Victoria Zdrok Top Porn Star

Written by Mark Kernes for AVN Magazine

PHILADELPHIA - She was just 16 when she arrived in America from the former Soviet Republic on an academic scholarship, as "a sort of ambassador of good will and perestroika and glasnost" - but it didn't take Victoria Zdrok long to realize that she never wanted to go back.

And now, 15 years later, she's been both a Playboy Playmate and a Penthouse Pet, and on June 1, she'll be officially crowned "Penthouse Pet of the Year 2004" when the DVD of the same title hits the stores.

And yes, that'll mean personal appearances, store signings, parties and plenty of media attention for this astonishingly sexy beauty - but fact is, Pet of the Year hardly scratches the surface of what Victoria Zdrok has going for her.

"My Ph.D. is very recent," Victoria noted when we spoke to her as she was lounging naked in her pool at her New York area residence. "I got it last May. My Ph.D. is in clinical psychology, but my subspecialty is in the area where law and psychology intersect. I went to Villanova Law School [where she got her J.D. degree], so my dissertation was on jury behavior, because I was hoping to become a jury consultant - you know; one of those high-paid jury consultants that sits next to defense attorneys and tells them which jurors to pick and how defendants should behave. So my actual dissertation, which got recommended for the Law Psychology Awards, is on 'The Effect of Judicial Instructions on Jury Perception of Defendants' Refusal to Testify.' That's the official title."

In case you're wondering, she found that it's actually bad for the defendant when judges tell juries to disregard the fact that the defendant isn't testifying in his/her own defense - but we didn't think that was nearly as interesting as finding out that the star of Michael Ninn's Temptations, which was considered for several AVN Awards this year, was both a lawyer and a psychologist - and a member of Mensa, the high-IQ society.

"So I'm a real intellectual, believe it or not, and I enjoy this stuff," chuckled the woman who, "barely studying," passed her bar exam on the first try. "I could literally learn it overnight. People take these long, six-month review courses for New York Bar. I studied the night before, and people can't believe I did. I just have that kind of talent to be able to focus on something and memorize it and process it well. But modeling is lucrative and it's enjoyable, and I have a lot of fans, which is certainly one of the main motivators why I'm in it. Because they're a lot of fun, my fans, and I think they would just be heartbroken if I quit right now."

But nude modeling is something Victoria knows plenty about - enough, in fact, to write a book on the subject.

"The book is called The Naked Truth: Confessions of Centerfolds and Those Who Love Them," she said. "It's a sort of tell-all book on the centerfold industry. I've shot with pretty much every major adult photographer, and I talk about every one of them, and mostly, it's not good. They're talented people, but they're difficult people to work with. They're critical, they're quirky, they're eccentric in many ways, and some of it is good, but I think it's time they know how they make women feel. But the one person who gets an amazing review from me is Suze Randall, because I've never heard her put down women; I've never heard her say, 'You know, you need to go out and get a nose job' or something cruel like that. If she doesn't want somebody, she won't shoot them, but she won't stand there and pick them apart and criticize them and make a woman feel terrible and then expect them to be sexy."

Victoria's other new project won't be finalized for a couple of months.

"I just shot a pilot for Spike TV," she informed. "I'm going to be Dr. Z, and the show is Hooking Up.