Thursday, May 19, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

GOODMAN'S CHEESECAKE STRATEGY

As a beautiful model stands before him clad only in a pink satin bra and panties, Mayor Oscar Goodman peruses a rack of lingerie in search of something he likes better.

Finally, a fire-engine red silk piece catches his eye.

"I think this is great. That is terrific," Goodman says, taking the red camisole off a hanger and offering it to Irina Voronina, a buxom blonde known to Playboy readers as Miss January 2001.

"That's a beautiful color," Voronina says, reaching for the straps at her shoulders. "Let me slip it on."

With those words, Voronina quickly doffs her bra to reveal her 35C bust to Las Vegas' mayor inside the Hugh Hefner suite at the Palms.

As the 27-year-old model strips, the man known as the happiest mayor in the world looks into a nearby camera and flashes a brief, beaming smile.

The episode is just one of several racy moments recorded by Playboy to memorialize Goodman's service as celebrity photographer for the magazine's Web site, the first time an elected official has taken on the task. Other celebrities who've helmed a lens for Playboy include actor William Shatner, rap duo Outkast and NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt Jr.

At the request of Playboy, the mayor has been tight-lipped about details of the April 29 photo shoot.

But this week, Playboy.com unveiled to those who pay $19.95 a month to subscribe to the site's Cyber Club a 3 1/2-minute video highlighting what unfolded during the two-hour shoot and the 20-photo Voronina pictorial Goodman shot.

The video captures moments that might be titillating or funny to some of Goodman's constituents and offensive to others, with opinions probably turning on personal views about the propriety of a married, 65-year-old public official snapping photos of a nubile woman seductively writhing atop an unmade bed, first in her underwear and then only in a strategically placed bedsheet.

Goodman was unavailable for comment Wednesday but last month described the shoot as "classy." He explained that he agreed to do it to promote tourism.

"As long as they spell Las Vegas' name right in the magazine, it's good for the city," the mayor said.

But the video has prompted one group of cultural conservatives who have seen clips to call for Goodman's removal from office.

"It is highly inappropriate for a public official to be engaging in this, and the mayor should resign for having done it," said Richard Ziser, co-chairman of Nevada Concerned Citizens and vice chairman of the state Republican Party.

"We talk so much about women's rights and dignity and respect, and here's the mayor of our city actually participating in a photo shoot of this young woman in the nude, exploiting her."

Voronina is topless in most of the 20 photographs in the pictorial and nude in about half of them with a bedsheet covering her crotch.

Gazing into Goodman's camera, she alternately displays a playful smile or a seductive, come-hither look.

The video starts with Voronina, clad in a black robe, and the mayor, in his usual business suit, sitting together chatting in the suite.

"If I enjoy this, we may do this some more," Goodman quips, drawing laughter from the half-dozen people in the room. "My shots of you could be published in Playboy all over the world; then, the two of us will be able to be famous together, and we'll have a TV show."

"Great. Let's do it," the Russian-born model responds.

After the lingerie selection episode, Voronina ends up dressed in a black and pink bra-and-panty ensemble. She is posed atop a bed among mussed sheets, a round photo of Playboy founder Hefner hanging over the headboard.

A bra has been taped over Hefner's eyes, but Goodman calls for the picture's removal.

"Get this Hefner out of the background!" he says. "If we're going to do this, let's do it."

After the Hefner photo is removed from the set, the mayor is instructed on how to use the camera.

"These are going to be great pictures," Goodman says as he snaps away, the results displayed on a nearby computer monitor. "This is the greatest. I do have an artistic eye, don't I?"

After the mayor tells the model to play with her hair, she pulls down her bra to reveal her breasts.

"I'd rather play with my hair when the bra is down," she tells him.

"OK," he says.

As he photographs the topless model, audio of an interview with the mayor plays over the images.

"Everyday that I have I live to the fullest. I drink to excess. I gamble with both fists. And when I eat, I eat like a gourmand," Goodman says, as Voronina holds up her bra in one hand before flinging it off the bed. "I can do whatever I want, I'm the mayor."

The mayor encourages Voronina as she poses in panties and black high heels with her arms stretched above her head.

"Yeah, I like that pose. I love that pose," he says.

She then arches her back to pose on her hands and knees.

"That's a great shot," Goodman says.

Audio then plays of Goodman discussing a controversial incident earlier this year in which he told a roomful of fourth-graders of his love of drinking and that if he could only take one item with him to a deserted island, it would be a bottle of gin.

"The bottom line is I may be the most truthful person you'll ever come in contact with. I can't tell a lie. I can only tell the truth," he says. "That's why I got into the trouble when I was speaking to the school kids. Because that question came out of nowhere and I gave them the first answer that came into my head, which was the truth. So I call myself the George Washington of mayors."

He then muses on why constituents like him.

"I think the reason that I'm popular is because I do what people want to do and are afraid to do it."

Voronina then stands on the bed and begins what she calls a jumping cheer that jiggles her breasts.

"Great!" Goodman says as he snaps photos.

She then removes her panties, wrapping herself suggestively in a bedsheet as Goodman continues photographing.

Seconds later, a topless Voronina is shown standing next to Goodman for some posed shots, a Nevada license plate reading "PLAYBOY" covering parts of her breasts.

"Oh, I'm having a good time," the mayor says. "I am not bored."

The video ends with a close-up of a specially manufactured poker chip. Showing a caricature of Goodman, the text on the chip reads, "Happiest Mayor of the Greatest City in the World."