Dan Gross: Ex-Playmate wrote the book

NOTE: THIS STORY HAS BEEN CORRECTED

PENTHOUSE columnist Victoria Zdrok will be in town today hanging with NBC10 trying to teach local guys how to score hot babes.

It's also the subject of her new book, "Dr. Z on Scoring: How to Pick Up, Seduce, and Hook Up with Hot Women" (Fireside Books, $14.95). Zdrok, 34, who was the 2004 Penthouse Pet of the Year and 10 years earlier the October 1994 Playboy Playmate, lived in town for about eight years while studying at West Chester University, then earning a law degree at Villanova and a psychology degree from Hahnemann/Drexel.

She was married to local attorney Alexander Zdrok, but they have since divorced. She's now married to a man who she says "did everything it says in my book," when they met at a New York nightclub years ago. "Eye contact, genuine smile, acting dominant." It must have worked.

Zdrok, who sells a number of explicit photographs and videos of herself, as well as her used underwear, on PlanetVictoria.com, says she's not focusing on modeling right now, and is working on another book and stays busy hosting parties at various clubs. "I've done everything in this business, except hard-core," she says, but now her focus is mainly writing.

The Ukranian immigrant says any guy can score any woman if he employs confidence, shows distinctiveness and doesn't look too eager. "In business negotiations, you don't want to look too eager. Same thing with women. You want to come across as a guy who has options," she advises.

Zdrok says the idea for the book was born when men approached her to ask how to date a woman like her "Do I have to be Donald Trump?" they'd say. "No, I went out with Donald Trump. I didn't like him," she told them, but realized there was a market there for a dating book.

She'll work with NBC10 today, then tomorrow morning Zdrok will be on 94 WYSP's Kidd Chris Show. And at 1 p.m. Friday she'll be in studio with the Fanatics, Harry Mayes and Jamie Yannacone, on SportsTalk 950 AM.

Pinkenson on Sundance panel

Sharon Pinkenson, head of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, will serve on a production incentive panel Saturday at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. She'll discuss Pennsylvania's tax- credit program and issues of interest to filmmakers shooting in the Philadelphia region, and preview film-friendly incentives to come.

Claymation sensation at UArts

Claymation pioneer Will Vinton will lecture at the University of the Arts at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 23 in Hamilton Hall (320 S. Broad).

The free and open to the public talk is being held in conjunction with his exhibition "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" at the Philadelphia Art Institute's 1622 Gallery, running Jan. 23-Feb. 29.

Vinton, who has earned an Oscar, Emmy and Clio during his 35-year-career, may be best known for creating the Marvin Gaye-singing California Raisins for the 1987 TV commercials.

Great guy, great cause

Pennsbury and Plymouth-Whitemarsh will play the feature basketball game in the inaugural Jason Haslam Classic at 8 p.m. Jan. 26 at Pennsbury High School East. The event is held in memory of the former Bucks County Courier Times sportswriter who died last month at age 28 of brain cancer. Proceeds will be donated to Coaches vs. Cancer. Haslam was raised in Willow Grove and attended Abington High and Temple University.

Tickets for the game are $6, and doors open at 2 p.m. because there are several other games on tap. Donations, payable to Coaches vs. Cancer, can be sent c/o the Bucks County Courier Times, Box 458, Bristol, PA 19007.

Clash doc premieres on WHYY

WHYY-TV will debut "The Clash Live: Revolution Rock" at 9 p.m. Jan 24. The hour-long documentary will be presented in part by 93.3 WMMR's Pierre Robert, who will discuss the groundbreaking British punk/reggae rockers during membership-drive breaks during the show. Those breaks will be seen by national audiences at other PBS stations when they air the Clash movie in March.

Motion for Manney's movie

Filmmaker/musician George Manney's gotten distribution through MVD for his biopic of late jazz bagpiper Rufus Harley. Manney's film airs this month on WYBE-TV. Musicians Kenny Gamble, Laurie Anderson, Charlie Gracie, Byard Lancaster and Odean Pope are all part of the film. *

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