CGOY & PMOY '10 - The Race is On

Let's take a second to step back and take a look at how the races for PMOY and CGOY are transpiring so far. It's easy to see that they differ greatly in candidates and their quality, but both should be pretty intriguing given how good the top talent is and the potential for some amazing pictorials. I won't rank the ladies now - that's a job for the end of the year. However, I'll take a look at who's really carrying the torch and who the stragglers are.

The Race for Cyber Girl of the Year 2010

The Top (in no particular order)

• Hillary Fisher
• Jamie Graham
• Cassie Keller

The Middle

• Kaytee Bees
• Carlie Christine
• Netty Maj

The Bottom

• Lauren D'Marie
• Jennifer Lewis
• Rebecca Lynn

For CGOY, the race is very top-heavy. You have some great talent and clear frontrunners in the last two months with Hillary and Jamie, but the rest are just a blob of unrecognizable talent. Cassie is a fan favorite not really because of her looks, but because of her unique posing talent and impeccable technique. Kaytee Bees was the Cyber Girl 100 winner and shows the most promise outside the top 2, but there is a noticeable talent gap between #2 and 3. The rest are just disappointments, the biggest of which was Lauren D'Marie, who followed up a gorgeous CGOW performance with a flat and very uninspired CGOM entry. The results are a very thin CG class going into the final three months.

The Race for Playmate of the Year 2010

The Top (in no particular order)

• Dasha Astafieva
• Jessica Burciaga
• Kimberly Phillips

The Middle

• Candice Cassidy
• Hope Dworaczyk
• Crystal McCahill

The Bottom

• Jennifer Pershing
• The Shannon Twins

On the Playmate side of things, everything is noticeably more of a level playing field. It's so deep, I can see anyone I ranked in 'the middle' winning it all for 2010. The top of the class is absolutely stellar: in separate years, Dasha, Jessica, and Kimberly would all win PMOY. But here, only one can win. Still, the talent runs deeper, with Candice Cassidy being a truly legitimate contender, and Hope being a possible fan favorite. The Shannon twins were an experiment gone wrong, and Jennifer Pershing is not even worth the mention. These, however, are minor blemishes in an otherwise deep and talent-rich class. It should be a brilliant ending, with the 55th Anniversary Playmate leading the charge.

So, what does everyone think? Are these categories close to the truth? Who do you think will come out on top down the stretch? Three months to go, and plenty more fun to come.

Out Of The Blue

Every once in a while, Playboy has the ability to discover a seminal talent that really puts us back in our seats and makes us stare in awe and wonder. After all the downs that the magazine introduces, after all of the lame, cookie-cutter Playmates and Cyber Girls, they manage to pull out an absolute gem. That's what keeps us coming back, and that's what keeps them on the gold standard. Do they realize their own ups and downs? Probably not... what else would explain the Shannon twins?

That's happening right now, as we speak. Every day, the Cyber Club introduces a marquee pictorial, such as some breathtaking Playmate Xtra entries (Kayla Collins and now the unbelievably gorgeous Laura Croft, who deserved another shot more than anybody) and a very exciting talent in this month's CGOM, Hillary Fisher. The real story of the year, however, has been the Playmates.

Oh, what a year we've had. The candidates have been second to none, and in a race like this, with talent top to bottom, one can expect things to die down towards the end. Well, they aren't dying down one bit. Enter Kimberly Phillips, Miss September, who has just crashed the PMOY race as a relative unknown, and stolen the hearts of thousands. She's just appeared out of the blue, and has become easily one of the top contenders for the year's crown.

One look at Kim will tell you all about why she's so special. She is the quintessential girl next door of the modern era: very tall (5'8"), very busty, and curvy to a point where she doesn't look like a twig with a bra on. She has perfect proportions, and her model-like size combined with her sweet and unassuming persona makes her a bit of an oddity. Being such a ridiculously proportioned girl, she stays well grounded.

Kimberly's pictorial is awesome, full of variety and life. This full frontal shot is jaw-droppingly amazing, with that curve along her belly and that bald hip line looking especially incredible. You can see an hourglass figure, and in such a tall girl it really makes for a sight to see. You can even see her relative voluptuousness more clearly in this photo. After a playful series of carwash photos that don't do a whole lot to enhance the quality of the pictorial, she returns to the bedroom, stripping down in this natural and very candid photo.

Kim then unleashes a sexual tide, looking frazzled and extremely flirty after taking off a lacy top and slinky underwear. She alternates this with a strong sense of innocence under a soft light, allowing her to show off her strong versatility. She caps it all off with an unusually sexy centerfold, which I found to be very interesting in that it doesn't really look like her at all. Although she looks very different in it, her dark, small eyes shimmer, and as in her pictorial, are very tantalizing.

Consensus...
Kimberly Phillips is the real deal, there is no doubt. Her subtle posing style and fantastically unusual body are her main weapons, and she produces top quality photos with no gimmicks whatsoever. She may not be as flashy as this year's top girls, like Dasha Astafieva or Jessica Burciaga, but she has her own style that sets her apart. She is the ultimate modern girl-next-door, and truly carries with her a sense of the present. In fact, she is so representative of the modern vision of a sexy woman that she may define the 2009 year if she is to win PMOY. And for that prize, she is a very, very serious contender, if not #1 in many peoples' eyes.

Scorecard (click to enlarge):