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| Karen McDougal (b. March 23, 1971) is an American model and actress. She is best known for her appearance as Playboy's Playmate of the Year of 1998 and Miss December 1997. She is of Cherokee Indian and Irish descent. McDougal was born in Merrillville, Indiana, a sub-division of Gary, Indiana. She is the first daughter in the family with 3 older brothers and a younger sister. Little is known about her family, but her mother, Carol, remarried when McDougal was at the age of 9 and the family moved to Sawyer, Michigan where she remained until college. She attended River Valley High School and became a cheerleader, band member, color guard, volleyball and softball player in high school. McDougal has studied tap dance and ballet as a child. She is also a clarinet player, being a Michigan state champion 4 years in a row in high school. Her childhood dream, prior to teaching and modeling, was to become a ballerina. After graduating high school in 1989, she attended Ferris State University at Big Rapids, Michigan for college for 2 years, majoring in Elementary Education. Afterwards, she moved to a Detroit suburb and taught preschool there. In her spare time, she works out 3 days a week to stay in shape. In 1997, McDougal tried out and won her local Venus Swimwear swimsuit competition in Michigan. Her victory caught the eye of Playboy photographer David Mecey. Soon after that she was approached by Playboy for a test shoot at Playboy Studio West which she accepted. After her test shoot, she was selected to return for a complete shoot and chosen as Playmate of the Month of December 1997. Her pictorial, which was shot by photographers Richard Fegley and Stephen Wayda, has a winter theme and its outdoor portion was shot in the snowy fields near Park City, Utah. In June 1998, she was announced to have been chosen by Hugh Hefner and fans as Playmate of the Year of 1998 at a luncheon at the Playboy Mansion. As her reward, she was awarded $100,000 and a special edition silver Shelby Series 1 convertible with a customized Michigan license plate "PMOY 98". In contrast to her Playmate pictorial, her PMOY pictorial in the July 1998 issue of Playboy has a tropical theme and its outdoor portion was shot at St. Lucia. According to her interview in her Playmate of the Year video, she believes her physical imperfections are her "funny" smile, her crooked pinkies which she inherited from her grandfather and her "ugly feet" which she wishes others would not look at. Because of the popularity of the VH1 television series Pop-up Video at the time, one of the segments in her PMOY video was done as a Pop-up Video parody filled with factoids about her and Playboy. During her appearance on The Magic Hour to promote her PMOY issue, McDougal demostrated her signature pose, sideway split on TV in front of a live studio audience. Playboy has continued to publish her material in Playboy Special Edition publications and Playboy Videos based on her work at this time. In March 1999, McDougal became the first woman to appear on the cover of Men's Fitness magazine. Since then she began transitioning her career into that of a fitness model by appearing in various fitness and body building magazines such as Muscle & Fitness (January 2000), Physical (June 2004) and Iron Man (October 2005 and January 2006) and refrained from modelling nude. She appeared in a 10-page pictorial in the January 2006 issue of Iron Man as the "Hardbody" of the month. McDougal appeared in a series of sexy, scantily-clad TV commercials for XFL football league on NBC with the theme of "Cheerleaders" along with Pennelope Jimenez, Rachel Sterling and other models in 2000. The most famous one featured her as one of many cheerleaders taking a shower in the locker room. Using clever camera angles and strategically placed objects, the commercial gave viewers the titillating illusion that the cheerleaders were nude in the shower with little left to the imagination. The edgier XFL commercials backfired and caused a controversy as they were deemed too risqué by family values groups, they were quickly withdrawn before the launch of 2001 XFL inaugural (and final) season. In 2001, she co-starred with Lisa Dergan in The Arena, a Roger Corman-produced, direct-to-video movie directed by Timur Bekmambetov. The entire production was shot in Russia. In her feature film debut, McDougal's character, Jessemina, is a slave girl who is forced into fighting as a female gladiator in a Roman colony by its corrupt governor. The role offered McDougal her first opportunity to act in a dramatic role and to demostrate her physical abilities with the movie's sword fighting sequences. The movie, initially titled Gladiatrix was deemed to be a knockoff of Gladiator. Although the movie was not well received, it has turned into a lesser known cult film. Many regard her as a favorite Playmate in recent years because of her combination of beauty, "Girl next door" appeal and curvaceous figure, according to a November 2001 Playboy poll in which she was voted "Readers' Choice" No.2 Playmate of the 1990s, second only to Pamela Anderson. Playboy released a limited edition doll in 2002 based on the likeness of McDougal and emphasized that it was an anatomically correct and accurate model of her statuesque physiqué. Her collectors' figure was originally slated to be the first in the series to be released, however it was delayed due to redesigns. She was one of twelve contestants in the search for the new host succeeding Brooke Burke for Wild On! in 2002 (known as Wild Off!). The contest took place at The Palms in Las Vegas. She was considered an early favorite by fellow contestants, but did not advance to the final round of 5 contestants. Cindy Taylor was the eventual winner of Wild Off!. McDougal collaborated with famed fantasy sculpter Bill Toma in creating a limited edition bronze statuette titled Warrior Princess in 2003. It was a revealing sculpture of a fictional female fantasy character in a standing pose using McDougal's face and figure as a template. McDougal posed for Toma in the creative process and the pedestal of each statuette bears her signature. In spring of 2004, McDougal appeared in a photo spread in the Italian edition of Vogue with fellow Playmates, Pamela Anderson, Audra Lynn and Tishara Cousino. It was a tennis themed men's fashion spread shot in Las Vegas by photographer David LaChapelle. The spread contained her first published nudes since her contract with Playboy expired years ago. She travelled to Japan to be one of the valets for Scott Hall and Kevin Nash (The Outsiders) when they wrestled at Yokohama, Japan in May 2004. McDougal also participated in the 50th Anniversary celebrations of Playboy throughout the year at Las Vegas, New York and Moscow with other Playmates past and present. After winning the local try out in Los Angeles, McDougal advanced to the WWE 2004 RAW Diva Search special held at the Beacon Theatre in New York as one of 28 finalists. The special was televised live on Spike TV with a live audience on July 15, 2004. McDougal, clad in a black bikini, survived 2 rounds of elimination during the 2 hour special, only to be eliminated by the judges in the last round at the end, just prior to the selection of the final 10 contestants eligible for online voting. Her elimination was a surprise to the live audience, as she was arguably the most famous contestant not advancing to the next round. Christy Hemme was eventually selected by viewers to be the 2004 WWE RAW Diva. McDougal appeared in the 2005 Playmates at Play at the Playboy Mansion swimsuit calendar as the calendar girl of July. The calendar was the inaugural Playmates at Play calendar and it was shot on the grounds of Playboy Mansion in 2004. It was Playboy's first attempt at creating a non-nude swimsuit calendar featuring Playmates similar in style with those from Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. While all Playmates appeared in bikinis in the calendar, McDougal and Hiromi Oshima were the only two Playmates actually wearing nothing but painted on bikinis. She appeared as one of the interviewees in E! True Hollywood Story of Hugh Hefner first broadcasted on April 9, 2006. McDougal briefly described her experience at the Playboy Mansion when the marriage between Hugh and Kimberley Conrad Hefner was falling apart at the time when she was Miss December 1997. The episode was produced to coincide with Hugh Hefner's 80th birthday. McDougal has also guest hosted TV programs (Wild On! on E!, VIP Access on VH1) and appeared in other television programs (such as: The O'Reilly Factor, Playmate edition of Russian Roulette, etc.) and movies (cameos in Joe Dirt, Charlie's Angels, Grind, The Girl Next Door and Raising Helen), music videos (singer David Lee Roth), various pin up posters, calendars, magazine covers, advertising campaigns, promotional events, clothing, swimwear and lingerie catalogs following her success as Playmate of the Year. McDougal's family members initially did not support her decision to pose for Playboy. Eventually, they embraced the fact and her mother appeared in interview segments of her Playmate of the Year video centerfold as a sign of support. One of her goals is to open a learning center for children. Lately, she has been pursuing roles in acting and modelling and has put her learning center plans on hold. She is interested in pursuing hosting duties of TV or sports shows. She is one of the few Playmates that has publicly acknowledged having breast implants to enhance her figure. Since becoming Playmate of the Year, she has become an advocate of breast cancer awareness, trying to use her fame to spread awareness. An avid motorcycle rider, she commissioned a custom-built motorcycle in 2004. Her requirements for her bike were that it had to be pink in color and had to be reliable. Her motorcycle won Best Radical Custom award at a Easyrider Competition in Pomona in 2004. McDougal is currently residing in Los Angeles and Phoenix, Arizona. |
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