After the jump: The BoingBoing email Q&A with ForBiddeN.
Her Wikipedia profile describes Christine Dolce as an "allegedly 24-year-old former Orange County cosmetologist." Vanity Fair meowed that she had "a housepainter's flair for eyeshadow." But a million of her closest "friends" on MySpace know her as ForBiddeN (though not everyone there is so kind), and today she debuts in the dead-tree pages of Playboy Magazine.
I attended her launch party in Hollywood this week with online social networking researcher danah boyd (here's her polaroid). Hijinks ensued. Here's a snip from a story and polaroid photo gallery I filed for Wired News.
ForBiddeN is here in the flesh, pouting in platform heels on a white leather banquette beneath the DJ booth, surrounded by a bevy of similarly surgically-enhanced babes.
"Much love, kisses, bites, chokes, hand shakes, milk shakes, butt shakes, whatever you like… to you all!!! :o)," Ms. Dolce bids her fans on MySpace, "Love u all ‹3."
In person, things are different.
I step forward to snap a Polaroid. She shrugs and says something I can't hear over the Bee Gees trance remix. I snap the pic, but a towering security guard grabs the photo as the camera spits it out. "Go away!" he screams. "No more pictures. You! Get out of here, go, go! Now!"
And that's where the similarities between MySpace and this Hollywood club end. Online, self-styled narcissists practically beg you to take their picture. Here, the successful ones hire beefy bodyguards to keep snappers away.
Link to "ForBiddeN's Pl4yb0y Debut." Pics above: Polaroids by Xeni. Inset: (c) 2006, Playboy Magazine. One sneak peek from ForBiddeN's Playboy spread in the October issue, out today. Update: Fleshbot has more, NSFW Link.
On the other side of town, danah and I met up with Sean Bonner and Caryn Coleman to witness a different kind of internet-cheesecake event. At Club Dragonfly, Suicide Girls launched their Fall 2006 burlesque tour.
Inside, Paris Hilton shot digital snaps of a fake Paris Hilton (there's redundancy for you) on stage being beat up by Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson. Then, she drove her new Mercedes away from the event with Rod Stewart's daughter inside using her special lane-weaving drive-fu, and LAPD promptly booked her for her first-ever DUI.
Here's Sean's account: Link. Here's danah's account: Link.
Hilton's DVD release party (for the straight-to-anything-but-theaters box office bomb "Bottoms Up") took place last night at Club Cabana in Hollywood, presumably the fuzz let her out in time to attend. BTW I think the whole Banksy/Danger Mouse/Gnarls Barkley unauthorized remix thing is an evil corporate astroturf viral campaign. Aren't Paris and Dangermouse signed to the same record label? But then, I thought Ahmadinejad's blog was fake, so what do I know.
Below: BoingBoing's email interview with Christine Dolce, aka ForBiddeN.
– – – – – – – – – – – –
BB: How did your debut in Playboy come about?
ForBiddeN: Well, if you can believe that, Playboy hit me up on Myspace earlier this year. A few of the staff at their office were on my friends list!
BB: What can we expect to see in the Playboy spread?
ForBiddeN:The layout is definitely something that has never been done before , something Im very proud of. We went with not so much a girls next door approach to the shoot. The pictures contain a little more darkness, edge and mystique, qualities which I believe best describe myself and my style.
BB: What's next for you?
ForBiddeN: Well there's a lot of great things down the pipe for me. Im pursuing acting training and hope to make the transition into television hosting very soon. There's book deal and documentary offers on the table. Of course I'll continue modelling, making public appearances across North America. Work on my website www.forbiddenxo.com and my denim fashion line Destroyed Denim www.destroyeddenim.com continues to grow and keeps me busy!
BB: How does it feel to be the woman known around the globe as "The
world's first MySpace cultural icon?"
ForBiddeN: Haha well those are very kind and flattering words. Its nice to have been able to use Myspace as a launch pad and stepping stone to what will hopefully be a long successful career in the entertainment and fashion industry. There will be plenty of surprises and fun stuff coming from me down the road as I work towards transcending fame from Myspace to the rest of the world!
BB: Are you excited about the issue hitting streets tomorrow? How is
that different than the kind of reach you get through MySpace?
ForBiddeN: I'm completely stoked! Overall, I'm extremely happy with the images, and hope you enjoy them as well!. Well posing nude in Playboy definately exposes me to a wide audience and lot of people that don't necessarily know who the heck I am, which is great. My bases are pretty well covered from Myspace. Doing radio, TV and other international press interviews in support of this pictoral and getting to make appearances across the land is a wonderful thing.
BB: When and how did you first happen to use MySpace?
ForBiddeN:Well I was one of the first members to have joined, member # 14400 to be exact. A friend had told me about the site back in September 2003 and I said what the heck and started up a profile. I loved being able to express myself and create a profile that personified me, and apparantly a lot of other people happened to really like it as well!
BB: How much time do you spend on MySpace, interacting with fans — and
how much time do you spend online in general? Would you describe
yourself as a geek, or someone who spends a lot of time "connected"?
ForBiddeN: I would say that Im online pretty much every day, and almost all the time, checking email, adding friends, posting blogs and bullitens. Myspace is usually the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I do before I go to bed. If that's what you call a geek, I guess you could call me!
BB: How do you access the internet, usually? On a handheld device? A
laptop? A desktop computer? If via handheld, what phone? If
computer / laptop, what kind (Mac or Windows)?
ForBiddeN: Im rolling with a Sony Vaio laptop and a Nokia Sidekick 3. My sidekick is literally glued to my hand!
BB: Some have said that the internet — and, specifically MySpace —
provided you with a new kind of independence and self-determination
that models don't enjoy through more conventional routes to fame.
Would you agree?
ForBiddeN: Well myspace definately empowers and enables people in expressing themselves, showing their personality, and greatly helps facillitates independance. Its a new fresh way of doing things, a great way to build up a fan base and following, a great place to network, meet photographers and business contacts. Just as bands have been able to build loyal followings and get record deals, you are seeing models land pictorals in Playboy and lad magazines as I have experienced. Myspace certainly has been a blessing for me and many other aspiring models and starlettes!
