When Colleen Marie attended LSU, she did not party, did not drink and favored studying over Saturday nights in Tiger Stadium.
Now the veterinarian and 2002 LSU graduate is the centerfold of the August 2003 Playboy.
“It is probably the second best thing that has ever happened to me,” Colleen said. “Becoming a vet was the best.”
Colleen did not want to reveal her last name for this article because she wants to separate her modeling career from her veterinary practice.
Fletcher Luke, mechanical engineering graduate and Marie’s ex-boyfriend, said it is funny to see his former girlfriend as a Playmate.
Luke said when he and Colleen dated she did not wear much makeup.
In her centerfold pictures she is wearing so much makeup she looks like a completely different person, Luke said.
Colleen, from Plano, Texas, came to the University on a full scholarship.
Colleen said she got into modeling while at the University.
A friend suggested modeling as a way to help pay for the day-to-day expenses she encountered, Colleen said.
She posed for local calendars and a calendar photographer submitted her picture to Playboy.
Playboy invited her to appear in the February 2001 College Girls edition and the October 2001 Girls of the SEC edition.
Colleen returned to campus during the release of the magazines and said she received mixed reactions from people on campus.
“Some people were positive, but some were a little more negative and thought it was a bad representation of the Vet School,” Colleen said.
Students and faculty were not her biggest worries when Playboy approached her for the magazine.
“I was worried about what my parents would think,” Colleen said.
Her parents said they would support her as long as she felt comfortable posing and would not regret it later in life, Colleen said.
Following appearances in two college issues of Playboy, Colleen inquired about becoming a centerfold.
Colleen said the centerfold process takes several months and required submitting pictures that went through three phases of approval, including an inspection by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
Since appearing in Playboy, Colleen has attended five Playboy parties and said Hefner has welcomed her to stay in the Playboy mansion guest room whenever she is in Los Angeles.
Colleen said Hefner is always looking out for his friends.
“He is a nice guy,” Colleen said. “He is a very giving, charming and intelligent person.”
Colleen said she has passed by the famous Playboy Mansion Grotto, but has yet to step inside any of its four jacuzzis.
“I have heard stories of what goes on inside there, and it’s not for me,” Colleen said.
Colleen now practices veterinary medicine in Las Vegas at a small animal hospital.
Colleen said modeling pays off her student debts, while working as a vet allows her to maintain her doctoral skills.
Terri Lynn Donovan, general studies junior and Colleen’s best friend, said Colleen was not a typical University student.
“She would never go out,” Donovan said. “She was so into her vet studies.”
Donovan said she met Colleen at the 2000 Miss Louisiana Hawaiian Tropic State Pageant. Donovan won the pageant but said Colleen gains all the fame now.
Donovan said she is happy for her best friend.
“It’s fabulous,” Donovan said. “It has always been a dream of mine to be in Playboy, so to see a best friend live it out is almost as wonderful as it happening to me.”