Survivor’s Jenna & Heidi to Appear in ‘Playboy’

Jenna and Heidi from Survivor: The Amazon stripped once for a national audience (albeit blurred out) to get peanut butter and chocolate cookies. Now they’ve done it again for a much higher payout.

Yes, the rumors that have been swirling are true. According to the New York Post, Jenna and Heidi have posed for Playboy and both will appear in the August issue, with Jenna on the cover. According to the story, Jenna could earn yet another million dollars, depending on the issue’s sales. No word on how much Heidi might get, but it’s got to be more than a teacher’s salary.

Playboy said it was a first – getting the winner of a reality show rather than a runner-up. Then again, the previous Survivor winners are not exactly prime nude model opportunities for the magazine. Brian (Survivor: Thailand) has experience being naked in front of the camera in his soft porn movies, and Rich Hatch wandered around the island in his birthday suit, but obviously Playboy would not have been interested in either of them. The two previous female winners were Vecepia and Tina, neither of whom seemed likely to pose. Jenna, on the other hand, is a swimsuit model to begin with, and since both of them stripped once already, it seems like a natural next step.

According to the Post, the photo shoot took place the day after she won. Rumors have been swirling since then, but when RealityNewsOnline asked Jenna about them in RealityNewsOnline’s interview with her, she did not answer the question. All questions and answers must go through CBS, and while that question was sent, an answer did not return.

CBS and Mark Burnett both had the opportunity to block the photo shoot, due to restrictive contracts signed by all contestants. However, both allowed them to go forward. Previously, they had similarly allowed Jerri from Survivor 2 to appear in her own Playboy pictorial. According to the magazine’s editorial director, Burnett thought it was great and supported the photo shoot. Well, sure, why wouldn’t he? Publicity is a good thing, after all, and it may help keep the show in people’s minds during the off months in the summer.

However, it also brings up questions. At the post-finale reunion, host Jeff Probst asked Jenna about the stripping incident. She said that her parents weren’t exactly proud of her, but she was starving, it was done, so let’s get over it and move on.

Heidi said at the reunion that she stripped because of hunger. Furthermore, in her interview with RealityNewsOnline, she said that while she didn’t regret taking off her clothes for food, it was because of her state of mind at the time. “I had been starving for 21 days... and when Jeff said some of us may not reap the rewards of the challenge... I made sure I was not one of those people... So for me to do what I did was based on starvation and strategy.”

However, neither of them are starving now. Indeed, while a million dollars doesn’t go as far as it once did, Jenna said in her interview with RealityNewsOnline that after she pays off her bills and her family’s, the rest of the million would be heavily invested so she wouldn’t have to worry about money. Of course, by this time she said that, she had already posed for the magazine, so she may have already been including that money in her planning. Still, the point is that both used starvation as a reason for stripping, yet neither of them is starving now. Jenna indicated that it wasn’t her proudest moment, yet she is doing it again – this time without the blurring for network television.

Certainly, the urge to make the most of your 15 minutes of fame is great, especially with so many reality TV participants around these days. And many people would say there is nothing wrong with posing for Playboy. But then why not just be straight about it instead of making excuses for stripping when the plan was already in motion to do it again?

In any event, since it is the August issue, the magazine should be out by next month (they are always ahead of the published date on the issue). Rest assured that RealityNewsOnline will investigate the pictures thoroughly to bring you a detailed report.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at rno@pobox.com.

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