First, we had our February Playmate, Jessica Burciaga. After 2009's debut Playmate, the 55th Anniversary winner Dasha Astafieva, I felt as though we'd have a downhill trend, since Dasha set the bar so high that other girls of the year would have a very tough time competing for the 2010 PMOY crown. But things moved fast in the Playmate world.The "rest" of the girls from the 55th Anniversary Playmate Search are emerging from the woodwork, and one of them is Jessica. Let's just say that perhaps there was a toss-up in the nomination of the eventual winner of the anniversary issue, since Jessica might as well be just as deserving as Dasha was.
Jessica, any way you look at her, is drop-dead, spot-on gorgeous. She is a model with magnificent proportions, a spectacularly beautiful face, and posing talent that is both accessible and sultry. One thing that puts her over the top in my book is that she is just so wholesome while being able to flip a switch and turn on the heat right away. Her Hispanic heritage makes her golden brown skin a welcome feature, and contradicts her pearly white smile extremely well. Jessica is a pure bombshell... she explodes with passion and playfulness in her photographs, and while she isn't quite as professional as Dasha, she is very graceful and poised when she looks deep into the camera and gives you a look that could melt your heart.
The costuming in Jessica's pictorials is also a strong point of hers. Her whole collection in very good, and should give the audience enough of an insight with her different looks (like this sexy club top with no bottoms) that she can climb to the top of the year's class with ease. If you haven't given Jessica a deep look, try it. She looks excellent in every photo, she has amazing talent, and if you check out her Video Jukebox entries, you'll see that her body moves like no other, and she might have some of the greatest Playmate videos in years, especially with her second entry, which catches her tabledancing with some sultry Latin flavor.
The bottom line is, Jessica has quickly become my favorite for the Class of 2009, even beating out Dasha's fantastic debut. Jessica is far more accessible as a girl-next-door model, has a wider range of talents, and is just a fascinating girl to admire and observe, both in movement and in pictures. A definite winner!
Consensus... A
Jessica Burciaga
Miss February 2009
The month of March brought in Jennifer Pershing, a Jersey-born rocker chick who was, well, puzzling. After two months of greatness to kick off 2009, we finally had a dud, and what a clunker she was!
Jennifer just couldn't cut it as Playmate, and is an odd decision, to me. She brings back the airbrushed, generic blonde and puts it into pictorial form yet again, breaking months of unique selections of Playmates. Jennifer poses awkwardly, doesn't have a clear plan when she gets into motion, and moves aimlessly through her pictorial series. The one sexy photo of hers in the series is followed up by some uninspired, passive shots that are poorly produced with too much makeup and too much haste.
I know I've been hard on Jennifer, but it just feels like she has had high expectations put on her because of her predecessors so far this year. Ultimately, Jennifer isn't Playmate material, nor can she be with further development. The production value of her pictorials, her lack of posing talent, and her generic appearance can assure her a spot at the bottom of the barrel in the Playboy world.
Consensus... C-
Jennifer Pershing
Miss March 2009
Playboy's commitment to finding new and interesting categories of women altogether is a great new phenomenon. Last year's introductions of Ida Ljungqvist (the newly crowned Playmate of the Year) and Regina Deutinger, as well as Dasha and Jessica so far this year, prove that Playboy clearly is trying to move into a new direction in terms of what the typical "model" should be. Gone is the cookie cutter blue-eyed blonde, and here to stay are women with curves, hard bodies, and attitude.
So here's something new: a girl whose legs go on for miles, and whose hair flows down her back like a waterfall. A brunette with a big smile. I'm talking about Hope Dworaczyk, Miss April. Hope has really grabbed the attention of many Playboy fans, and is developing quite a following already after being a relative unknown in the nude modeling world beforehand.
What's really interesting and stunning about Hope is her sheer height. Standing at 5'10", she's a tall drink of water. You can get a sense of it in her pictures, but what really gets me going is the fact that she's so curvaceous even at that height. Such a tall girl with breasts and a butt like this? The sight is very unique, but it's not just Hope's intriguing proportions that get the crowds riled up. Hope's photogenic eyes and smile, combined with her penchant for entertaining the camera with her understated and subtly sexy looks, make her a surefire winner.
Hope is a special girl, but she also isn't very aggressive with her posing style. It suits her well, don't get me wrong. Hope is an inherently passive model, standing by and letting her subtle gracefulness and cute looks do the talking. The only thing I ask of Hope is that perhaps she could take a little bit more off in her material, and show a bit more skin, bringing out her wilder side a bit. We all know she has one, but you barely get to see it in her presentation. My advice to Hope: get a little loose!
All in all, Hope adds to an already stellar class of 2009 Playmates. She, Dasha, and Jessica have combined to start off what could potentially be one of the great years in Playboy's history. If things keep going the way they are, we could have a truly memorable year. Hope gives the year a different direction, one with a little bit of subtle charm after some hard-hitting performances by the talented girls of January and February. We can't wait to see what Playboy has in store next!
Consensus... B+
Hope Dworaczyk
Miss April 2009
