Antonio Contrelle - Playgirl - July 1981

 Playgirl 

July 1981

Coverguy

Sylvester Stallone (Not nude) photographed by Herb Ritts

Interview

Sylvester Stallone by Henry Schipper

Features

In Church with the Reverend Jerry Falwell

Photo Spread: Lifeguards Hot Enough To Make The Sand Sizzle

How To Have Sexy Legs For The New Short Skirts

What He Feels When She's Pregnant

 ANTONIO CONTRELLE

Our Man for July is from Guyana, South America—and we welcome him with open arms.

 Playgirl Exposure Doesn't Do Much For Model's Career

November 21, 1985|By Michael McLeod of the Sentinel Staff

Three years ago, Tony Cantrell decided to take it all off for a nude centerfold in Playgirl magazine. The magazine also wanted him to be its 19832 Man Of The Year -- the equivalent of Playboy's Playmate of the Year -- and Cantrell decided to do it.

He knew it was a risky move. He was already a well-established model, and doing the centerfold probably would mean tarnishing his image and saying goodbye to some of his regular modeling jobs, such as posing for mail-order catalogs.

"Catalog people don't take chances,'' Cantrell said.

But Cantrell decided to do the Playgirl pictorial anyway -- in part, he said, because a magazine representative promised him that being Man Of The Year carried with it several benefits in addition to the $750 fee for posing nude. He said the representative told him he would receive cash awards and prizes such as a motorcycle or a car and that he also would be honored with a banquet.

None of those benefits materialized, said the 28-year-old Cantrell, who lives in Atlanta and was in Orlando recently to visit his friend and manager, Karen Franklin. He said the magazine arranged for him to appear on talk shows in cities such as Philadelphia and Detroit, but then appeared to have no further use for him.

Cantrell considered suing the magazine on the grounds that it

violated an oral agreement. But the statute of limitations for such an offense has expired. And so, apparently, has his modeling career. He said he turned down some jobs to make himself available for Playgirl promotions that never materialized, and he lost others because of the notoriety of posing nude. He has had trouble re-establishing himself as a model, and he relies instead on his interests in a gold and diamond dredging operation in Guyana.

Cantrell, who faintly resembles Sylvester Stallone, said he feels that male models who pose nude are being exploited. He said it is unfair that they earn less than their female counterparts. ''Legally, for myself, there's nothing I can do about it at this point,'' he said. ''But I at least want people to know how male models are treated. They the editors of Playgirl try to come off like they're real liberal and they're looking out for men. But the truth is they're exploiting us.''

Rand Richardson, vice president of Ritter-Geller Communications, which publishes Playgirl, refused to talk specifically about Tony's case, saying that as far as he knows it still might involve litigation. But he said that in general, male models who pose nude do not make as much money as women. ''It's their own fault,'' said Richardson, who also has worked for Playboy. He said that most female models who pose nude do so mainly for the money.

''They've been doing it for a while, and they know the game,'' he said. ''For them, the name of the game is money.''

But for many of the men who strip for Playgirl, ego is the No. 1 incentive. ''We have guys who would pay us to be on the cover,'' said Richardson in a telephone interview from the magazine's offices in Santa Monica, Calif. He said that a woman who poses for a Playboy centerfold usually makes $10,000, and may make many times that amount through movies and advertising. A man who poses for Playgirl makes $1,000 these days and has far fewer spin off opportunities.

The issue revolves around the law of supply and demand, Richardson said. He said it is easy for Playgirl to find men willing to pose nude, so the magazine feels no need to pay larger fees.

''You'd be surprised how many of them are encouraged to do it pose nude by their mothers,'' he said. ''And most of the guys aren't that interested in the money. They just want a little notoriety. They want to be able to tell a girl they meet in a bar: 'I'm the Playgirl centerfold.' ''

 

 

Note

Three years after this article appeared and 7 1/2 years after Antonio first appeared in in Playgirl, he took it all off again for  Playgirl in the December 1988(left) issue.  This time he uses his "real" name Anthony Cantrell. While the hairy is longer, and he had some serious manscaping done to his body hair, it is the same man.  I guess, being in Playgirl was not as bad as he claimed in the above article.