Like several other Playmates you've seen, Miss June is a promising young actress. But that's the only typical thing about Carrie Stevens, who has gone from Graceland to Hollywood--and from tragedy to triumph--while growing from bubbly teen to independent woman. "My story is a strange fairy tale. It started when I was a groupie," she says. In fact, Carrie's tale starts even earlier. She was born in Buffalo, where her father was a research scientist, and is a living reminder of his spectrophotometer. Its brand name: Carrie. "I was named after lab equipment," she says. Miss June combines her dad's logic with the artistic spirit of her mother, a painter, whom she followed to Memphis when her parents divorced. Teenager Carrie took countless tours of Graceland, dreaming of Elvis, wishing she were Priscilla Presley. Next came a real-life rock-and-roll dream. In 1987 she met Eric Carr, drummer for Kiss. She was 18, he was 37. For the next four years Carr was both a father figure and a lover to Carrie. "We lived it up, loving every minute together," she says. "Then Eric got sick." He died of a rare form of cancer in 1991, and Carrie mourned for years. She's finally put her life back together and now, at 28, says, "I'm ready to be happy again. Excited again. Maybe even in love."
Miss June has some highly unusual beliefs. Rebirthing, for one. More a style of deep meditation than reincarnation, rebirthing is Carrie's way of expressing her spirituality. "There is a wholeness to life. I nursed Eric and sort of helped him out of this world, just as he had helped me grow up in the world. Now I think it's time to take the next step," she says. After being spotted in a dentist's waiting room by a Hollywood talent agent, Carrie landed roles on the soap opera Days of Our Lives as well as on TV's Weird Science and Pauly, with Pauly Shore. Small parts in films led to her lead role in Jane Street, a Playboy TV movie. She also drew raves onstage in the play Autumn Romance. Critics called her "gorgeous," even "succulent." One reviewer pleased her more by writing, "Carrie Stevens sweetly dispatches truth and wisdom." But it wasn't Carrie's acting that led her to us. It was her weird science. "I was in my rebirthing class when the thought hit me. Could I be in Playboy?" It was an outré concept for a woman whose idea of foreplay is reading Shakespeare in bed. "But I tried out, and here I am, Miss June. This is new to me." We couldn't imagine a better rebirth.
Until her meditation session, Carrie never dreamed of posing for us. Now she's thankful she waited so long. "I'm glad I'm doing this now instead of when I was 18. What would I have said then? 'Hi, I'm Carrie and I like rock stars!'" And just as she was no typical groupie when she was 18, Miss June isn't only a good-looking actress today. A survivor who always seeks "the things that truly matter, beauty and integrity," she has become the director of her own fairy tale.
Playmate Data Sheet
Name: Carrie Stevens
Bust: 34D Waist: 24 Hips: 34
Height: 5'6" Weight: 114
Birth Date: 5-1-69 Birth Place: Buffalo, NY
Ambitions: To live in love, enjoy every day, stay humble and grateful, and to fulfill my spiritual purpose
Turn-Ons: Geting flowers from someone special, poetry, a good listenes, inense chemistry, mysery, spontanuity
Turnoffs: Users and moochess, bad kissess, dissesput, too-tight jeans, whing baby talk, long messages on my answering machine, shallour thinking, being underestimated.
Best First Date: He cooked me dinner and had the table set beautifully, lit candles and left a gift on my plae. Then we listened to music and enjoyed each other all night!
My Man: He has a soft voice, a brilliant mind, a poet's heart--and he's a great kisses!
Best Way To Make Up: Under the stars on the hood of a car.
