grit and wit made jerri a star of the outback
The Australian outback show might have been a snooze-inducing lovefest without Jerri Manthey. Being dubbed "the widely reviled she-devil in a blue bikini" and "an icy dominatrix whose name became synonymous with the word bitch" didn't bother this 30-year-old survivor. "The word bitch is looked on as a negative title," she says. "It would be nice if we came up with a better word for an aggressive, proactive, independent woman. If I were a man on that show, I'd be a hero." Jerri caught heat on Survivor: The Australian Outback for accusing Kel Gleason of chewing on contraband beef jerky and for haranguing gourmet chef Keith Famie for botching the rice. "Keith came rushing up to me recently and gave me a big hug and told me that he's coming out with a second cookbook, called Yes, I Can Cook Rice—and he is dedicating it to me," she says. "Survivor is really about surviving social situations and judgments from people who don't know you. I felt very lonely during the course of the game because I didn't really have anyone I could relate to. I'm not the kind of person who sits around and waits for someone else to take charge."
Jerri was an Army brat born in Germany, where her father was stationed. She "played every sport imaginable" and started her high school's theater club. The nomadic survivor lived in Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Florida before launching her professional acting career and moving to Los Angeles. Jerri, who started acting when she was nine, drew upon her 10 years' experience as a bartender in a successful play she wrote called Beautiful Chaos. The recognition following Survivor allowed her to hang up her bar towel for good. "I still have the blue bikini I wore on the show, but it's torn up and not wearable anymore," she says. "It's in a drawer and officially retired." She took a role as a gold digger chasing a wealthy old man in the Los Angeles play Lady Macbeth Gets a Divorce, appeared as herself on the soap The Young and the Restless and got to see her episode of Blind Date re-air. Happily single, Jerri is looking for her equal. "Any man who is afraid of what he saw on Survivor is not a man I want to be with," she says. "I'm ahead of the game because guys already know what I look like when I wake up in the morning."
When she's not auditioning for new roles, Jerri finds inner peace communing with nature. "I'm very earthy," she says. "I posed for Playboy to show my strength as a woman and to take a stand. People are threatened by women who have power. It's time to stop feeling threatened by it and learn to strive to be that way."
More Jerri photos are available in the playboy cyber club go to cyber.Playboy.com.
