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From Bishop to 'bunny'
Playboy picks Campisi for centerfold spread


By Ryan Trimble Associate News Editor
January 14, 2004


After five days of shooting, Hugh Hefner decided he didn’t like the pose that Playboy photographers had designed for Amber Campisi.

“He said he envisioned me in a pillow fight scene, with feathers flying everywhere,” said Campisi, a 2003 SMU graduate.

Campisi was chosen as a finalist in Playboy’s 50th anniversary Playmate search. The search ran in the 2002 December issue of the famous magazine. Campisi agreed to pose after customers at her family’s Dallas restaurant suggested she should.

“In April, I was serving drinks to a customer at the restaurant, and she had heard that Playboy was doing a search and suggested that I pose,” Campisi said, “but I was too nervous to call for an appointment, so she called for me.”

Campisi never worried about what her parents might think. Only 10 minutes after the customer called for the appointment, Campisi’s father notified her that he had set up an appointment as well.

Campisi posed in a bikini at the shoot, but months passed and she heard nothing back from the magazine.

Then in July, a representative from Playboy called her, wanting her to come and stay and shoot at the Playboy Mansion.

“I flew into Los Angeles Wednesday at 9 p.m., but Hef takes the girls out on Wednesdays and Fridays, so by 10 I had to be dressed and ready to go out. I wasn’t sure I wanted to, but one of the other Playmates said that Wednesday nights were when you met everyone, so I hurried to get ready.”

From there, Campisi was loaded into a limo for a night of festivities on Sunset Boulevard. Of the 10 women Campisi was with, she was the only brunette. Security guards accompanied the women to every club they went.

“Hef is very protective of the girls, and wants them to feel comfortable,” Campisi said. “We even had bodyguards that would accompany us to the restroom and stand outside and wait for us.”

The next day, Holly, Hefner’s main girlfriend, gave Campisi a tour of the mansion. After that, it was off to pose for the pictures that would eventually earn her a place in the magazine’s 50th anniversary competition and another trip back to the mansion for a centerfold spread last November.

“I felt a bit nervous at first, but soon I was more comfortable,” Campisi said. “It was me, two lighting guys, a makeup stylist, a hair stylist and the photographer, Steve. He was a young guy, and I thought that he must think his job is pretty cool.”

Campisi also explained that on Thursdays and Sunday nights, the Playmates all have dinner with celebrities like Brian “Kato” Kaelin and former Playmates. But one of Campisi’s fondest memories was how every girl bonded with a different one of Hefner’s seven live-in girlfriends.

“I felt closest to Shiela and Zoey,” said Campisi.

Campisi earned $25,000 for the pictures. When her next centerfold spread runs, she will also be eligible to win the Playmate of the Year honors, which includes $100,000 and the benefits of the coveted title.

“Playboy prides itself on as little airbrushing as possible, so I had like two-hour hair and makeup sessions before shoots,” Campisi said. “Plus, for the pillowfight scene, I had feathers glued to my fingers so everything would look perfect.”

As for her future, Campisi will continue working at the family restaurant and will fulfill the rest of her two-year contract with Playboy. It entails such things as answering weekly online chat room questions and completing a video.

The contract also states that she cannot do anything to drastically change her image (such as cut her hair significantly shorter) during that time, which is fine with the corporate communications and public affairs major.

“I’m out promoting myself and the magazine, and planning events, and that’s really what my degree is about anyway,” Campisi said.

She also said that people come up to her all the time and are very encouraging, and even want to take a picture or get an autograph.

“I was working one night, and there was a mom that asked me for an autograph for her 14-year-old son,” laughed Campisi.

Campisi said that she isn’t sure what month her centerfold spread will run, but said it would hopefully be within the next few months. Whether she is crowned Playmate of the year or not remains to be seen, but Campisi certainly hopes that she will be able to be a “bunny.”

“The bunnies get to travel all over the world, places like Russia, and basically get paid to party. I would love the chance to get to travel for a while,” she said.

Originally posted by Hoop Fan:
yea, please do, something has to distract us from that Kathy Bates in the hottub pic that Dooby is throwing down.