PLAYBOY COMES CALLING

Considering the fact that Carol Alt is one of the world’s most photographed women, it seems somewhat surprising that she has never posed for any kind of nude layout. That is about to change.

Playboy Magazine has finally, after several attempts over the years, timed its request for a layout of Carol at precisely the right moment. Make that Carol’s right moment.

“I’ve never done a nude shoot in my life”, Carol said. “There was one shot of me years ago, illegally “stolen” by a paparazzo. A doctored version of it, including one with my head added to someone else’s body (!), made the rounds on the internet, so this is really a departure for me. It (posing nude) was never really anything that interested me. Playboy had asked me several times, but I always turned them down. And I love Playboy – I look at it myself. I don’t even always read the articles. I do look at the pictures – I’m like any other woman: I compare myself to other women in the magazine.

“What was interesting to me at this moment in my life is not just my age…very few women my age do this…but I am a raw foodist and the only reason I look the way I do right now is because I changed my diet and started eating healthy, living foods, which are unprepared and unprocessed foods, the closest they can go from God to me”, she laughed. “That’s what I eat and my body shows it.”

The photo layout will be entitled “Carol Alt In The Raw – The Body That Raw Built”. Carol is very excited about the underlying theme of the shoot, which is to show how healthy eating – and in particular, raw, natural foods – can benefit any woman (and of course any man, for that matter), at any age. She began eating this way in her mid-30s and is living proof that what she believes in really works. While admitting that she’s somewhat shy and a teensy bit nervous about the upcoming nude photo shoot, she is driven by the idea that if the same change of lifestyle can save just one person’s life, she’ll have accomplished what she set out to do.

Carol has, in fact, already written two books on the subject: “Eating in the Raw: A Beginner’s Guide to Getting Slimmer, Healthier and Looking Younger” (Clarkson Potter/Random House) and “The Raw Fifty” (Random House). “Eating In The Raw” was a USA Today Best Seller. Both books are available through various booksellers, including Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, etc.

Playboy and Carol are currently interviewing potential photographers for the upcoming shoot, which they hope to do in late June, 2008. The issue in which the layout will appear has not been decided upon yet, so stay tuned for updates and perhaps, some behind-the-scenes video snippets of the actual shoot.

Another factor that has led her to agree to appear in this particular magazine is her strong feeling that Playboy’s photo spreads are always beautifully and tastefully done, and respectful of women. She knows that her artistic vision of this, her first nude photo shoot, will be adhered to without hesitation by both the mutually chosen photographer and the editors of the magazine. Besides which, she retains the right to veto any pictures that she doesn’t like (don’t you wish we all had that privilege?!).

How much better could it get?

Well, if Carol has her way, it will go one step further, making it even more exciting than it already seems: Her hope is to find a great photographer with whom she can collaborate on a post-photo shoot auction of a very limited number of archival prints from the shoot, which will be autographed by Carol and the as-yet unknown photographer. The purpose of the auction: To raise money for the Nick Gonzalez Alternative Cancer Research Fund.

As Carol says, “For me, this is completely about saving lives, from beginning to end. I only accepted Playboy’s offer because I want to help save lives. With the right photographer, we can raise money from the photos to help different charitable organizations that do research on alternative forms of cancer medicine (not regular, conservative methods – I’m very skeptical of those). That’s exactly what I’m hoping to accomplish.”

We will keep you updated as Carol and Playboy continue their search for the right photographer. After all, June will be here before any of us knows it.