PORT PERRY -- Local boy Craig Russell was the girl of your dreams.

Mae West became the legendary impersonator's trademark. But he could be Dietrich, Garland, Bette Davis, Carol Channing, Peggy Lee, Anita Bryant.

Whoa! Anita Bryant? Get me out of this dream.

Right. Try this one:

Local girl Jayde Nicole, 22, is Playboy's Playmate of the Year. She is the first Canadian to wear (if that's the word) the title since Shannon Tweed 26 years ago.

A tattoo below her belly button says Respect. What else do you need to know?

I met Jayde in Port Perry when she was just Miss January 2007. So I get an early tip and am on the grassy shores of Lake Scugog awaiting official word from L.A. yesterday.

I'm just busting to tell some one.

"Yeah, the rumours are all over town," says Terry McMillen, 61, the first guy I meet at Country Style.

"More power to her. If she's got the smarts to realize what trouble she could get into."

"She's just a regular girl," says former schoolmate Hayley Walter, 18.

"Like everyone here. A have-fun girl. A party girl."

Uh-oh. Don't give Hef a heart attack.

"He's awesome," Jayde tells me down the line from L.A. "He's like a father to all us Playmates."

'THEY'RE PROUD OF ME'

Well, keep your wits, Jayde. I hear things about that mansion. Anything to say to your hometown?

"Just thanks. I hope they're proud of me. I'm excited and overwhelmed."

I'll pass it on.

Town votes helped her cause. The PMOY is picked online, though I bet Hugh Hefner gets bonus votes.

He could choose worse.

Port Perry swarms with beautiful women. Stroll down Water St. in the summer, you'll see. Actress Emily VanCamp is from here.

Craig Russell, who died at 42 of a stroke in 1990, was in a league of his own.

"Ever since he was little, he liked to wear his mom's shoes," his uncle Howard Hall, 78, tells me. "We were kinda worried."

It was a sign. Russell be -came the world's most famous impersonator and star of the film Outrageous!

Strange characters haunt the shores of Lake Scugog.

Bill "Father Goose" Lishman lives nearby, in a house buried in a field. A spaceship prototype used to sit in a hangar with his ultralights.

They call Howard Hall "Boss Hogg" around here. He was mayor for 10 years and drives a blue Caddy.

In 1988, his nephew was clambering from a pit of booze and drugs. Howard arranged a comeback show at the town hall theatre on, ahem, Queen St.

"I was ready for some flak. But it was one helluva show," Howard says. "Standing ovation.

"This is a forgiving town. It accepts you as you are."

Well, usually.

When I last wrote about Jayde, her mom was upset over local bloggers slagging her daughter.

"Modern-day jealousy," says Terry McMillen at the coffee shop.

"She's got what they want."

Plus, colourful characters are one thing, naked characters are another.

The town firefighter calendar shows barely a bare bicep.

Capt. Gord Gettins was pictured one year, heroically battling a birdhouse blaze.

I happen to be talking to him when Jayde calls me from L.A.

"Give her our best," grins Gord.

"Awesome," Jayde replies.

She's in the June Playboy and signs autographs in Toronto next week. (See my column online at torontosun.com)

I try to imagine her meeting Craig Russell.

"He'd have been delighted," says his former manager Gene Mascardelli.

"He'd have sat her on his lap and licked her ear."

NO PART OF IT

Now there's a picture. I bet Mayor Marilyn Pearce would keel over.

When Jayde was Miss January, Mayor Pearce wanted no part of it.

Playmate of the Year, though, is bigtime.

Says Scugog Standard editor Rik Davie: "If you're a stripper, you're just a stripper. But if you're Gypsy Rose Lee, your town's proud of you.

"I bet there's a key to the city for Playmate of the Year."

I find Mayor Pearce at a meeting about caring for Lake Scugog. No key for Jayde just yet.

But: "This young girl is the best at what she does and the community should be proud.

"I don't want to go into the Playboy thing. You'll think I'm a prude."

That's okay, mayor.

They' re even tolerant of prudes around here.

Jayde Nicole will be signing autographs on May 13 at the Great Canadian News Co. in the BCE Place, 181 Bay St. in Toronto, from noon to 2 p.m. and at Gateway Newsstand at 4 College St. in Toronto from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
On May 14, she will be at the Great Canadian News Co. at 1470 Yonge St. in Toronto from noon to 2 p.m. and at Macs at 1812 Scugog St. in Port Perry from 5 p.m. To 7 p.m.