Playboy Video Centerfold: Playmate of the Year Kimberley Conrad

My review was written in May 1989 after viewing the program on HBO video cassette.

While exhibitionim and narcissism are hardly alien to the Playboy philosophy, there's a distracting tastelessness that harms this salute by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner to his bride-to-be, Kimberly Conrad.

The Alabama-born model who went to school in Vancouver takes the viewer on a tour of the Playboy Mansion and Hefner makes several cameo appearances in chronicling her Cinderella story. However, the endless plugging and gushing about the wonders of Hefner's world are hard to take.

So is the eagerness to showcase Conrad in the nude, obviously the raison d'etre for this video series. But it takes on a different context, with the emphasis on her relationship with the Svengali figure (not unlike the John and Bo Derek films).

Fans willing to overlook this content problem will certainly be impressed with Conrad's figure and beauty au naturel. Roger Tonry's glamor photography is impressive, but unlike most other Playboy programs, video segments (including homemade tapes of horsing around) detract and seem like filler.

A 10-minute bonus segment provides a current update on 1979's 25th anniversary Playmate, Candy Loving. She now works as an insurance company executive in St. Petersburg and has evidently put her nude modeling career to rest (the only undraped shots on display are stills from the past).