Playboy's Bridget Marquardt goes from "Girl Next Door" to Beach-Sexer-Upper

Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Playboy centerfold-turned-reality TV staple Bridget Marquardt, whose new Travel Channel series, Bridget's Sexiest Beaches, premieres tonight. The interview will appear in the May issue of Muscle & Body magazine, available in late April nationally at Vitamin Shoppe stores and at www.muscleandbodymag.com.

Bridget's no dumb bunny, and at age 35, she's ready to take on the world--literally. Bridget's Sexiest Beaches , which runs weekly through May 28 (with a "Best of" airing on June 4), sees the bubbly babe showing off her bikini-clad body as well as her masters degree in communication and continuing UCLA education in broadcast journalism. While her former Girls live-in Holly Madison sets the ballroom on fire in this season's Dancing with the Stars, Bridget will take viewers on adventures in Thailand, Spain, Costa Rico and--fitting for its California-girl host--even in good old Santa Monica and Venice, Calif.

Her Muscle & Body cover story/photo spread exposes Bridget's super-hot workout and Hef-worthy curves, along with her enterprising spirit. Here are a few outtakes from that interview:


This show really was crafted around your personality and your physicality. Have you been able to give your input to the producers?
Absolutely. [Executive producer] Kevin [Burns] and I are really close. When I was doing DVD commentary for The Girls Next Door, he showed me a clip of (Beaches) and we talked a lot about it. I’m also a producer on the show, so I have a lot of say on what’s working and what’s not working and what else we should do. On location, is some places there are communication breakdowns because of language barriers. We also have the weather to worry about. We were kind of following the hurricane a couple of weeks ago. We were in Turks & Caicos and Jamaica and were supposed to go to Grand Cayman but it got hit by the hurricane the day before we got there. We had to think on our feet.

What’s the future of The Girls Next Door?
There is a sixth season. We’ve shot a couple of things that we’ll need for continuity that will make sense when we do start filming. Nobody is exactly sure what direction it’s gonna take yet, as things are kind of in transition right now. We’re gonna wait it out and probably start filming in May. We’ll wait till the dust settles and see where everybody’s at and what direction the show’s gonna go. It’s kind of a mystery to everyone. Hef and I are still very close and everything...

Do you want to take off as a host and actress?
I’m actually hoping that (hosting) is more of a career for me. I’m hoping there’s Bridget’s Sexiest Beaches 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 … and if it’s not beaches, it’s Bridget’s Sexiest Roadside Attractions. I love traveling and I love hosting, so this is the ideal job for me.

As far as acting, I just produced my own horror movie [The Telling], which will be out in April. I starred in part of it. I really enjoy acting, though I don’t see it as my speciality or anything that I’m overly good at. But I especially like working behind the camera, and I like producing.

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Is "American Idol"'s Adam Lambert the secret spawn of TV's Wonder Twins?

I just created in Photoshop, er, uncovered this startling evidence.

Wonder Twin powers, de-activate!!!

"American I-dull": Why titillating Tatiana should've stayed—inappropriate giggles, indeterminate psychoses and all

As Don Knotts' ever-restrained Ralph Furley would say, "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn!"

American Idol was so close to casting the equally-reticent Tatiana Del Toro among its Final 12 (or 13) this season. So very, friggin' close. She was the perfect reality TV warts-and-all whack job poised to revive a show that has suffered recently by resembling the musical Annie: Too many loveable ragamuffins-to-riches stories, and way, way too much rose-colored-glasses-wearin', Kumbaya-singin', everybody-loves-everyone-espousin', sun'll-come-out-tomorrow-trumpetin' tomfoolery.

This show needs palpable tension. It needs tragicomic desperation. It needs unpredictable, uncomfortable, unspeakable batshit crazy.

It needs Tatiana Del Toro.

As Idol's resident antihero(ine), the absurdly self-involved Tatiana was cocked and primed to bring a raw Hey Paula sensitivity and love-to-hate-her soapiness to this aging hit. Clearly, Simon, Randy, Kara and especially Paula -- who was getting free infomercial air time whenever Del Toro flashed Abdul's '80s-riffic Home Shopping Network jewels -- wanted Tat to make the final cut. They gave her a second chance. They talked about the need to cast stand-out characters. And they let her wear that ugly-ass patchwork dress while indulging her maniacal laughter.

And then she went and sang the same damn song she'd already sung for them twice before.

Clunk.

Not that the Tatinator didn't kill, or at least maim, with Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love For You." But three times? And in the you'd-better-knock-it-out-of-the-stadium wild card round?

Tatiana, what were you thinking, you Big Hot Bipolar Mess?

Maybe, just maybe, Anoop will be sidelined with laryngitis. Or the super-photogenic Jasmine will get a giant pimple and bow out. Maybe Ms. Del Toro will once again rise from the "AI" ashes wielding one of Paula's HSN honkers high in the air while screaming, "FOR THE HONOR OF GREYSKULL! SHE-RA! MU-WHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!"

With Tatiana, anything seemed possible. Inappropriate guffawing. Inconsolable sobbing. Indeterminate psychoses. And now it's all flushed away, because she didn't just sing the stinkin' theme to The Bodyguard.

I know I'm not alone in wishing I could've seen Tatiana narrowly escape the reality TV ax week after week, hysterically dropping to the ground to thank God -- or Ryan Seacrest's crotch -- while completely ignoring and upstaging the devastation of her excommunicated competitors. What wildly uncouth, refreshingly real Me-Me-Me candor we could've witnessed each week. Punctuated by Big Hot Mess meltdown upon meltdown.

THIS is the real Hollywood. THIS is the true product of an Idol-izing culture.

Sadly, though, THIS is not this season's American Idol.

Tatiana Del Toro and Kara DioGuardi

Has anyone else noticed an "American Idol" conspiracy to replace every aspect of Paula Abdul with another spicy and/or mental woman this season?

If Simon suddenly exposes his chihuahuas, Paula's days are definitely numbered.