- Title: USA: Playboy pin-up Sara Jean Underwood crowned "Playmate of the Year"
- Date: 9th May 2007
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) HUGH HEFNER, SAYING: "Well I think all girls have gotten a little taller and a little healthier, but beyond that, quite frankly there have not been a lot of changes. When you go from Marilyn Monroe to Pamela Anderson, there isn't a great deal of variation on the theme. I think that quite frankly, what makes the playmate unique is that they really are the girl next door, and that doesn't tend to change."
- Embargoed: 24th May 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA5CIYHAZPHJO7JTIFF0POQ0XDX
- Story Text: Twenty-three-year-old Sara Jean Underwood joins the ranks of Marilyn Monroe, Pamela Anderson and Anna Nicole Smith, becoming the 48th Playboy playmate of the year. An annual rite of passage took place high above the hills of Los Angeles on Thursday (May 3), as Sara Jean Underwood was crowned 2007 Playboy Playmate of the Year.
On hand at the "historic" Playboy mansion west was the home's owner, Playboy icon Hugh Hefner, who introduced the playmate with "a great deal of pleasure and pride."
Sara Jean Underwood, twenty-three-years-old, blonde, and wearing a revealing yellow dress and crystal Playboy necklace, gracefully took to the stage and accepted the honor.
Amid the tears she told the crowd she was "so concerned about being able to tell you guys a story today about how much this meant to me. Not only how much this meant to me, but how much every experience and every opportunity I've had in the last two years has enriched my life."
In addition to the Playmate of the Year title, Underwood also receives a check for one-hundred thousand dollars and a 2007 chili-red Mini Cooper S convertible.
The Oregon State undergraduate, who is also a native of Oregon, first appeared on the cover of Playboy in the spring of 2005 for the magazine's Girls of the Pac 10 issue. The flaxen haired beauty didn't become a playmate until the following year when Hef named her Miss July 2006.
But Underwood, who hopes to return Oregon to finish her senior year and earn her business degree, doesn't think this is really going to change her life.
"I don't necessarily see it changing my life," she said. "I look at it as an enrichment, I guess I would say. All these experiences just make me that much more worldly of a person, so I'm always gonna be who I am, but I feel like this is just making my life that much more enriched by getting to experience everything that I'm getting to experience."
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Playboy, Hefner, said that while 48 years have gone by since the first Playmate of the Year was crowned, little has changed.
"Well I think all girls have gotten a little taller and a little healthier," explained Hefner. "But beyond that, quite frankly there have not been a lot of changes. When you go from Marilyn Monroe to Pamela Anderson, there isn't a great deal of variation on the theme. I think that quite frankly, what makes the playmate unique is that they really are the girl next door, and that doesn't tend to change."
The ceremonies concluded with Underwood thanking the crowd and telling them "You don't know how much it means to me."
In a final candid moment, the playmate shrieked, "I'm Playmate of the Rear!" - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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