Miss September 2004 - Scarlett Keegan

Playboy's Miss September 2004 Scarlett Keegan

is red, hot and Irish

When we meet Scarlett Keegan, the first thing she wants to get off her chest is that hers isn't a stage name. "My mom's favorite movie is Gone With the Wind," she says. "I didn't wake up one day and say, 'I want to be a star. I'm going to change my name to make it sound sexy.'"

By nature, Scarlett is 100 percent sexy -- and Irish, too. "My mom was born in Dublin, and I've gone there almost every year since I was young," she says. "Dubliners give you a hard time if you're Irish and you weren't born there. They know you have character if you can put up with a slagging. They're knowledgeable about American history -- more than we are -- which is embarrassing when you get into a political discussion at the pub. The city has a warm vibe. It's where my heart is."

Her body, however, is usually at her country home in California's Santa Ynez Valley, where she posed on her porch for this photo shoot. Did anyone tip off the neighbors? "No, and I'm not telling them," she says. "Word has already spread, though. It's a small town, and everyone knows one another."

Miss September has been acting and modeling since she was 12, but her cheeks turn as red as her hair when she recounts her first acting job -- in a toilet-paper commercial at the age of three. "I didn't understand how filming worked," she says. "I thought I was going to be trapped inside the television. I started screaming, and they couldn't shoot the commercial. They hired someone else." Perhaps this traumatic incident is what prompted her to create a list of aspirations. "I write down all the things I want to accomplish," she says. "I would love to get married and have a family. I hope to have a house in Dublin. I hope to be successful enough to have a little place here and a little place there. And I'd love to continue acting and see where it takes me."

So what does a self-described city lover do for fun in the sleepy Santa Ynez Valley? "What can I say? I like drunk bowling," she says. "I have good hand-eye coordination, but I generally get worse as the game progresses. My friends and I have a lot of house parties. We go to the beach. I can be a wild girl. The way I look is a reflection of my personality. With my big pouf of thick curly hair, look out!"