Christa Campbell in Next Month’s Playboy

Christa Campbell at the Playboy Pictorial party

The headline across the top of the September issue of Playboy reads “THRILLER! CHRISTA CAMPBELL NAKED”. And as a B-movie aficionado, I guess I’m duly thrilled ... but is anyone else?

Christa Campbell
It’s not that Christa Campbell isn’t hot, or not deserving of widespread attention in the pages of a national magazine. And it’s high time she’s been naked in something, in any case. (The last time I recall seeing her in the buff was 2005’s awful Death By Engagement.) But just who beyond that tiny cross-section of geekdom that would ever have heard of Christa is the cover headline “THRILLER! CHRISTA CAMPBELL NAKED” targeting?

Then again, this might be a case of the Charles Nelson Reilly dilemma, as portrayed in an episode of The Larry Sanders Show (I think it was Charles Nelson Reilly, but my memory of the episode is hazy):

PRODUCER You mean the hottest guest we have is Charles Nelson Reilly? How the hell are we supposed to get the public excited about Charles Nelson Reilly?

BOOKER Like this: “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT’S CHARLES NELSON REILLY!!! WOOOOOOO!!! Woo.”

I don’t know. Perhaps Christa has already blossomed into a much bigger star than she was when I first became aware of her in the mid-90s, and I’m simply unaware of her newly augmented celebrity.

It’s possible.

Of course, whether anyone knows who she is or not, Christa Campbell will still be appearing buck naked in a week or so.

And for a handful of assorted geeks and pervs like me, I guess that’s thrilling news.