Does that girl sitting next to you in class look familiar? Think you've seen her before? Naked, perhaps?
Maybe she's one of the three University students featured in the October issue of Playboy, which includes several pages of girls attending colleges in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Last semester Playboy sent modeling scouts to ACC schools to find girls for its October issue, and second-year College student Briana Timmons, third-year College student Paige Gellar and fourth-year College student Ariel Iverson* each made the cut.
Introducing Briana Timmons
The morning of her first autograph signing, Timmons shared some of her experiences from the past several months.
The first step in becoming a model for Playboy was her audition, which consisted of taking trial photographs last April. She was told to expect a call by the end of the week, but instead, she received a call by the end of the night. The following day, she met with a photographer, and the shoot was the day after that.
"It was really fast -- it made my head spin," she recalled. "I kind of pictured a month so I could, you know, do some toning up and stuff, but, no, they were like, 'We're going to shoot you tomorrow.'"
The shoot took place at a farm in Crozet after difficulty finding a location in Charlottesville, she said.
Playboy publicist Melissa Gorski explained that Playboy doesn't shoot any photographs on college campuses. That led to difficulty at the University because "the whole place is a campus," Gorski said.
Timmons said the location scout was going "crazy" about finding a good location.
"He was going down these back roads, and he found this woman with a donkey pulling a cart. She was riding in the cart, and he was like, 'Where are you going?'" Timmons said, laughing. "I guess he asked her -- he said, 'Do you know anywhere, any scenic places around here?' and she was like, 'You can come back and see my house.'"
Timmons said the house and surrounding area were beautiful.
"It was amazing," she said. "It was a huge place, and the farm was awesome. ... They told me they wanted to do the whole Paris Hilton, Simple Life kind of a rip-off, so that's kind of where they put me."
She said the photographer took her through the process step by step to make her feel more comfortable.
"You start off wearing clothes, and it progresses to open the shirt, lose the shirt, lose the skirt, okay you're naked," she said. "And then put on this pair of jeans. You just wear a bunch of different things."
The women in the magazine are in various stages of undress, according to their comfort levels.
"The photographers allow each of the girls to choose how naked they want to be," Gorski said.
Timmons is featured wearing only cowboy boots.
"Yeah, you don't have to be completely nude if you don't want to, but they knew it was something I was comfortable with just because I did it in the casting," she said.
She said the shoot happened so quickly that she didn't tell her mom until afterwards.
"I called my mom, I don't know, a day or two afterwards, like, 'Hey, you know, just thought I'd let you know -- I posed for Playboy,'" Timmons said. "She was like, 'What? Why'd you do that?' But she was actually kind of cool with it -- cooler than I thought she would be. I told my friends, and they thought it was just the coolest thing in the world."
Timmons said she first saw her photograph when she bought the magazine Sunday, Sept. 5. She said she had no idea what picture had been chosen before then.
"I had to go buy it," she said. "I was in Richmond. I went to Walden books, and I ripped it open, and the woman's like, 'You're not supposed to do that.' I was like, 'I'm in it.' And she was like, 'You're still not supposed to do that.' And I was like, 'Alright, I'll buy it right now and look at it.'"
She said her first impression of her picture wasn't positive.
"The picture was a lot different from all the other girls' pictures, and I was a little disappointed at first because it didn't show really anything," she said. "My friends were really like, 'Oh, this is so cool -- we're going to get to see you naked.' But I really like the picture now. I've gotten a lot of compliments on it and a lot of e-mails like, 'Your picture's so original, it's so different. We like it so much.'"
Gorski said the other women in the magazine are in "really traditional Playboy poses," so Timmons's picture, a side view in which she is bent over, is unusual.
Timmons said that although her mom is too embarrassed to buy a Playboy, her older brother has seen her picture.
"Right after the football game on Saturday [Sept. 11], my older brother called my cell phone, and I thought it was something really bad at first," Timmons said. "But he was like, 'Jeremy just brought a Playboy over here -- what in the world?' And I was like, 'I'm sorry, but yeah, I'm in Playboy.' He just didn't know what to say."
She said she thought he wouldn't find out, but she was wrong.
"He found out the minute that bad boy was on the newsstand," she said.
Timmons continued, remembering what her brother had said: "You know all my friends are perverts."
Like her mother, her father hasn't seen the magazine but knows she posed.
"I don't think he likes the idea too much, but he's not going to be that mad, I don't think, especially because of the picture -- it's not like a full-out look at me," she said.
She said reactions from her friends have been positive throughout the entire process, and many of her friends have seen her photo.
Gorski said she thinks many of the people who buy the ACC issue are friends and acquaintances of the models.
"I think that's what makes the issue really popular, is that there will be people going to buy it to see the people they know who are in it," she said.
Timmons's celebrity has extended beyond her friends.
"I was at the gym the other night ... and all of a sudden I saw this dude pointing at me and talking to his friend and then pointing again, and I look down, and he mouthed, 'I know you,'" she said laughing.
Other people have said she looks familiar but aren't entirely sure why they recognize her.
"There's been a bunch of people who are like, 'You look really familiar,' and I'm just like, 'Have you seen the ACC issue?' They're like, 'Oh, you're the upside down one,'" she said. "It's kind of funny, though."
For the most part, she said people don't recognize her. When they do, however, word spreads quickly.
"If you're at a party and you know one guy there, he's going to go around and be like, 'You see that girl? I know that girl. You know who that is?' And that's how people are going to get to know me," she said. "I've already experienced that at a party Thursday night. There was this one guy who knew, but then all of a sudden it was like the whole party was coming up to me like, 'Will you sign mine?' and like, 'Do I know you? Because I know a dude told dude and this dude told me and I told my mom.'"
The morning before the autograph signing, Timmons had only signed a few autographs.
"I signed one at a convenience store because I was looking at it, and I was like, 'Oh they have the Playboys,'" Timmons said. "A lot of places around here haven't gotten them for some reason, I guess because it's a conservative town, I don't know. But they had them, and they were like, 'You want to buy one?' I was like, 'No, I'm in it. I already have it.' They were like, 'You're in it?' They ripped it open, and there was a dude behind me in line and he said, 'No one can really recognize her though because she's upside down.' I had no idea who he was. He was just some random guy, so I signed that one, but that's the only one I've really signed."
At the signing
By 4 p.m. that afternoon, however, Timmons had signed more than a few. The autograph signing featured all three models at the Lucky 7 on the Corner. They sat at a table near the entrance, and each wore a necklace with the trademark Playboy bunny.
Gorski estimated at least 250 people had come to the signing about halfway through.
"When we started, the line was around the store," she said. Although most of the attendees were male college students, she said there were "a few girls here and there" and also some older men.
First-year College student Darren Tully was one of several students waiting in line.
"My friend Jared, here, was walking down the hall and asked if anyone wanted to go," Tully explained. "I figured it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
He expressed his approval of Playboy magazine, which he admitted to buying because he "had money to waste on it."
"I would say Hugh Heffner is a great business man, and he has a very good ... enterprise," he said. "I envy him greatly."
His friend, first-year Engineering student Topher Arena, would only say, "I love my girlfriend."
Timmons said the signing was what she expected.
"I couldn't even tell you [how many magazines I've signed]. What do y'all think -- like a million?" she asked Gellar and Iverson. "It's been a good turnout, I think."
Gellar, who was featured in an ice cream shop on the Downtown Mall, agreed.
"I think it's gone really well," she said. "There was a good turnout, and it's been fun."
Among those who lined up for her autograph were some of her male friends.
"But they all knew I did it, so it's fine," she said. "It's funny."
She also said her female friends have been supportive.
"They like it a lot," she said. "I actually signed one of my roommate's things this morning."
An older man approached and asked her to sign his magazine -- and his University athletic shirt. He then proceeded to invite her to a wet T-shirt contest at 200 14th Street.
"I've been getting these for 13 years," he said of the magazines. "You coming? Please, I'll be there."
He wrote down his address and gave it to her.
"Don't y'all forget," he said. "We have bouncers. Big ones."
Timmons and Gellar said that was not the strangest encounter of the afternoon.
"I think the strangest thing [I was asked to write] was, 'Thanks for a good time,' so it wasn't that bad," Timmons said.
Gellar remembered another strange request.
"Some guy made me sign, 'To sweetness,'" she said.
Timmons laughed as she heard Gellar's comment.
"Oh yeah, that was weird," she agreed.
*Note to readers: these names are pseudonyms chosen by the models to protect their safety.
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