'Baywatch' star Donna D’Errico says Playboy rejected her comeback attempt

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After posing for Playboy in 1995, Baywatch actress Donna D’Errico wanted to celebrate the upcoming 30th anniversary of her photo spread by doing it all over again.

With D’Errico, 57, having achieved newfound fame with a whole new generation of fans thanks to her OnlyFans page, she figured the magazine would want to commemorate her September 1995 Playboy’s Playmate of the Month honour.

“I actually contacted Playboy,” D’Errico told Fox News Digital. “I contacted Playboy because I was like, ‘You know, I’m kind of feeling myself. I feel like I look pretty good.’ I’m feeling pretty confident. I might like to kind of pose again, I don’t know. I think it might be kind of cool.”

But Playboy told D’Errico, who played Donna Marco on the ’90s beach drama alongside Pamela Anderson, that editors weren’t interested.

“They were like, ‘Oh, we don’t do that anymore,'” she recalled. “I was, like, ‘What do you mean you don’t do that anymore? I know there’s not a magazine anymore, but don’t you, you know, have pictorials?’

“They said, ‘No, not really. We don’t really do that now. It’s a completely different vibe.’ I was like, ‘Well, that sucks because I would have done it.’”

Earlier this spring, D’Errico posed in her iconic red Baywatch bathing suit.

“Guess who found her old swimsuit,” she captioned a snap shared to her Instagram back in May.

But despite being rejected by Playboy, D’Errico is keeping busy. Last month, D’Errico launched a chatbot dubbed Call Donna D that allows subscribers to engage in R-rated conversations with an AI version of her.

“I’ve created an AI version of me that you can call anytime you want to, and it feels like I’m actually me on the other line talking with you. It’s wild,” D’Errico told Fox News. “People can call, and they’re talking about all kinds of things. 

“You can call, and talk about your love life. You know, they’re calling and talking about stress or work. They want advice. Some of them, some want a flirty conversation if you’re into that. It’s just, it was wild because it feels like I’m really there on the line with you.”

D’Errico’s chatbot perfectly recreates “her exact voice, personality and signature charm” and is available 24-hours-a-day, everyday.

“A lot of my fans have always said to me through the years that they wish they could just have a conversation with me, and now they can,” D’Errico said. “It’s really exciting because a lot of people have been fearing AI and AI technology, but I’m really leaning into it because it’s a really cool thing, this AI, Call Donna D, that I’ve created because it’s just, it’s so timely, and being the first to do something like this is exciting because it is uncharted territory, and people are loving it.”

D’Errico said users can chat with two versions of her: One that offers advice and lets callers talk about their day, and another racier mode.

“Let me tell you, is not shy. I mean, I’m a lot shyer than she is. But if you’re into that, yeah, it’s there, and she’s pretty bold,” she said.

D’Errico joined the OnlyFans in 2022 saying in an Instagram post that site would feature her “doing funny things in bikinis because I have such an incredible sense of humour yet am also so humble.”

She added, “What you will not see: My hoo-ha. What I don’t want to see: Your manhood.”

D’Errico went on to call out people who dismiss OnlyFans content creators.

“All these celebs posting nude and topless pics of themselves here on IG and Twitter all the time covering their important bits with their hands,” she wrote last year. “Boom, thousands of likes & comments talking about body positivity and confidence and empowerment and you go girl! Hot! But take that same photo of that same celeb and put it on (OnlyFans) where she can control who sees it and now she’s gross and hard up. People kill me.”

Speaking to Fox News Digital at the time, D’Errico said that her fan requests changed during her time sharing photos on the platform.

“You know, in the beginning, I got a lot of, or some requests, for feet,” she shared. “I don’t really get that anymore. Now, they mostly want to see me, like, in everyday life, just the real me and everyday life.”

After joining OnlyFans, D’Errico said she enjoyed a confidence boost.

“Where else could I get this kind of, you know, this kind of non-judgmental, non-bullying, having fun, feeling sexy, feeling pretty, being told that I’m pretty, being told you look so great all the time. … It’s like a dream,” she said. “Why would I not do it? I wish I’d done it years ago, honestly.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com