One of the features I always liked in Playboy magazine (no, not the nude chicks, which as I mentioned before, not such a big deal for me) is the cartoons.

I read all the cartoons in the February issue, though they weren’t as funny as I remembered. But, there was one (an intentionally non-humorous one) that I liked. (That’s the image of it at right.)

It’s a Valentine’s Day-themed pin-up painting of Betty Page by artist Olivia De Berardinis with a caption beneath:

What else would you like for Valentine’s Day?

Olivia did a 2007 calendar for Playboy with 12 new pin-ups painting. She used Heather Kozar, Masuimi Max, Tiffany Fallon, and Dita Von Teese as models for the calendar. Her official Web site at eolivia has a lot of her images for sale in various forms (calendars, notecards, etc.).

When Courtney Love did her solo album America’s Sweetheart, she used for the cover a portrait of herself that Olivia did. I thought it was a great painting, but I read on the album’s Wikipedia entry that Courtney later regretted using it, saying:

The art still makes me seethe. At least make it look cool, and instead there’s me as a playboy pinup. I love Olivia’s art but that was personal for me - not art for a record.

Truthfully, while I thought the Courtney painting was gorgeous, but I did think it odd for one of her album covers.

Meanwhile, I wish I had a Playboy pin-up portrait of myself.

Maybe one day.

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