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armen Electra is curled up on a couch, talking about her very first time.

"All I kept thinking was, I hope I'm good enough, I hope I'm pretty enough, I hope I'm sexy enough," she says with a gleam in those pussycat eyes.

As if she had reason to worry. Carmen's inaugural playboy appearance transformed Tara Leigh Patrick—girl next door from Cincinnati—into an international icon of electra-fying hotness. That May 1996 portfolio, her first of five, paved the way for a hosting gig on MTV's Singled Out. which got her the red one-piece on Baywatch, which landed roles for the planet's sexiest spoof star in Scary Movie, Date Movie and Disaster Movie. Along the way, Carmen became as well-known for her hookups with Dennis Rodman, Tommy Lee and Dave Navarro as for epitomizing a unique blend of sweetness and pulse-quickening allure. A sex goddess on the outside but self-deprecating and warm underneath, Carmen has held her own with

How Tara from Cincinna-ti became

Carmen Electra, one of the hot-test sex symbols of our time

David Letterman and still presided over the Naked Women's Wrestling League. Even a straight-up individ­ual like Dr. Drew Pinsky, who knows Carmen from her days co-hosting Loveline. says with a sigh, "I think she triggered my co-dependency."

Carmen, however, is only partially aware of her powers. "I think I'm just a completely normal girl," she insists, which probably explains why she still sounds nervous recalling the day she, at the age of 23, first stepped into playboy's West Coast studios for a photo test.

"I was overwhelmed, intimidated and so curious." she says in a cozy hotel lounge near her home in Beverly Hills. Carmen is dressed in formfitting green cashmere and stretchy black pants, and she's wearing special heels for the occasion: black stilettos with pink soles emblazoned with the eyes and lips of cover girl number one, Marilyn Monroe. "When I walked into the studio I saw life-size photographs of so many of the gorgeous women who have graced the magazine's pages, from Marilyn on, and my heart was pounding," she says.

Carmen had to be coaxed that day. "Initially, it was hard for the photog­rapher to get all my clothes off," she says, laughing. "So we developed a system, and we've used it for every shoot since: They dress me from head to toe, and then little by little we take off one article of clothing. Within a couple of hours I'm completely comfortable revealing everything, and I start to enjoy showing off."

Over the years. Carmen has turned that ritual into a one-woman industry. From wearing feathers and expen­sive corsets onstage with the Pussy­cat Dolls to spreading the gospel for a line of DIY burlesque products, including her best-selling Aerobic Striptease DVD series, she proves women who live by the pole thrive by the pole. "Almost every girl has a stripper fantasy, and it's healthy and fun to bring that out," says Carmen, whose latest contribution to culture is an easy-to-install spring-loaded bou­doir accoutrement called Carmen Electra's Electra-Pole. "Strippers have the best bodies. They're in touch with their sexuality, and they make guys happy. I think women everywhere should take cues from them."

Agreed! Carmen has always understood the male imagination. At the age of five, in Ohio, she won her first dance competition with an assist from Rod Stewart's "Da Ya (text concluded on page 148)

Carmen Electra

(continued from page 54) Think I'm Sexy?" Says Carmen. "I remem­ber the judges' score sheet said, 'Amazing but maybe a little too sexy for her age.' That set the pace for the rest of my life." At the Cincinnati performing-arts school she attended, Carmen started a girls club for a select group of her ballet-class belles. "I made the mistake of talking a couple of girls into doing a nude photo shoot with my little school camera," she says. "I got in so much trouble. They shut down the club, and I got off with a slap on the wrist." Carmen shrugs. "I didn't mind the slap, actually. I've always been in touch with my inner clominatrix."

Carmen is engaged to former Korn tour­ing guitarist Rob Patterson. As of yet there are no plans for a reality show like MTV's 'Til Death Do L's Part: Carmen i£ Dave, which chronicled her romance with Navarro. Not that Carmen needs cameras to spice things up. "Traveling around the world." she says, "I love going to different sex shops, like Coco de Mer in London, and collecting the coolest handcuffs and naughtiest lingerie. That's exciting for me. But I'm also good with—how can I put it?—homemade fun."

Homemade fun?

"You know," she says, and now she s blushing. "Oh. I shouldn't...."

Try us.

"Well, it depends on what you like, but for instance...clothes hangers.'

Clothes hangers?

"A little pleasure, a little pain," she says. "It's all about fun. you know."

Oh, we know. We know!

Considering this anniversary issue. Car­men can summarize how pinup modeling has changed through the eras. Most changes occurred below the belt. "In the 1950s it was all about keeping your legs shut," she observes. "Then things went au naturel. Then came the merkin and waxing, and now we're at the landing strip and beyond."

Carmen values what the magazine has done for women in general. "Over the decades, i>l\yboy has given women the per­mission to celebrate their sexuality." she says. "You look at these pages and see beauty, but you also see power. I'm so proud to be part of this legacy. I'Lvvboy says to women. 'You can be completely comfortable and completely confident in all aspects of being a woman.'"

When she's not performing. Carmen is at home in L.A., catching up on her favorite TV ("The L Word is the sexiest show! I would die lo guest star with those women," she says) or hitting the dance floor with her girlfriends. "I'm somebody who gets ofl on the company of women," she says. "Don't get me wrong. I love men. but I sometimes wonder if 1 was a lesbian in another life." Carmen recently encountered one gorgeous female form that sent a shiver down her spine. "When we were making this portfolio, there was a power outage and we couldn't keep shooting," she says. "I started walking down the halls of the studio, and 1 looked up and saw my picture, larger than life, on the wall. It brought it all back lo me and made me really happy."

Looks as if she was sexy enough after all.