from www.chron.com – Pete Rose, baseball’s banished and bruised all-time hit king, now 68 years old (can you believe that?) is sending his girlfriend to Houston this week — to pose nude for Playboy magazine.
His girlfriend is a statuesque brunette in her early 20s … if the statue has Pam Anderson’s measurements.
Pete’s still swinging for the fences.
“My girl has finally decided to try to shoot for Playboy, and they were kind enough to give her an opportunity to come to Houston for an interview, and we’re excited about that. She’s beautiful, she’s young, educated — there’s a lot of qualities. She is very intelligent and just a really sweet girl,” said Rose, who was given a lifetime ban from baseball in 1989 for betting on games as a manager and a five-month jail sentence the following year for filing false income tax returns. Now he spends most of his days signing autographs in a Las Vegas casino.
Rose didn’t give his girlfriend’s name, but photos of them are plastered all over the Internet. They don’t look like Mr. and Mrs. Middle America. Hugh Hefner called Rose and said, “A little closer to your age next time, OK, Pete?” That’s just a joke.
“You got to stay young, keep yourself young, and she helps me to do that,” Rose said. “My girl’s a real educated girl. She graduated from Arizona State. She had a very prestigious job several years ago when she was a flight attendant for Korean Airlines, which is really a big deal in Korea, and she’s Korean. Let’s just hope that the Playboy people like her.”
Rose’s Playboy and Houston connection is photographer Mikki Chernoff, herself a former Playboy model. Rose and Chernoff dated a few years ago.
When she put Rose on the phone for me, she called him “Petey.” I’m not sure anybody called him Petey in the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse when the Big Red Machine was winning World Series in the ‘ 70s.
Playboy will be interviewing and taking test photos of prospective models through today in Houston. For information, details and an application, click on www.playboy castingcall.com. Models will be testing for “all things Playboy,” according to Chernoff, meaning the flagship Playboy magazine, special issues (like Fresh Faces or Hot Housewives), the Playboy cable channel and Playboy Web site.
Applicants must be 18 and older — and bring proof. They should bring either a swimsuit or lingerie to the casting call. And, please, females only. That guys-showing-up-in-thongs thing? Not funny.
It’s fine if models have some tattoos but don’t count on being picked if you’re the Illustrated Lady from the circus or a biker chick with more ink than an NBA point guard.
“If Playboy is interested in the girl, she will hear from us within six weeks, and we’ll tell them which division is interested in photographing her. A couple of discreet tattoos are fine, but since we shoot so much video, it’s hard to hide an entire back covered in artwork,” Chernoff said.
Chernoff, who was “Mikki the Intern” on several Houston radio stations in the ‘ 90s, has been with Playboy for 15 years.
“I started as a model, then a Reader’s Choice Supermodel and pictorial girl in the magazine. Then I became the Texas Playboy producer, doing all the set design and hair and makeup. This year, my dream came true when I started shooting the pictures as well as doing hair and makeup. I’m one of only a handful of women ever to take photos for Playboy. I’m very proud of that.”
from www.sportsbybrooks.com –