In our March issue we’ll be presenting our list of the 25 Sexiest Celebrities, as chosen by the readers and editors of Playboy. If you haven’t voted for your favorites, hustle your browser to the ballot page and fill out your ballot pronto. Some of the names there are shoo-ins, and there’s nothing wrong with that—a red-blooded male who doesn’t count our 2006 cover girl Jessica Alba among the top 25 might want to consider getting his head examined. Just saying. And then in a second category are the expected write-ins—the Adriana Limas and Jennifer Connollys of the world—and we won’t argue their worthiness either. And then way on down the line there are those women who get us (or at least one of us) going but will likely never make the Top 25. Here are some staff favorites; names have been omitted to protect the lustful.

Ann Curry. “The deep voice, the pencil skirts, the calf-length high-heeled boots—the Today Show co-host is my morning cup of coffee. I'm not into being slapped around by women, but I'd let Ann have a go if she wanted. Seems to me like she’d be a fun drunk, too.”

Valerie Plame Wilson. “Robert Novak outed her with the sentence ‘Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction.’ Just imagine the mess he would have avoided if instead he’d written the just-as-true ‘Wilson doesn’t look like he would have a really hot wife, but lemme tell you, Valerie is a total fox.’”

Melanie Brown. “My problem, aesthethically speaking, with the Spice Girls was that they were all pretty hot, but it was hard to decide which one was the hottest. Reunited, they pose no such dilemma. Two of them are too skinny, two have gotten blander, but Eddie Murphy’s baby-momma looks better now than she did ten years ago. (Got through three whole sentences without using the term MILF.)”

Mariska Hargitay. “As Detective Olivia Benson on Law and Order: SVU, it’s her duty to investigate ‘sexually-based offenses [that] are considered especially heinous.’ I haven’t done anything terribly perverted yet, but if Mariska came a-knocking I’m sure we could come to some arrangement.”

Regina Deutinger. “We knew Janine Habeck (German Playmate of the year 2005) was special the first time we saw her; as Regina (German Playmate of the Month October 2006) proves, there’s more where that came from (for those of you who are a bit slow: Germany). We liked Regina’s Oktoberfest-themed dirndl-dropping pictorial so much when we included her in our international playmates feature April, and when it came time to pick a girl to feature in our beer feature a couple months back, there was really no contest. Is there anything more inviting than a beautiful woman holding a giant stein full of beer?”

Elyse Luray. “She’s a curvy NILF with a slight speech impediment who becomes palpably aroused while researching the shit out of some crusty piece of Americana on the PBS show History Detectives. The only woman for whom, ‘How about you come back to my place and appraise my poker, is a foolproof seal-the-deal line.”

Liz Cho. On WABC TV New York’s Eyewitness News, this smoldering talking head combines model looks with gratuitous coverage of triple homicides and little old lady muggings. If she’s this shameless on screen, what’s she like behind closed doors? 

Alyx Vance. “Beautiful, brave and tough as nails, Alyx lost her mother in the Black Mesa incident, and has devoted the rest of her life to stopping the Combine. If you're lost about now, you haven't played Half-Life 2, one of the best videogames of the last 5 years. If you're know what we're talking about, you know why she's on this list.”

Maria Bartiromo. “I’m not a money guy—duh, I’ve chosen to attempt to earn a living in magazine publishing. But MSNBC’s Money Honey makes me interested in the stock market ... for as long as she's on TV talking about it.”

Kat Von D. “She’s the sexiest tattooed chick around. With her own TV show airing on TLC and a following of over 3 million, she's easily one of the most beautiful women inside and out. She's no gal to mess with—I heart her.”

Lindsey Strutt. “There is really a bumper crop of Page 3 Girls at this moment in history; in the UK, ladies like Keeley Hazell, Sophie Howard, Michelle Marsh and Lucy Pinder have achieved a measure of genuine celebrity. And the younger ones are impressive as well, spanking new girls like Sam Cook, Katie-Marie Cork, Sammy Braddy, Kitty Lea. (We’re not going to give you a link to every one of those; you’re all capable Googlers.) Clearly, it’s hard for me to choose a favorite. But if push came to shove, one could do a lot worse than this: Lindsey Strutt pouring chocolate on herself. Mmm.”

Olivia Munn. “Not only is the co-host of G4's Attack of the Show sexy as all hell, but she knows her way around a viral internet meme and has that hint of dorkiness that makes you think she's probably very sweet in person.” (ed.: Olivia was one of our best-ever Babes of the Month, and we wouldn’t be surprised if she did make the Top 25 someday. She’s young, give her time.)

Hope Solo. “A blue-eyed blonde with a winning smile and a sexy sulk, Hope is/was the starting goalkeeper for the U.S. Women’s soccer team. She lashed out at her coach (rightly) and replacement (wrongly) when she was benched at the 2008 World Cup. When Hope was good, she was very good; when she was bad, she was better.”

Regina Spektor. “Regina has an offbeat beauty that is every bit the match for the intensity of her songwriting and performing. Between the way she pounds the keys, her ability to hurl immense sounds from her lungs and the little tics of accent and sub-vocalizations, resistance is, for me at least, utterly futile.”

Tea Leoni. “Tea has always done it for me. I’m the boss so I don’t have to explain why.”