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PHOTOGRAPHY Marcel Indik

What do Playboy, Jeff Garcia and Open Your Eyes Magazine have in common? Carmella DeCesare! This former Playmate of the Year is not only drop-dead gorgeous, she’s also intelligent enough to make her one of your Who Wants To Be A Millionaire lifelines. Carmella is the kind of girl that we consider a total package: you can take her home to mom, then take her to the club. The Puerto Rican-Italian bella has just the right ingredients: plenty of Caribbean salsa, with just the right amount of Italian spice. Yum! We don’t have an OYE Mamacita of the Year award, but if we did Carmella DeCesare would definitely be our choice!

Playboy chose two Latinas back to back as Playmates of the Year in 2003 and 2004. Does this mean America is falling in love with Latinas more and more?
Oh definitely. I think America has opened its eyes to more diversity and I think that, speaking to a lot of male friends, they love Latinas. Look at Eva Longoria, Eva Mendes. They are absolutely beautiful and they’re different. And I think that’s what people just love. They’re not just your average plain Jane, basic All-American girls. They have great sex appeal and a very exotic look.

But was your “exotic” look always something people accepted?
Growing up in Ohio I did feel a bit uncomfortable when I was younger, maybe because I wasn’t like everyone else. Because my complexion is much darker than the kids that I went to school with. I’m olive-complected and I’m pretty dark. As a kid I was even darker. But it was more so when we were really young kids. As I got older I don’t think it really made a difference. The older you get, you get to see a lot of diversity, you get to go to other places. But when you’re a child growing up in a white neighborhood it is a little different.

How did being the Playmate of the Year change your life?
I got to travel to so many places and meet so many great people. This made me more accepting and less judgmental of other people. Things in Cleveland are very different from L.A. People can be so opinionated and judgmental. That was the problem I had growing up. It felt like if you weren’t like everyone else you didn’t fit in. I don’t want to be like anybody else. There are so many people that strive to be like Pam Anderson. I just want to be Carmella.

So would you say that it was a growth experience for you?
Definitely. It forced me to grow up, to have a lot of alone time. It forced me to find myself. Like I said, as a kid I had kind of a hard time because I felt like I didn’t fit in. Now I love that I’m unique. I love that I’m different. I love my background.

You were a half Puerto Rican girl “trapped” in Ohio. Does that mean you didn’t get to learn Spanish?
Well my mom’s dad always spoke Spanish to us, and I took five years of Spanish during high school and college. My grandfather really tried to get us to learn.

I take it you never had any “Boricua Pride” bumper stickers on your car then?
I wouldn’t put any bumper sticker on my car.

You’ve done a lot of shoots in your time. What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened on one of your shoots?
We had a disaster on a Playboy shoot. We were shooting my Playmate of the Year video and there was a guy pumping gas into a fireplace. When he lit it he didn’t know another guy had turned it up, and he got burned really bad. It was awful. His eyebrows got singed and he had to go to the hospital.

Well, better him than you. But on to a different note, what do you think makes you so beautiful?
I would say, for anyone, it’s your personality. You can meet some girl that is drop-dead gorgeous and she’s stupid. Or you can meet someone that has a rough personality or somebody that is just not real. I think one thing that other people see in me is that I am real. I call things how I see them, and I feel that I’m a genuine person. I really care about people and their feelings so I just want someone to care about my feelings in return.

You’ve pursued a higher education. Isn’t your presence in the classroom really disruptive to all the men?
I take Internet courses, which is more convenient because you don’t have to deal with the hustle and bustle. You can do things at your leisure. It would be pretty tough to be in a classroom, especially in a small town like where I am.

Speaking of small towns, was your being Playmate of the Year a big deal in your hometown?
There were a lot of things, both good and bad. A lot of positive things were said. But not everybody agrees with what you do. You also hear the negative things, but you just have to brush it off. It definitely made waves. I mean here’s a small town girl, and nobody’s used to anything happening in this town. Not only did I do something, but I did something so controversial.

You’re married to NFL quarterback Jeff Garcia. Does that mean you follow football?
Oh, before I met Jeff I was a huge football fan! There’s not much to do in Cleveland, so I grew up with the Cleveland Browns. I was a huge football fan. I’m like a guy. I probably know more than half the guys about football. Sometimes I get a little too excited, to the point where sometimes Jeff’s like, “Wow!” I’m a diehard football fan. I love the game.

So did Jeff have to be a smooth operator to get that first date with you?
You know I’m sure it wasn’t that much of a challenge for him. He’s a super sweet guy. We just hit it off from the beginning. We were friends before we dated, so we would go to dinner together. We would hang out and have fun. Then it just developed into a more intimate relationship. He’s my best friend. I love him to death, and we get along really well.

So Jeff obviously made the right moves, but what’s the one thing other men have done wrong when they approach you?
I think the biggest problem is that men never just be themselves. That is such a turn off. I respect a man so much more if he can just be himself. Be real. Be honest, and don’t put on a show for me. It shouldn’t seem like you’re going on a job interview. Just have fun and be yourself.

A guy obviously can’t be the jealous type if he’s going to date a beautiful model?
There is a certain amount of truth to that. I obviously can’t have some psychotic, jealous boyfriend who questions everything I do, because he would drive me nuts. But I also want a guy that shows that he cares. It’s cute if they’re jealous in certain ways. I want someone to be protective of me and always want to be by my side. A little bit of jealousy is cute, as long as it’s not bad, as long as it doesn’t lead to anything negative. I can’t complain about that.

So are you the jealous type?
No. I don’t think I would consider myself a jealous girlfriend. I just think that I’m a real person. I’m a good person. I invest a lot of my time and my life into my relationships, whether it be my relationship with my family, my relationship with my friends, or my relationship with my boyfriend.

We won’t get into specifics, but judging from the altercation you got into, which received a lot of publicity, is it fair to say women out there better check themselves before they try to mess with your man?
I don’t want to say anything like that, because that is just going to start more controversy. I don’t even think that’s what it was about. I think women out there just need to stop being jealous and stop being insecure. I don’t want to say anything to piss anyone off. The media has just torn it apart. I think it was an unfortunate situation that has gotten blown way out of proportion.

It’s a shame, but there’s always people out there that are going to try and tear you down and try to break you down. That was a situation that really hurt me and made me very sad, because it was something that should have never gone that far and should have never taken place. I guess I got really bothered because there were a lot of things that were very untrue. But everything happens for a reason, and I’ve learned a lot from it.

But she deserved the karate kick right?!
No. She deserves karma. If I would have said, “I kicked her ass,” then that would have been like she deserved what she got, but I didn’t get a chance to do that. I truly believe in karma, and she’ll get it one way or the other.

What’s next for you?
I want to star in soap operas. I think it would be a lot of fun. I worked for WWE for six months and it was like a wrestling soap opera. I really enjoyed it. So I think soap opera work would be a lot of fun.

SWEET AS CARMELLA, 9.2 out of 10 based on 318 ratings

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