NEW YORK -- Vikki LaMotta, the former wife of boxing great Jake LaMotta and mother of four children, said Tuesday that she posed nude for Playboy magazine at the age of 51 to show life doesn't end at 30.
The Bronx-born Mrs. LaMotta said she has received only 'favorable' reaction to her nine-page nude pictorial in the November issue.
'I'm getting reaction from women (in addition to men) that is so favorable it's just fantastic,' said the woman who was married to the former world middleweight champ for 11 years. Both were portrayed in the film 'Raging Bull,' about LaMotta's life and boxing career.
Although the fleshy layout was her first, the curvaceous mother of four said that throughout the years, she had always been 'encouraged' to pose in front of the camera without her clothes.
'My friends and everybody always said, 'You have to do it, the way you look you'd be great!,'' she said at a luncheon in Gallagher's restaurant in Manhattan.
Even her husband -- whose passionate obsession with his lanky, blonde wife on occasion prompted him to physically abuse her during their stormy marriage -- was all for the nude layout. She also received approval from her children, including her oldest son, now in his 30s, and her 80-year-old former mother-in-law.
Mrs. LaMotta, wearing a silky, low-cut, black pantsuit complimented only by a single strand of pearls around her neck and her long, blonde hair, admitted she was a little nervous at first, but her 'experience' with champions helped her go through with it.
'It was like going into the ring; I had to psyche myself out,' she said.
In the pictorial shot, Mrs. LaMotta lies on a bed wearing only fish-net, body stocking.
The tanned and brown-eyed Mrs. LaMotta, who now lives in Florida, said the layout was meant to disprove what she feels is society's notion - especially among women -- that life and beauty ends at age 30.
'I felt that there's something spiritual in it, very beautiful, very deep,' said Mrs. LaMotta. 'Maybe like a message ... that life isn't over at 30.'
The woman who was once a 'poster girl' on the Steve Allen show also talked a little bit about her life after divorcing LaMotta in the mid 1950s.
For a short time, she dated comedian Johnny Carson, whom she called 'very sincere' and 'very nice.' But the relationship never took off and she stopped seeing him after only a few dates because, 'I became afraid... and didn't know how to act on dates.'
In the interview accompanying the layout, Mrs. LaMotta said that she spent a lot of time during the filming of 'Raging Bull' with actor Robert DeNiro, who portrayed Jake, and even contemplated having an affair with him.
'I wanted to,' she recalls. 'In fact, for a time, I thought, 'How could I not?' An affair seemed the most natural thing to do. But Bob wanted things to be businesslike.'
Adds Mrs. LaMotta: 'I should have just attacked him or something. But I got shy.'
Still retaining a slight hometown accent, Mrs. LaMotta said the secret to keeping her sensuous looks, including her wrinkle-free skin, is, 'When you think in a beautiful way and you're not a jealous or vindictive or evil person.'
And for women, she adds, the 'ultimate thing is to be in love' and the 'most beautiful thing... is to be pregnant and to give birth to children.'
