Carmen Electra isn’t threatened by rival Playboy model and ex-Hugh Hefner squeeze Kendra Wilkinson encroaching on her turf.
“I mean, my pole has done so well,” Ms. Electra said.
Earlier this week, the 36-year-old former Baywatch star, ex-Pussycat Dolls dancer and January 2009 cover model learned that the younger bunny, Ms. Wilkinson, co-star of the E! network series The Girls Next Door, was creating her own line of celebrity-endorsed stripper poles—a market that, up to this point, Ms. Electra has dominated.
“You know, every time something comes out after the next it’s always improved and a little bit better,” Ms. Electra told the Daily Transom. “So, maybe she’ll come over to my house and set her pole up and give me a little dance.”
Still, that doesn’t mean Ms. Electra won’t up the ante: “I’m actually having a meeting … to come up with some new products, so maybe I will take her on.”
Dressed in heels and a shiny, black-and-white Rozae Nichols–designed dress, Ms. Electra was working the red carpet on Thursday, April 2, outside the Glaceau pop-up shop at 626 Broadway in Soho. A number of pro atheletes, including former New York Knicks standout John Starks, D’Brickshaw Ferguson of the New York Jets and Ahmad Bradshaw of the New York Giants, were also on hand to celebrate the beverage maker’s launch of a new low-calorie sports drink, Vitaminwater10.
“I’m not one to necessarily count calories,” Ms. Electra said. “For me it’s more about drinking the
The Daily Transom found the new drinks rather bland, but Ms. Electra disagreed: “Oh, really? I like it! I like it!”
Ms. Electra said the sluggish worldwide economic situation had not negatively impacted her own product line. “For some reason it really hasn’t affected the pole industry,” she said. “I think at the end of the day people want to be entertained, so in that way, we’re very, very, very lucky.”
