by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

"It's haaaaard! Sometimes I get a little anxiety," says L.A.'s Colleen Shannon, thinking over the list of hats she wears - DJ, budding producer, actress, fashion model, TV hostess. Granted, 25-year-old Shannon's biggest claim to fame right now had her wearing no hat - or much of anything else. As Miss January 2004, she was Playboy's 50th anniversary Playmate, a distinction that's kicked her career into high gear and earned her the contentious title of "world's sexiest DJ."

Her story might have been one of those hard-luck Hollywood parables - pretty girl, bit parts in bad movies between school and waitressing, hopes of "discovery" fading with the years. But as luck would have it, she got fired. Yup, lucky - while less than stellar at working tables, she'd been working turntables for some time (hip hop, house and reggae being her fortés) and the owner of the posh Hollywood eatery hired her to spin at his mansion party.

"That was when I was just barely starting to play out. Then I met my manager, who I work with very tightly, and that's when things started going really crazy." Crazy is right. Above and beyond the Playboy spread and sets with Donald Glaude, DJ Rap and Funk Master Flex, Shannon's begun co-producing (and singing on) tracks with Poet Name Life of the Black Eyed Peas crew, creating one for The Passing, one of several forthcoming films in which she appears. "What we want to do, though, is create a whole album, collaborate with a whole lot of the artists we meet here in L.A. We've got some good ideas for this."

Shannon's also the "it girl" (Tricky's the boy) for the ad campaign for Punkture, the soon-to-drop "edgy" sub-label of Guess? Jeans - "I'm very excited about it. I've seen the stuff, but it's all pretty much on the hush-hush right now."

Oh, and she's in the spotlight for an episode of the Spike TV series The Club, in which she and Paul Oakenfold judge a 15-DJ battle in Las Vegas, with the winner opening for Oakie. "These DJs were amazing, and the female DJs actually outshined some of the men. I've been on a tour for the last year called Hot Import Nights. We have four female DJs, and it gives us the opportunity for 10,000 people sometimes. Actually, a couple of the female DJs I play with ended up in the competition. Three-quarters of the DJs were male, and they saved the females for towards the end. When the girls went on, their stage presence and what they brought to the table was just amazing. They rocked it really hard. Out of the 15, three of the top four were female."

A Hollywood success story like Shannon's, as opposed to the more common make-'em-then-break-'em, takes a clear head and solid grounding. Shannon attributes hers, in part, to a childhood spent in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. "Growing up there, there wasn't very much - no elevators, no escalators, no cars, no malls, none of that. So as far as my roots and my beliefs go, I do think that had a very big impact. Even though there's so much going on in the entertainment world, it's very important to be able to relax, take time and figure out what's really important. Because all of this stuff, it's all great to do for a job, but life - family and friends - is what's really important."

At Vatican on Saturday, Nov. 20, 10 p.m., $10

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