Being bad pays off for ‘Holly’s World’ villainess
It is the opening of Posh, the only nightclub inside a strip club I’ve ever heard of. You walk in the door and turn left to find strippers sliding down poles in a surprisingly pretty room. But if you walk in the door and turn right you find go-go dancers twirling on poles in a surprisingly pretty room.
Executives at Posh — two blocks off the Strip, a short, lascivious cab ride away from Mandalay Bay — have tapped "Holly’s World" villainess and former Playmate of the Year Jayde Nicole to appear opening night, at midnight Saturday, in order to attract the likes of, well, me, and a gaggle of red carpet photographers.
Nicole, all 5-feet-9 of her brunette-ness, arrives late at 12:30 a.m., with a stunning blond friend named Jessica Hall.
They are in good spirits.
They joke that they sleep together.
So that is how our interview is going to proceed: friendly.
Nicole, if you don’t know, was cast as a villain on "The Hills" a few years ago. She was so effective, executives for "Holly’s World" hired her last year to spice up the Vegas reality show’s second season.
And wouldn’t you know it, "Holly’s World" won its time slot on cable, pulling in 2 million nightly viewers, thanks partly to scenes such as when Nicole said certain things to Angel Porrino until Porrino, as if on cue, doused Nicole with a drink.
Here at Posh, responding to my splurge of questions, Nicole comes across no crueler than any other aspiring character actress.
I ask: Since the world knows you as a villain, don’t you cry yourself to sleep?
"No! I don’t care. It’s a job. You go to work. It is what it is. It entertains people," she says. "Somebody’s got to do it. Somebody has to be the bad girl or else a show is boring."
Her friend backs her up.
"As much as she seems like the villain, the crazy girl, she’s a homebody," Hall says, giggling at my apparently naive question. "She cooks. She cleans. She takes care of her friends and family."
In reality-reality (not reality TV), Nicole has been friends with "Holly’s World" star Holly Madison for six years. She and co-star Laura Croft have been friends since becoming Playmates in the same era. And she "really" likes cast mate Josh Strickland.
She and Porrino — they just don’t mesh for whatever reason, she suggests. When Nicole came to Vegas from L.A. with a circle of "loud, crazy" girls, Porrino and others seemed intimidated, she says.
But Nicole insists she’s game to party with any hot girls, anywhere, and she just doesn’t understand jealousy.
"The more the girls, the hotter the girls, the better," is sort of a motto.
On set, TV producers simply put Nicole in the same room with Porrino, often in rooms that just happened to feature estrogen and alcohol, and presto: drama.
"Holly’s World" is expected to be renewed for a third season.
But Nicole says she’s isn’t sure she’ll be back.
"We’ll see," she says. "It’s hard to be in Vegas for that long of a period of time, dealing with all the drama."
"Holly’s World" has been good for her career, she says.
Then again, she’s getting pigeonholed, she says. A week ago on ABC’s "Nightline," Nicole was featured as a prototypical reality-TV villain.
"Because I’ve been a bad girl, it’s a little teeter-tottery. Some people are afraid to work with me, because they really think I’m crazy."
Her friend speaks up for her, giggling again at what she sees as the ludicrous idea that Nicole is mean at all.
"She goes to her work and does her job," Hall says of Nicole, then laughs while adding, "when she goes home, she’s home and kind of boring!"
Up next: Nicole is writing a diet cookbook while working toward a personal training license, she says.
"I have some dishes that are actually negative calories," Nicole says.
I ask: What does "negative calories" entail? Vomiting?
"No," Nicole says, and she and Hall laugh again. "Nobody does that anymore."
Last question, as I turn to Hall and motion toward Nicole: What’s it like to kiss those lips?
"Ask me," Hall says, "after that bottle of Jager is gone."
Doug Elfman’s column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Contact him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.
