Most of our playmates have never modeled professionally before our photographers shoot them, so the expertise is usually on the other side of the camera. But getting our April Playmate, Marlene (as in Dietrich) Morrow, to sit still in relaxed poses was a picnic, since Marlene has been a professional model for the past two years in London. "Posing is almost instinctive to me at this point," she says. "If someone tells me to look sexy with a string of pearls, I know exactly how to do it." And howl Although most of Marlene's modeling has been done clothed, you don't have to be an Einstein to tell she's equally at home unclothed. Especially with a string of pearls. But we don't have to tell you that--you can see. What we do have to tell you is that Marlene is also a very interesting person. Born in Billings, Montana, she moved to Osaka, Japan, where her father was a baseball player on a Japanese team. From there, the family moved to L.A., where Marlene grew up. "Believe it or not," she says, "up until the time I was 13 I wanted to be a missionary." She gave up that idea and settled on the notion of being a housewife with a load of kids. But that's been postponed indefinitely, now that her career is spiraling upward. She loves modeling, and especially the travel involved, but in the back of her mind is the idea that one day she might like to try her hand at acting. "In a way," she says, "to be a good model you have to be a good actress. Sometimes you'll get a horrible suit to model and you have to make like it's divine. That requires acting." But for now, Marlene is satisfied with her life in London--visiting pubs and going out with Englishmen, whom she finds vastly different from American men. But does she plan to make London her home? "Someday," she says, "I'd like to buy a trailer and just travel around the world for a whole year. Is that crazy?" Is Sadat Jewish?
