Playmates
Brooke
Berry

Brooke Berry is happily taking in the never-ending Los Angeles street show -- the hard bodies, fast cars, celebrities. Still, she misses northern California, especially mountain life in Tahoe City, where she grew up, and the spontaneity and experimentation at Berkeley, where she attends college. It's late Friday afternoon in LA and the 20-year-old British Columbia native is wrapping up a weeklong shoot at Playboy's west side photo studio. During a break, Brooke visits the studio's library and as she peruses several back issues of Playboy, it's apparent she's proud to join a celebrated contingent of Canadian Playmates that includes Pamela Anderson Lee and Dorothy Stratten. "The ratio of good-looking women is the same in Canada, but Playboy attracts more of them somehow. Maybe we're just funnier, better-looking people," Brooke says, laughing. Still, California looms large. The well-read English major disagrees with author Thomas Wolfe -- she believes you can go home again. "Southern California people care more about their bodies, and they exercise at the gym," says Brooke. "Northern California people go hiking. Down here, it's the way you look. Up there, anything goes." And so goes Brooke.