Anderson, who came in at No. 29, is, as Playboy writes, “a global sex symbol.” Since getting discovered at a Canadian football game, she has appeared on 12 Playboy covers and a Playboy centerfold, as well as on “Baywatch” and a number of other television shows.
“More notable,” writes Playboy, “she was the first celebrity to be seen in a sexually explicit home movie and not have it destroy her career.”
Like Anderson, Jameson has crossed the bridge from adult entertainment to mainstream entertainment. “Although many adult performers have made the attempt,” writes Playboy, “Jameson is the first to become a mainstream icon.” She has served as a spokeswoman for Adidas, appeared on numerous television shows, radio shows such as “The Howard Stern Show,” and written a best-selling autobiography. She is Playboy’s choice for No. 32.
Lovelace, who is most famous for work in “Deep Throat” (1972), placed No. 41. Although telling Playboy she had “absolutely no taboos” in 1973, she later turned against the adult entertainment industry, claiming to have been forced at gunpoint to perform. Shortly before her death in 2002, she posed nude for the “Leg Show” because “there’s nothing wrong with looking sexy as long as it’s done with taste.”
Other honorees included Marilyn Monroe, the Rolling Stones, director Mike Nichols, “Sex and the City” creator Candace Bushnell and Playboy founder and editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner.
