Playboy's YouTube Search for Next Playmate Flops

Web truism: You can always attract eyeballs with the promise of sexy ladies. So what's going on with Playboy (PLA) open casting call for its 55th anniversary playmate?

Not much. After a month of open tryouts on YouTube, Playboy has all of 62 entries, or at least 62 who adhered somewhat to the no-nudity requirement. You'd think that some of these Army wives, students, girls next door, at least one 42-year-old mother of three would be getting substantial views. But by YouTube standards (and girls-in-bikinis standards), they're not.

"Playmates are hard to find!" giggled Holly Madison, whose resume fairly bulges with credits like Playmate editor, 2005 Playboy cover girl, star of E!'s "The Girls Next Door," and lady-friend of Hugh Hefner.

Madison is in charge of Playboy's online casting call, part of the magazine's search for its 55th-anniversary playmate.  The magazine invited aspiring centerfolds across the U.S. to submit (non-nude!) videos to YouTube describing why they should be the one to be splayed across those august pages come January 2009, the release date of the anniversary issue.

Whereas the 400-person live casting events Playboy generally uses tend to yield only one candidate, Madison said the results of the YouTube contest have been surprising.  Of the 42 submissions she's received in the first week of the contest, "I've seen several girls I definitely want to fly out here and test."

On the screen in front of her, a candidate was busy removing her small white T-shirt to reveal a skimpy striped bikini.  "I think I should be the 55th-year anniversary playmate because I love," she says, the shirt flying off, "to get naked!"