Layla Harvest Roberts, Miss October, 1997

At 22, Miss October is ready to be noticed. Layla Harvest Roberts grew up in Los Angeles and in Mexico City, where her mother was a famed model. Layla modeled here and in Europe, and last year she made a brief splash on "Baywatch." Now movie producers are after her. We cornered her for an intimate talk in Los Angeles.

Q: How did you come by your unusual name

A: My mother was a bit of a hippie. She thought Harvest sounded pretty. Layla is for the Eric Clapton song--the original, fast version, of course. I'm lucky Mom had good taste in music; I could have been named Chicago Harvest Roberts.

Q: You were a cheerleader at Beverly Hills High. Totally cool?

A: I was overweight and weird. They let me be a cheerleader only because I was a good dancer. Which I still am, by the way.

Q: But you're no longer overweight and weird. What happened?

A: Alicia Silverstone was in my class, and she was already famous. But I was friendless. Finally I decided to be a model, like Mom. I lost weight, got noticed by a modeling agent and lived in Paris.

Paris sucked. It's a beautiful city, but the people were mean and I was homesick. That was the end for me as a model. I quit. But then one night in Los Angeles, I was at a supermarket when a woman began following me. A lesbian, I thought. I tried to sneak away, but she came running up to my car, saying, "I'm with Elite Models! I think you're perfect!" I was back in.

Q: Now you're acting and dancing as well. You appear in the movie The Good Life with Sylvester Stallone. You vamped in Aerosmith's latest video. Why did you want to be a Playmate too?

A: It's every girl's dream, isn't it?

Q: What film roles do you covet?

A: In my cartoon fantasies I am Tara, a warrior woman who dresses in kneehigh black boots and not much else. She is stronger than any man.

Q: How about sexual fantasies?

A: They're pretty much the same.

Q: How was it posing nude?

A: Wonderful. What does nudity mean? It might only mean I don't have on my favorite black vinyl lingerie yet.

To get closer to Layla, call the Playboy Super Hotline. See page 153 for details.

Playmate Data Sheet

Name: Layla Harvest Roberts

Bust: 36 C Waist: 24 Hips: 36

Height: 5'9-1/2" Weight: 121

Birth Date: 10/22/74 Birthplace: Kealake Kua Kona, Hawaii

Ambitions: To act in the best films of the early 21st century

Turn-Ons: To turn me on, a man needs to be a good dancer and a good masseur.

Turnoffs: People who think they are hot shots, substance abusers and black licorice

Role Models: Al Pacino, Faye Duraway and my mother

Favorite Films: Dog Day Afternoon, Scarface, Bonnie and Clyde and last exit to Brooklyn.

Mood Music: Elvis Presley, Eartha Kitt, Barry White, Rolling Stones, Joao Gilberto and Antino Jobim.

Favorite Place: In Greece it's so dark at night you can see every star-you feel like part of the galaxy.

Passions: Sex, Rock and Roll Strawberry Twizzlers.