Venus in stockings: Woman in White Stockings by Gustave Courbet

Agent Triple P was lucky enough to visit the Barnes Foundation today; a truly remarkable gallery in Merion, a leafy suburb of Philadelphia which is only viewable by prior appointment. Fortunately one of Agent Triple P's contacts enabled him to jump the considerable (six weeks) waiting list.

Albert C Barnes (1872-1951) developed the antiseptic drug Argyrol and with the fortune that created started to collect art. In 1910 he commissioned a friend of his to travel to Paris and buy some modern French paintings. His friend, William Glackens, returned with 20 paintings that formed the basis of his collection. In 1912 Barnes visited Paris and through Gertrude and Leo Stein met many of the great artists of the day such as Matisse and Picasso. His first Picasso cost him $100. Over the years his collection increased enormously and now includes 2,500 objects including 800 paintings with an estimated worth of $6 billion.

Triple P really went to look at the 181 (yes that is not a typo!) Renoirs in the collection but there are also 69 paintings by Paul Cézanne, 59 by Henri Matisse, as well as numerous others by Paul Gauguin, El Greco, Francisco Goya, Edouard Manet, Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Maurice Utrillo, and Vincent Van Gogh. Several of the Renoirs are very famous indeed and we will look at these another time.

Today we were particularly struck by Woman in White Stockings (1861) (32" x 25")by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877); one of the earlier erotic works he produced during the 1860s which were usually commissioned by collectors for their private appreciation.

It's a striking, anatomically forthright picture and the viewer is left in no doubt that the young lady removing her stockings is doing it for the benefit of an unseen observer.

Phoenix Venus: Amber Valetta

You're supposed to cover your breasts not your eyes!

Here is a truly Venus-like Venus. Phoenix born supermodel Amber Valetta started modelling at fifteen and has now moved into acting. In fact she has made 16 films in the last ten years so presumably she is quite good at acting or she wouldn't keep getting more jobs (see, by contrast, Cindy Crawford and Fair Game (1995).

Every supermodel has to have a cause, to prove that she is not a brain dead clothes horse, and Amber's is warning people about the dangers of mercury contamination in seafood. Original, anyway.

Much better than banging on about seals, whales, rhinos, global warming or all the other things supermodels usually bang on about when not being paid ludicrous amounts of money just for standing around whilst being severely underweight.

Amber and the even skinnier Shalom Harlow. They both need a good sausage splat or ten

San Francisco Venus: Alicia Silverstone

Passes the vest test

33 year old actress Alicia Silverstone is more well known than my previous on tour Venuses. Born in San Francisco. Her father is Scottish and her mother was born in England. She began modelling at the age of six before moving on to commercials and TV.

Agent Triple P has only seen her in two films; Batman and Robin (1997) and Stormbreaker (2006) surprisingly her last theatrical feature. In fact generally she has appeared in less well know films than you might imagine. Her biggest hit, Clueless, being nearly fifteen years ago.

Dress her up, dress her down...

She is a well know animal and enviromental activist and a vegetarian. But we won't hold that against her.

Undress her completely...

Most popular searches March-September 2009

Since we started recording the most popular reasons to visit this site six months have passed and the number of visitors a day is in the 300-400 mark with a peak of over 700. We have just done a quick look to see who is online now and we had, simultaneously, people in Moralzarzal, Spain; San Antonio de Padua, Argentina; Budapest, Hungary; Potsdam, Hamburg and Cottbus, Germany; Whitmann, Shallotte, Springfield and Salt Lake City, USA and Auckland, New Zealand. So Venus Observations spans the world and shows that, whereever you are, everyone loves a naked girlie! We can now present the top 20, based on the average number of key words searched, over the months of March to August 2009. We record our figures using four categories: Playboy Playmates, Penthouse Pets, Other women, other (non women).

1 Pubic Wars (other)

2 Elizabeth Ann Roberts (Playboy)

3 Veronika Zemanova (other women)

4 Melodye Prentiss (Playboy)
5 Gloria Root (Playboy)
6 Venus Observations (other)
7 Marie Louise O'Murphy (other)
8 Hyapatia Lee (other women)
9 Giselle Bundchen (other women)
10 Liv Lindeland (Playboy)
11 Louann Fernald (Playboy)

12 Sue and Louise Elvin (Penthouse)

13 Stephanie McLean (Penthouse)
14 Maureen O'Hara (other women)
15 Flaming June (other)
16 Lady Godiva (other)
17 Liz Stewart (Playboy)
18 Lady Godiva John Collier (other)
19 Arthur Hacker Syrinx (other)
20 Claire Rambeau (Playboy)

Most popular Playboy Playmate by far is Elizabeth Ann Roberts. Penthouse Pet is Stephanie McLean although Sue and Louise Elvin, who weren't Pets but did appear in Penthouse, got marginally more searches. The top "other woman", so to speak, (and that's a question Agent DVD is fond of asking!) is undoubtedly Veronika Zemanova with the Pubic Wars coming top of the "other" category and top overall

Centrefold Venus of the Month 5 : October - Marilu Tolo

Marilu without the staples

From forty years ago we present Italian centrefold Marilu Tolo. Originally a fashion model (she is 5'9") she then went into acting, initially in TV as a teenager.

Many centrefold models have used their appearance in a magazine to try to launch a film career (usually unsuccessfully) but Marilu had already made 20 films in Italy when she appeared in the October 1969 Penthouse.

Marilu was pushed off the cover by the Pet of the Year, Evelyn Treacher

But she made up for it with many other covers

She only appeared as Pet of the Month in the UK edition, not the US edition, as at this stage the American magazine's Pets had not been synchronised with the UK edition, as they were later.

Marilu was born in Rome on 16th January 1944 which would have made her 25 when she posed for Penthouse and, therefore, one of the older Pets to date.

She made her first film when she was sixteen and continued to have a busy career appearing in around 70 films. She was discovered and signed by Carlo Ponti but later cancelled her contract with him as she wanted more challenging roles.

Fortunately for us many of these involved having to take her clothes off. These were mainly Italian and French productions but she did appear in a number of English language films.

Flashing her lovely Latin bush in one of her many artistic films

She appeared in a tiny part as a "nightclub wrestler" in Terence (Thunderball) Young's little known Poppies are Also Flowers (1965) which had an amazingly diverse cast which included: Trevor Howard, Rita Hayworth, Angie Dickinson, Yul Brynner, Harold (Oddjob) Sakata, Marcello Mastroianni, Omar Sharif, Jack Hawkins and Princess Grace of Monaco playing herself! This bizarre anti-drugs film was financed by the United Nations!

Her next part in an American production was in the even more bizarre film Candy (1969). In fact Candy is one of the most bizarre films of the sixties. It is an update of Voltaire’s Candide in which Marilu plays the Mexican, biker sister of Ringo Starr (also playing a Mexican with possibly the worst foreign accent ever heard in the history of the cinema!). The film also stars Charles Aznavour as a juggling, humpback art thief, Marlon Brando as an Indian Guru, Richard Burton as a beat poet, Sugar Ray Robinson as a chauffeur, James Coburn as a Spanish brain surgeon and Walter Matthau as a paratrooper!


Her next English language film was Romance of a Horse Thief 1971) also with Yul Brynner.

With Richard Burton in Bluebeard

The following year she appeared in Bluebeard (1972), starring Richard Burton, where she had a much bigger role and co-starred with Raquel Welch and Virna Lisi (of How to Murder your Wife fame).

Her next film would be Themroc (1973); famous for having no intelligible dialogue and also being the first of Channel 4's notorious "Red Triangle" films. The theory being that the red triangle on display would be a warning to those of a sensitive nature and not, of course, a conveniently badged way to build ratings for obscure but naughty foreign films.

Marilu's next major role in a US film was for the "it's not really about Aristotle Onassis" film The Greek Tycoon (1978).

In 1979 she even appeared in an episode of Charlie's Angels. She did a screen test for the part of Ursa, one of the three villains in Superman 2 (1980) which was eventually won by Sara Douglas who delivered a memorable performance in the role.

Over the next few years she made another half dozen or so films and appeared in the TV mini-series The Last Days of Pompeii (1984) which Agent Triple P remembers watching and enjoying even though it was dreadful!



She hasn't appeared in anything since 1985 but we are happy to present her in all her 35-22-36 glory here.

An older Marilu shows she can still do naughty

Vancouver Venus: Jessica Lucas

Triumphantly passes the "does she look nice in a vest?" test

There were quite a few prospective Venuses to represent Vancouver but we decided to go for another unknown, at least to me.

Twenty-four year old Canadian actress Jessica was born in Vancouver. She began acting at the age of seven and appeared in Canadian teen drama Edgemont along with Smallville's Kristen Kreuk (another Vancouver born lovely who could have qualified in this slot) and Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica) who was brought up in Canada but was born in Los Angeles.

What a lovely, er, smile...


Jessica (here with Katie Cassidy on the set of Melrose Place) demonstrates an awesome waist/hip ratio

Recently she appeared in Melrose Place and her best known role so far, JJ Abrams' Cloverfield.

We have actually seen Miss Lucas in an episode of Vancouver-filmed lesbian drama the L-Word. We hope she will go far as she is a lovely girl in possession of a quite splendid figure!

A splendid profile view

Finally, this short clip unequivocally demonstrates, for Agent DVD's benefit. that she is an all natural girl.

Toronto Venus: Trish Stratus

Trish demonstrates a quite awesome posterior

We're getting behind with our on-tour Venuses so need to catch up over the next few days!

Here, from Toronto is slightly scary wrestler and fitness model Trish Stratus. Her real name is Patricia Anne Stratigias and she is now 33. She was born in Richmond Hill a Northern suburb of Toronto.

Shiny!

Originally one of the scantily clad girls who prance around on the edge of this so called sport she took up wrestling seriously and "won" seven titles but has now retired. There really cannot be an odder spectacle in the westerm world than the American form of wrestling; which is actually a sort of violent pantomime. Controlled by one family, who run it as a very profitable business, its popularity is really one of those aspects of America that completely baffle us.

Stratus poses for the Triple P does "she look good in a vest?" test. Passes.

Many of the women associated with US wrestling have posed for Playboy but Stratus has always maintained that she won't. Although she looks like a strapping Amazon she is a rather petite 5'4" tall.