Was that answer legit? Are you enrolled out here?

BB: Yeah I’m going to UMass for Computer Science.

BLAST: Do you have a lot of experience with computer stuff?

BB: Well, I’m kind of a self-proclaimed computer nerd. When my brothers were outside playing, I would be inside gaming it up!

BLAST: Right. Are you just saying that to appeal to the gamer demographic?

BB: No! I really do know my way around a computer, but I’m sure it didn’t hurt. It makes me more appealing to that demographic.

BLAST: Now you earn money for your upcoming indebtedness to school loans by tending bar at Whiskey’s on Boylston Street, correct?

BB:Yeah, I’ve worked there for almost two years now.

BLAST: Have you noticed you’re tips decreasing steadily since the issue’s release, since, you know, you basically took all the guesswork away from every guy that comes in now?

BB Naw, I’m a star bartender, through and through!

BLAST: Will you start following the “Playmate Template,” consisting of: 1) Spread for Playboy 2) Date Hugh Hefner 3) Get reality show on E! 4) Break up with Hef  5) Get impregnated by a large black man?

BB: No! That’s a really common misconception about playmates!

Bethanie Badertscher can be seen wearing a whole lot of nothing in the August issue of Playboy. She can also be seen wearing significantly more clothing for her job at Whiskey’s at Back Bay.  Bring money. Hot bartenders usually cost more to act interested in you.

Have you ever wanted to own a piece of history … Playboy history that is?

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Playboy Clubs and the Playboy Bunnies. As a way to commemorate this special occasion Playboy is making the iconic Bunny costume available to the public for the very first time.

The limited-edition Bunny inspired lingerie set includes a sexy corset, bow tie collar, bunny ears, bunny tail, and cuffs.

"The original Bunny costume, worn by more than 25,000 working Playboy Bunnies over the years, was created for female staff at the first Playboy Club in Chicago (which opened to the public on February 29, 1960) and started as a modified one-piece swimsuit," said Abi O’Donnell, Publicist of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. "The Bunny costume, recognizable for its satin bodice, cotton tail and rabbit ears, went on to become the first uniform to be issued a trademark registration by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office."

Prior to launching their careers as actresses Lauren Hutton, Sherilyn Fenn, Lynne Moody, Barbara Bosson, Julie Cobb, Jackie Zeman, Maria Richwine, and Susan Sullivan all worked as Playboy Bunnies. Even rocker Deborah Harry of Blondie was a Bunny.

"This new set is one of many products that will be launched this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary. Other commemorative products that have been created include: a line of vintage-inspired Bunny tee shirts, special edition glassware, and "The Hef" loveseat," said O’Donnell.

All merchandise will be available online at playboyclubstore.com as well as retail outlets, including Urban Outfitters.

Amy Vitale is a busy woman. Best known as a professional wrestling manager, Vitale also models, acts in commercials and music videos, and she appears in this month’s Playboy Magazine.  On top of that, she’s featured as a character in the Red Skye Comics book, "Aurora Stone."  Oh, and she devotes a significant portion of her time working with Patriot Girls for the Troops, a group that raises money for the troops through sexy photos, calendars and fun events like car washes.

After getting involved with the wrestling industry when she was just 16-years-old, Vitale has spent the last 14 years working towards the recognition she is finally receiving now.  A few days ago, the sweet and extremely friendly Vitale took a few minutes out of her day to chat with Blast over the phone.  Turns out the hectic schedule won’t slow Vitale down.  In fact, she’s just gearing up for all the opportunities that lie ahead.

BLAST:  Could you explain what you do with wrestling a little bit for those who don’t know much about it?

AMY VITALE: I come out by ringside with the wrestlers. I play the sidekick. My character is an Italian spoiled princess. It’s a lot of girl power but also a lot of comedy too because I always want my own way and it never goes my way. It’s a lot of fun.  It’s a great, great way to take out your aggression if you’ve had a bad day.

BLAST: I bet. How did you get involved with wrestling?

AV: Basically, I started out as a fan. I grew up watching Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and Eddie Gilbert.  I really liked it a lot, especially the girls.  The girls were gorgeous, like Miss Elizabeth and Missy Hyatt. They came out like Barbie dolls, dressed up and with make-up and hair and everything, and I said, "That’s something I would like to be." I liked the story lines. It was just like a male soap opera. I first started writing about it for newsletters in high school, giving my opinions and comments. I got to know a lot of people that way, and I started going to local shows around Florida. I started working at some promotions and the rest is history.

BLAST: That sounds pretty awesome.

AV: Yeah, it’s a lot of hard work though.

BLAST: How does it feel to be recognized for your hard work with all this press now?

AV: It’s great. I can’t explain it better than that. I’ve been doing this for quite a while now and it’s a really nice feeling that all my hard work is paying off and that people are getting what I do and people are actually spreading the word about me. I’m really excited because I know everyone is enjoying what I do out there with my modeling and wrestling and acting, and it’s just a wonderful thing.  I hope more opportunities come my way. I’m staying positive, because I have accomplished so much, but there’s just so much more that I can do.  So I’m really excited about the future.

BLAST: Along those lines, do you have a dream job or a particular goal with your career?

AV: I just want to continue being successful with what I’m doing. I know that wrestling has a shelf life. I can only do it for so long. But acting and modeling, I can keep doing forever.  I mean, look at Clint Eastwood and Julia Roberts and everyone like that.  I think I can broaden my horizons to a lot of unique things, so I’m hoping a lot of different opportunities come my way. I just want to continue to grow and continue to get my name and face out there.

BLAST: Can you tell me a little bit about your work with Patriot Girls for the Troops?

AV: I am one of the spokesmodels for Patriot Girls. We’re basically a modeling group that represents pride in America and support for our troops. What we basically do is we help raise awareness and money for the troops … It’s really been catching on, actually. At the wrestling shows I’ve worked at, I’ve had families come up and say, "Thank you for all the work you’ve been doing with the Patriot Girls." We’re not affiliated with any political party or anything. We’re just out there to raise awareness for the troops…I’m kind-of the new kid on the block with the Patriot Girls. I’ve been there about a year.  I’m really, really proud of what we’re doing.

BLAST: What’s next for you? Do you have projects lined up or are you waiting to see what comes your way?

AV: I’m basically waiting to see what comes my way but I do have shows coming up with the wrestling.  I have a couple modeling projects coming up.  I also have a comic book out. I’m really excited about it.  I love comic books. I’m trying to branch out and do all kinds of different things that people normally don’t do. I’m trying to branch out to everything.  I’m a Gemini, so I’m a little crazy.  I like a little bit of everything.  We can’t make up our minds.

BLAST: Well, it seems like it is working out for you, especially after 14 years of different activities.

AV: Yeah, it’s been a lot of hard work.  No matter what anybody says, it takes time, it takes hard work.  Anybody who says "Oh yeah, I was just lucky," they’re lying.   They worked their butt off too. You have to really work hard to get somewhere.

When John Mayer dropped the “N word” in a interview with Playboy, it seemed his reputation hit rock bottom. But then he tried to apologize, and managed to drill it down a little deeper.

Through MediaCurves.com, HCD Research conducted studies in which Americans ranked the sincerity of celebrity apologies in 2009. John Mayer ranked the lowest among Chris Brown, David Letterman (times two), Governor Mark Sanford and Jaimee Grubbs.

Most people (88 percent) found Mayer’s use of the “N word” inappropriate, and after viewing his apology, 32 percent said they were less likely to listen to his music.

HCD also measured overall perception of sincerity in these celebrities. Here’s how they were rated:

“The scores … indicate the percent change in celebrities’ sincerity scores based on a scale of 1-7 before and after respondents viewed the apologies. Higher scores indicate higher levels of perceived sincerity. Positive scores indicate an increase in perceived sincerity and negative scores indicate a decrease in perceived sincerity.”

Mayer came in dead-last with a -13.6. Chris Brown did surprisingly well with a 17.2. David Letterman’s sex scandal confession earned him a 4.3, while the apology for his Palin joke got a -2.3. Governor Mark Sanford’s affair apology got a 3.2, and when Jaimee Grubbs apologized to Tiger Woods’ wife, she scored a -5.9.

What about Kanye’s awkward apologies to Taylor Swift? Too uncomfortable to judge, I guess.

Marge Simpson is showing some yellow in the November issue of Playboy.

The cover shows “The Devil in Marge Simpson,” depicting her in the nude, albeit mostly covered by a Playboy-bunny-shaped chair (which conjures up images of the “Life in Hell” rabbit). Inside, you’ll find a three-page pictorial with “implied nudity” drawn by “The Simpsons” illustrators.

“It’s never been done, and we thought it would be kind of hip, cool and unusual” Scott Flanders, CEO of Playboy Enterprises, told The Chicago Tribune.

Ned Flanders, however, could not be reached for comment.

The purpose of the cover is two-fold, according to the Boston Herald: to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Simpsons, and for the magazine to focus on a younger audience.

While this is not the first time Marge has been a featured model for a men’s magazine “" she appeared on the cover of Maxim in 2004 as a “D’oh-eyed beauty” “" it is the first time Playboy has featured an animated model (not to be confused with Jessica Rabbit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit fame, who was played by a real-life model).

Make sure to read the accompanying article penned by the writers of “The Simpsons.”

Other people of interest on the cover are Stephen King, Farrah Fawcett, and Tracy Morgan.

How very unrefreshing — a story about Americas favorite frenemies and America’s least favorite married couple.

The New York Daily News reports that Lauren Conrad, in the August issue of Harper’s Bazaar, goes to town on Heidi and Spencer Pratt and their attention-seeking ways.

“I don’t call magazines and let them know about things so they can write stories,” she says of the camera-loving couple. “There was never an incentive to keep doing ‘The Hills’ so I could get into [Hollywood club] Les Deux. That was never the point. It was more to create a fan base so I can go create a business and do something I really love doing.”

She also brings up Heidi’s fake breasts, which will be seen in the September issue of Playboy. “They’re not going to pay for themselves,” she said.

Today in ‘keep it in your pants’ news, we’re pleased (very much so) to let you know nerdgastic TV icon Olivia Munn is Playboy’s next cover girl.‚  She’s never licked a PSP like Ms. Chobot, is bucking the trend and not appearing nude in the issue, and her inclusion will likely stir gamers everywhere from their caves and send them flocking to stores to pick up the magazine (for the stories of course).

Jessica Chobot of IGN and her PSP

Have a look at the video below, which first appeared on G4 and teases (in every sense of the word) Munn’s appearance in the issue with a behind the scenes look at her photoshoot.

When “Bitch Slap” comes out later this year, America Olivo will make a certain scene by Denise Richards and Neve Campbell look like a Disney movie.

The 31-year-old beauty, daughter of 1959′s Miss Canada, is on the cover of Playboy in May, and she dished on her upcoming films and her upbringing.

The singer and actress appears in a 6-page nude spread available May 15.

She stars as a drug-running, street-fighting lesbian in the upcoming “Bitch Slap,” which boasts the longest girl fight in cinema history, Playboy said in a news release this week.

Olivo told the magazine that she had to do “blatant lesbian scenes on a trapeze, in which I’m making out, kissing this girl between the legs and riding her so intensely I was more sore than a mofo.”

She also talks about how, attending Juilliard, she was encouraged to lose her virginity.

“Every time I sang about love,” she told Playboy, “my 97-year-old mentor would say, “You can’t really sing a song like this until you’ve lost your virginity, and I can tell you haven’t!” Her solution? “I lost my virginity in Rome in a park with a view of the Vatican — literally.”

Olivo appeared in two episodes of House, has a role on General Hospital, was in the “Friday the 13th” remake and has five more films to her credit coming up after “Bitch Slap.”

At first glance, Juliette Frette looks like a typical Playboy Playmate: clear skin, long blond hair, and gigantic breasts. Frette began working with Playboy four years ago doing occasional spreads, which eventually evolved into her participation as a full-on Playmate. Last year she was named Miss June, and she currently travels around the country doing promotions and showing off her phenomenal body.

“Playboy has provided me with a lot of opportunities,” she said, boasting that she often gets to travel overseas as well. What most people probably don’t know about Frette, though, is her reasoning behind working with Playboy.

“When I did my first project with Playboy it was to write about (it) for my senior thesis project,” said Frette, 25. A women’s studies major at the University of California, Los Angeles, Frette wanted to write about her experience with playboy to examine the way women are portrayed in the media and how it affects their empowerment.

Frette considers herself a feminist, an artist, and a writer.

Her most recent endeavor will combine two of these aspects as she begins her position as the national women’s issues columnist at Examiner.com.

“I’ll be addressing pretty much anything that relates to women’s well being. That could range from health to political issues,” Frette said about the column, and added that her main purpose is to provide “better awareness about women’s issues and hopefully clarity on those issues.”

“I’d like to make people think about issues that haven’t been brought to light enough.”

The seemingly contradictory nature of Frette’s position doesn’t bother her. She recognizes that it’s unusual but called it the whole package. “That’s just who I am,” Frette said. She even sees her connection with Playboy as possibly being a positive thing for the column.

“Playboy might facilitate extra traffic to the page. Anything that can get people to read about important issues is a good thing. It’s kind of an interesting perspective I guess to present to a large audience. There are a lot of playmates that share my views but don’t really have the chance to present themselves as feminists so I’m glad I have the opportunity to do this,” Frette said.

Frette found a position at the Examiner while freelancing for other magazines. At first she took a different position, but after some discussions with the editors, decided that writing for the women’s issues column would be a better fit for her. Frette is excited to spread awareness and hopefully pose some new questions regarding women’s issues. She also welcomes feedback from readers about topics and opinions. “If it seems like an interesting suggestion, I’ll write a column about it,” she added.

Another hidden side of Frette is her artistic nature. She loves to paint particularly but said she loves to “create” anything. Frette’s website showcases some of her creations. “That has actually taken a backseat to my writing recently,” Frette said. “I feel that concentrating on more than one kind of art at once is very draining.”

In addition to her column, Frette also plans on publishing a book based on her senior thesis project at UCLA, which was called “Posing for Playboy from a Feminist Perspective: How Media Images Impact Women’s Empowerment.” It focuses on her feminist interpretation of her experiences as a playmate.

Her personal experiences and studies, Frette believes, will greatly assist her in giving advice and analyzing issues. Her first piece of advice for women? “Don’t worry about how practical a job or a college major is. If you chose something that might be profitable it’s just going to lead you down a road that you won’t enjoy. Create your own path.”

Juliette Frette has done just that.

Playboy Enterprises launched a free public beta of a new digital back issue website, letting aficionados peruse every photo, article and advertisement from 1954-2007.

Just remember that 2009 minus 1954 is 55 years ago.

“Playboy has an incredibly rich history and an intensely loyal readership,” said Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, in a statement. “This is the perfect opportunity to offer them something they have always wanted and also a great way to allow a whole new generation to easily explore the magazine.”

The system uses Bondi Digital Publishing and Microsoft Silverlight, which is like Flash only no one actually uses it.

Bondi has a good reputation in this realm, actually. They did the software for The Complete New yorker.

“Playboy has been an exceptionally influential part of America’s cultural landscape for more than 50 years. We are thrilled to give people a whole new way to explore that history,” said David Anthony, Co-Founder of Bondi.

Playboy Games: Pool Party has launched for mobile phones.

Your mind is now that much dirtier.

This game’s launch marks the first part of a multi-year, multi-title agreement between Playboy and THQ for developing non-nude but “Playboy lifestyle-themed” games that are stacked with mini-games and pseudo wholesome challenges like frisbee throwing, bucking-bronco rides, water balloon fights, and jumping in the pool.

Players can customize their own low-resolution babe with bikinis, hairstyles, shoes, stockings, and accessories.

Get all that for $6.99. Just don’t let anyone see you playing it, or they’ll think you’re a douchebag.

We absolutely love it when a big media outlet gets college students involved in the news.

PlayboyU.com, the PG-13 Playboy site for students recently polled top college newspaper sportswriters to get their top 25 college football picks.

The “Playboy College Sportswriter Top 25 Poll,” is surprisingly accurate with a few points for debate.

“We’re glad to have students from so many great schools participate in this inaugural poll,” said Gary Cole, Playboy magazine’s sports editor.  “It’s great to be able to add the opinions of these college journalists to Playboy’s coverage of college football and college sports in general … even if their ultimate pick of Georgia over my preseason number one, Oklahoma, is dead wrong.”

The Georgia Bulldogs narrowly edged out the University of Southern California. Rounding out the top five are Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Florida.

The 31 student-pollsters include representatives from nearly every major Division I conference, as well as the Ivy League, including the University of Florida, University of Georgia, USC, UCLA, The Ohio State University, Harvard University, University of Notre Dame, and 24 other schools.

Playboy’s College Sportswriters Top 25

Rank Team Points
1 Georgia 729
2 USC 724
3 Ohio State 698
4 Oklahoma 680
5 Florida 675
6 Missouri 605
7 LSU 566
8 West Virginia 517
9 Clemson 494
10 Texas 486
11 Auburn 451
12 Wisconsin 404
13 Texas Tech 374
14 Kansas 330
15 Virginia Tech 318
16 BYU 295
17 Arizona State 291
18 Tennessee 280
19 Illinois 208
20 Oregon 185
21 South Florida 168
22 Penn State 126
23 Fresno State 87
24 Wake Forest 64
25 Alabama 57

Penthouse Magazine announced last week that their Pet of the Year is Mississippi-native Erica Ellyson.

Ellyson, January 2007′s Pet of the Month, was picked by the magazine’s readers out of 12 finalists.

“It took me a while to believe I was the Pet of the Year,” Ellyson said. “When I found out I said, ‘Really? Are you sure?’ about five times. It was the best feeling ever, once I finally got it through my head!”

The sexy brunette is 5’7″, 23-years-old with hazel eyes. She is an architecture student at the Newschool of Architecture and Design in San Diego.

“Erica is smart, sexy, and a true Southern belle. As soon as she appeared in Penthouse as our Pet of the Month, she captured the hearts of our readers, as well as our staff, and she’s been extremely popular with Penthouse fans ever since,” said Penthouse managing editor Barbara Rice Thompson. “We’re delighted to have her as our Pet of the Year, and we’re sure she’ll continue to charm everyone she meets with her enticing looks and captivating personality, not to mention her irresistible sex appeal.”

“I’m so grateful to my fans and friends for their support, and I can’t wait to make new ones,” Ellyson said. “I’m excited to get out there as the 2008 Pet of the Year and be a representative of the Penthouse brand and family.”

Erica’s Pet of the Year pictorial is featured in the March issue of Penthouse. The magazine went for sale Feb. 19.

THQ and Playboy announced Monday the development of Playboy Games: Pool Party set to launch on mobile phones this summer. Pool Party will be the first of several games planned under an exclusive deal signed between the two companes recently.

“Given the extensive appeal and popularity of the Playboy brand, mobile games based on this license are sure to provide a fun and entertaining experience,” said Adam Comiskey, international vice president of THQ Wireless in a statement Monday. “THQ Wireless is ideally positioned to provide engaging games with the hallmark of the Playboy lifestyle.”

Playboy Games: Pool Party will be a collection of mini-games depicting animated, bikini-clad Playmates at the Playboy Mansion engaged in “pool party sports” like water balloon fights, waterslide slaloms and aquatic mechanical bull riding.

“The number of Playboy fans around the world has never been greater and that popularity is reflected in the growing sales of Playboy-branded products and services,” said Ed Lang, senior vice president of mobile, Playboy Media Group. “We’re excited to join THQ Wireless in offering this next-generation form of entertainment to consumers.”

Pool Party is being developed by THQ studio Universomo and is based on actual events held at the Playboy Mansion and shown recently in the DVD release, Playmate Playoffs, hosted by Chuck Woolery.

When Kyla Ebbert, 23, tried to board a Southwest Airlines flight this summer wearing a miniskirt and revealing top, she was told to change. When Playboy approached her recently, she was told to take it all off.

Her story made a media splash in July, and Ebbert took her skirt and sweater on Ellen, Dr. Phil, and the Today Show attracting more and more attention, including the ear of billionaire Richard Branson, who invited her to ride sexily on Virgin Airlines anytime.

“I definitely have a new airline of choice,” Ebbert told Playboy.

Ebbert quickly attracted Playboy’s attention.

“There are two questions Kyla Ebbert is asked constantly after nearly being kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight because the airline staff thought her outfit was too revealing. The first: Were you wearing panties under your skirt? The second: Has Playboy contacted you?”

Her photos appear on Playboy.com starting today. The clothed ones are free, but you have to pay up to see it all.

July wasn’t the only sexy-in-the-air experience for Ebbert. She claims to be a member of the “mile-high club” — and no, it wasn’t on a Southwest flight.