How much more ‘real’ can O.C. get?

Shannon Gilbert once sent her picture to Playboy magazine, not to become a Playmate, but just to get on the guest list for one of Hugh Hefner’s parties at his Holmby Hills mansion.

It worked, but then later her personal trainer urged her to send in a picture to get in one of the magazine’s “Girls of” features.

That worked too.

Gilbert, along with other Newport Beach residents Brooke Taylor, Natalie Marie and Chandon Mason, appear in this month’s “Real Girls of the O.C.” feature in Playboy.

“When they called me I was so excited, I couldn’t wait,” Gilbert said. The 27-year-old land investor had never modeled before.

“I didn’t move to California to do this,” said Gilbert, who grew up in the Seattle area and moved to California six years ago.

Each month, the magazine’s pages are filled with a “girls of” pictorial, conceived by the magazine’s photo department and finalized by Hefner, said magazine publicity manager Theresa Hennessey.

“It’s the popularity of all the shows right now,” Hennessey said of why the Orange County theme was chosen.

Some of the women featured in the O.C. pictorial were discovered at a February 2005 casting call held in Newport Beach, but there are other ways to get in the magazine, Hennessey said. Many women come to Playboy’s Los Angeles studio and tryout or submit photos online, Hennessey said.

The four Newport Beach women are just a few chosen out of the thousands of submissions the magazine receives each year, Hennessey said.

Gilbert said the two-hour magazine shoot was “fun.”

“I got to see some of the pictures when they were taking them and I was just like, ‘Wow, that’s not me,’” Gilbert said.

Gilbert said she doesn’t have any plans to do more modeling. She would model nude again, but only for Playboy, she said.

“They’re an amazing magazine,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert said so far no one’s recognized her from the magazine ? and that’s fine with her. Last Saturday she traveled to Las Vegas for an autograph party but said she didn’t understand why anyone would want her autograph.

Gilbert said she only told her brother about her magazine debut. Her boyfriend, whom she lives with, thinks it’s great, she said.

“He loves it,” Gilbert said. “I think it’s bragging rights for him.”

Although Playboy won’t have the final sales numbers until the next issue arrives, Hennessey said this month’s magazine is “selling really well in Orange County.”dpt.26-playboy-CPhotoInfo0H1T9TVN20060726j2ze4incCredit: DON LEACH / DAILY PILOT Caption: (LA)Shannon Gilbert, who has never posed professionally before, will represent Orange County in the latest edition of Playboy magazine.