Backstage with Aubrey O'Day

THE DANITY KANE STAR TAKES HER ACT SOLO

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h my God, I can't wait to show you this. It's better than a sex tape!" says singer, actress and reality-TV star Aubrey O'Day as she hus­tles into an ocean-side Mexican restaurant in the surf mecca of Huntington Beach, California. All but spilling out of an ultra-low-cut baby-doll dress, she sits, orders a margarita, pulls a MacBook Pro from her Goyard dog carrier (into which she then deposits her "daughter," Ginger, a Maltese puppy) and presses play. Up pops an iMovie she's just made of her playboy photo shoot.

"I'm so proud. I've never felt like that in my life.' she gushes while on-screen the former Danity Kane girl-group member repeatedly flings her body downward, then arches back up. breasts confidently prof­fered skyward. 'Nudity is a beautiful thing." the 25-year-old says. "In this society we're all taught to cover ourselves and our thoughts up. But I get so intoxicated watching this because I felt so empowered by my sexuality that day." She pauses, then says, "It also made me feel as if I'm at a level where I am not gonna put up with any shit anymore."

Raised in La Quinta, California by an entertainment-lawyer mother, Aubrey was "discovered" by Sean "Diddy" Combs back in 2004 after he auditioned more than 10,000 girls for Making the Band 3, a grueling contest that would turn a quintet of gyrating babes into a female supergroup signed to his Bad Boy record label. But after two seasons, platinum and gold albums {Danity Kane and Welcome to the Dollhouse) and one Broadway show (Hairspray). the breakout star of Danity Kane was regularly duking it out with Diddy on TV over what she perceived as shoddy management. ("I was the only one who ever stood up to him," she brags.) Diddy swung back, criticizing Aubreys increasingly sexual "bad girl" image.

Fueling the feud, Aubrey spent much of 2008 preening for the paparazzi in exponentially more revealing outfits, boasting of her new BFF, porn magnate Jenna Jameson, and spouting bons mots like "I wouldn't say one way or another what my preference is sexually.. .with a girl, a guy. All I really operate on is the way I feel in my heart." Ultimately, last October. Diddv fired the feisty fox, leaving her a free agent who now

says she's recording a solo album "that will definitely be out soon." She also has film and TV projects in the works.

All the drama has made the surprisingly sweet and sawy Aubrey more determined than ever to keep, as she loves to say. "the eye on the tiger." "I definitely have 'bad girl' in me." she admits, "but it's also just play­ing a role." It's worth noting that Aubrey's no fool. She has a degree in political sci­ence and drama from the University of California, Irvine, has worked in refugee camps and battered-women's shelters in Tanzania and Thailand and has "been feeding the homeless and doing charity work since I was a child: philanthropy is second nature to me." She also runs her own charity, FAN (Fight AIDS Now).

"But I'm one of those celebrities who are always going to be heavily judged. I don't see any way around it," she says, shrugging and taking a sip of her mango margarita. "The general perception of me is 'slutty,' promiscuous,' 'attention whore,' 'bimbo'—some It girl who isn't talented. Hey, I got here because of my talent. My whole career didn't start when I did Making the Band." And it's true: Aubrey has been singing, dancing and winning awards in regional theater since she was five years old.

"I'm fine with it all," she says. "I'm really comfortable with who I am. I mean. I used to hate it. but now I love being under­estimated. It's a powerful way to move through the industry quickly, especially as a woman." Jenna Jameson, who should know a thing or two about that subject, agrees, henna's like a sister to me. Jenna makes me feel okay about things because she's so proud of me. She told me. 'Honey, you're sexy and beautiful, and when most men look at you they think sex. Don't be ashamed. It's who you are.'"

Indeed. Though she didn't lose her virginity until she was a junior in college ("I'd never even been fingered or eaten out until then," she says, giggling), sex is something Aubrey is certainly into. "I've done it in cabs, clubs, everywhere," she muses. Having been linked with men such as DJ Cassidy. Donnie Wahlberg and R&B singer Jesse McCartney, she says, "I want to be that girl who gives a guy the best sex he has ever had, the sex he'll never be able to get out of his head. I mean, if every time he mastur­bates he'll have to think of me, then I've got it locked. It's done. It's in the bag."

Though she hasn't found Mr. Right yet, Aubrey confesses that despite her press, she has only one real vice: "My vice is I want to be in love. I want to be in love so badly, I haven't always made the best decisions." Finishing off her margarita, she rests her case. "Most of the stuff you've read about me is made up, and the best stuff about me you have yet to find out. I'm more of a catch than anybody remotely realizes."

I

want to be that girl who gives a guy the best sex he has ever had, the sex he'll never be able to get out of his head."