As we heard the rumors stir for the past few weeks and months, the frontrunners apparently came and went in this year's Playmate of the Year race. There were fan favorites Jessa Hinton, Kylie Johnson, Ciara Price, and Amanda Cerny, all of whom were thought from time to time as being the eventual nominee.
But in the end, it was the one constant fan favorite who took it. For once, the controversy isn't quite as heavy as it has been in past years. We had some surprise candidates in the past years, the most recent being last year's Claire Sinclair or 2010 winner Hope Dworaczyk.
With Jaclyn Swedberg, though, we knew that her fanbase was huge from the start. Folks supported her in droves from the beginning, and it showed in every single poll on any site. She came in fourth in my own blog poll, but I even expected her to do better. Sure, I put her at #6 in my 2011 class ranking, but I knew all along that Jaclyn would be a strong contender, and for good reason. I never actually disliked Jaclyn, as her natural beauty and finesse are really quite endearing. It's actually her lack of talent and any solid photos that really took her down a notch for me.
As much as I was hoping that she would redeem her poor PMOM performance with a great PMOY spread, I do know better by now. We haven't really had a decent Playmate of the Year pictorial since Carmella DeCesare nearly ten years ago. Heck, we haven't had a truly talented PMOY who could put together a potentially explosive pictorial since Ida Ljungqvist (who didn't deliver, either).
Miss Swedberg's pictorial is underwhelming at best. Instead of trying to refine and accentuate Jaclyn's really endearing girl-next-door traits in any way, Playboy's editors just step on the gas and crush any hope of that. Instead, they try to rough her up a bit, getting her in more mismatched costuming and poor hair and makeup. On that note, they absolutely smother her amazing face with makeup, masking her innate beauty which could easily carry her in any photo set. What we have left is a pared-down model who is overly bashful and rarely shows any emotion.
In the end, though, it's all right. Jaclyn, while only being my sixth choice, is a fine candidate for Playmate of the Year. While she has never quite delivered, she's still a truly "good" model with plenty of good looks to balance things out. While the past years have given us women who have totally lacked the ability or looks to put together a good photo set, Jaclyn at least has the potential to do so. Although we'll never see much more from her again, that's something we can hang our hats on, as we say "maybe next year" once again. To 2013!
Here are the poll results from my blog. Thanks to all who voted!
#2. Jessa Hinton (15%)
#3. Tiffany Toth (14%) - PBC pick
#4. Jaclyn Swedberg (13%)
#5. Kylie Johnson (10%)
#6T. Rainy Day Jordan (5%)
#6T. Ciara Price (5%)
#8. Anna Sophia Berglund (5%)
#9. Sasha Bonilova (2%)
#10T. Iryna Ivanova (2%)
#10T. Mei Ling Lam (2%)
#10T. Ashley Mattingly (2%)
4 comments:
So glad Jaclyn won! She was my favorite. I hadn't picked the winner since Jayde Nicole. It almost makes me wish I hadn't cancelled my subscription after the great "Cyber Club/Playboy Plus fiasco".
Not me. I would have ranked Jaclyn in the bottom six, behind Kylie, Ciara, Tiffany, Amanda, Jessa, and Rainy Day.
Awful PMOY pictorial! This is worthy of Cybergirl pictorial. Whatever happened to outdoor locations? Let alone exotic locations? There is no wow factor here at all. Not a memorable pictorial at all. Not my choice of PMOY either...meh...
I am a big fan of Jaclyn but will have to admit one point. Pretty much all my fondness for her comes from her videos. Jaclyn is Jaclyn only when she is allowed to speak. The way she interacts with fans and her use of her hands to express herself is awesome. Of course most of us agree that she is such an outstanding beauty and I think she has what I would term a 'radiance' that very few other recent Playmates do. Yet as PBC pointed out there is hardly one truly memorable picture of Jaclyn which is so hard to accept. For someone so attractive for whatever reason she doesn't quite take her photos anywhere near the level she is in person. In spite of all that though she was my favourite of the year and not only am I glad that she won but it was a great decision for the company. This year I think had three stand out stars - Jaclyn, Amanda and Ciara. Any of them would have been top class as PMOY but Jaclyn's charm and 'radiance' gave her the edge in my book.
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