Playboy photographer Kim Mizuno should be busy finding the next fresh faces to grace his employer's glossy pages.
But instead, he is watching ESPN on mute in his room at the Durham Courtyard Marriott, waiting for aspiring bunnies to arrive. The hotel receptionist has no idea.
His makeshift set is an unremarkable room at first glance-except for several shimmering bunny emblems sprucing up the walls and a pair of strobes, carefully positioned in the corner to cast a "nice, even, flattering light for the girls," Mizuno explains.
The lighting is perfect, but the playgirls for the day-Duke students-are camera shy. Five Dukies made appointments to be shot by Mizuno Tuesday morning, but just one has showed up so far. And she wasn't even Playboy material, he said.
"College girls chicken out," Mizuno said matter-of-factly. "It happens everywhere, but it's happened more at Duke.... The Playboy bunny intimidates a lot of women."
Mizuno scouted three Triangle-area campuses to find coeds fit for a spot in Playboy's upcoming "Girls of the ACC" issue, which hits newsstands in October. A handful of would-be bunnies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University balked at the last minute. But many of the 15 Duke women who registered for test shoots with Playboy-about 50 percent less than the other universities to begin with-have shown neither their faces nor their curves, Mizuno grumbled.
This was a problem when Mizuno photographed Dukies for a spread four years ago, but the no-show rate is even higher now, he said.
Playboy must find at least one woman to represent each school. Fortunately, Mizuno noted, one Duke student he shot Monday is just what he is looking for.
"The girl we picked yesterday would have made it if 100 came in," he said. "We got lucky."
After two days of shooting, a handful of Duke students have been selected from the pool of 15 to be flown to Playboy headquarters in Chicago, where they will be photographed for the magazine.
Playboy representatives said they are searching for a very specific type of girl for their pages, but they had trouble articulating exactly what sets a bunny apart.
"I think some of that's obvious," Mizuno said, tracing the curves of an hourglass with his hands.
Junior Publicist Tina Manzo described the ideal playmate somewhat differently.
"We want the girl you'd bump into on the street walking to class," she explained.
Sophomore Lindsey Wallace said she is not surprised Playboy executives are having trouble finding playmates at Duke.
"I would never in my life do that, and most of my friends have too much self respect to put themselves in that position," she said. "It doesn't create a good image for college girls. It plays into the wet-and-wild Spring Break image. But college girls aren't like that, and Duke girls especially aren't. Girls here don't need Playboy to feel good about themselves."
Panhellenic Council President Erika Manderscheid, a junior, said she instructed the presidents of Duke's nine sororities to encourage their members not to pose for the magazine and, if they do, not to mention their greek affiliations.
"It's about what you represent as a member of your sorority and what it means to wear your letters," she said. "Personally, I find it to be offensive and degrading."
But a Duke senior, who spoke to The Chronicle on condition of anonymity shortly before her shoot with Mizuno, said posing for Playboy would be empowering. She attributed Duke women's reluctance to pose to the prevalence of body image issues on campus.
"Playboy promotes a beautiful portrayal of female sexuality. It's fun and playful, not raunchy and degrading," she said. "It's a way to show confidence in not only your body, but who you are as a person."
Manzo noted that Duke has struck her as more conservative than other ACC schools. Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek said she is proud that most Duke women have decided not to pose for Playboy, adding that she feels students' appearance in the magazine reflects on Duke as a whole.
Before her shoot, the Duke senior said her heart was pounding. She acknowledged that being a Playboy bunny could impact her chances of admission to medical school and noted that she is worried about how her classmates and family will react if she is selected. But she bared it all without a shred of self-doubt.
"If Playboy closes any doors, I have faith that it will open others," she said. "Being in Playboy is something I've always wanted to do. Achieving my dreams would overshadow any negative repercussions.... I am who I am-you can't hold me back."
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