Wednesday, May 18, 2005 | 10:48 a.m.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's Playboy photo shoot -- he was a guest photographer -- has hit the Playboy Web site with a story, pictures and a couple quotes delivered in his own voice.
"If I enjoy this, we may do this some more," Goodman's voice booms from the computer after clicking on the link from Playboy.com to the "Ultimate Photo Op," which is under a picture of the mayor and a blond Playmate holding a Nevada "PLAYBOY" license plate over her breasts.
"This could be a lot of fun. This could be very special for both of us," the mayor's says as a few seconds of the photo shoot, done at the Palms on April 29, plays in a small video box.
Clicking to the next page elicits another pre-recorded quote from Goodman: "I can do whatever I want, I'm the mayor."
Love him or hate him, and his past antics, and that will probably tell whether you are upset or not by the mayor's latest foray into celebrity, which could live on the Internet forever.
Goodman was Playboy's first elected official to be a celebrity photographer, a title past bestowed upon famous rappers, model and actress Carmen Elektra and racecar driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., a Playboy spokesman said.
For Goodman -- a gin company spokesman who has hosted "Martinis with the Mayor," the Playboy shoot was just the latest of a series of high-profile acts that have put him and the city in the spotlight.
Craig Walton, professor emeritus of ethics and policy studies at UNLV and president of the Nevada Center for Public Ethics, said Goodman tends to be a polarizing figure, and so those who haven't liked his past adult-oriented actions or comments have another complaint against the mayor.
But for others: "It's just Oscar being Oscar," Walton said, adding that the larger question is whether this type of activity takes away from his time spent on city business.
Las Vegas Councilman Larry Brown said "these distractions" have not taken away from Goodman's effectiveness or time spent on city business.
"He's a mayor 24-7," Brown said.
Brown, who said he hasn't seen the Playboy Web site and said he wouldn't have been a guest photographer, said he's not sure how the public will take Goodman's actions.
"He's demonstrated in the past the ability to do and say things most politicians wouldn't dare to," Brown said.
Earlier this year the mayor took criticism for telling a group of fourth graders during the question and answer period of a school visit that he would want a bottle of gin with him if he were marooned on a desert island. The mayor is a pitchman for Bombay Sapphire gin.
Goodman's political advisor and former campaign manager, Jim Ferrence, said: "Compared to some of the things he's said and done, this pales in comparison."
For example, Ferrence said the mayor once dressed as one of the Village People after losing a Super Bowl bet, and in 1999 Goodman suggested sending the homeless to the abandoned prison in Jean to live.
"No one's opinion of the mayor will change because of this photo shoot," Ferrence said.
The Playboy Web site shows Goodman in a dark pinstriped suit with a colorful tie snapping pictures of a topless Irina Voronina, who was Miss January 2001. The pictures are on the Web site but will not be published in the magazine, Playboy spokesman Bill Farley said.
The pictures first appeared on the site on Monday, with more pictures from the photo shoot available to paying members of the Playboy site, Farley said.
Farley said Goodman was not paid for his work.
Goodman has had previous dealings with Playboy.
In January the mayor posed with Playboy Playmates for a 2006 swimsuit calendar in which Las Vegas serves as the backdrop for the photographs, and then gave the Playmates keys to the city.
Following the recent photo shoot, Goodman and Councilman Michael Mack went to the Playboy Mansion outside Los Angeles for a luncheon, during which Goodman gave keys to the city to Playboy boss Hugh Hefner and 2005 Playmate of the Year Tiffany Fallon.
Goodman was in Washington, D.C., Tuesday and was unavailable for comment, a city spokeswoman said.
Mack said he and Goodman paid for the trip to the Playboy Mansion themselves, flying to and from the lunch that day.
"People can say the mayor shouldn't do these things, but the exposure, you couldn't pay for it," Mack said. "Without a doubt, the exposure for Las Vegas was phenomenal."
Sometimes appearing above or to the side of the article about Goodman's shoot are ads from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Goodman is chairman of the LVCVA board.
Playboy spokeswoman Jay Jay Nesheim said the LVCVA sponsors a Playboy jazz festival in Los Angeles and in return gets some ad space on Playboy.com.
"I don't think the LVCVA had anything to do with it," Nesheim said about Goodman's photo shoot, which she said was broached with the mayor after he posed with Playmates for a swimsuit calendar.
The LVCVA ads feature red dice and direct people to the LVCVA Web site visitlasvegas.com. The ads, which rotate with other ads on the site, appeared on the Goodman and other Web pages in the Playboy Web site.
LVCVA officials did not immediately return telephone messages this morning.
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