Jessie featured prominently in SUNshine Girl calendars in 2006 and 2008. (Alex Urosevic, QMI Agency)

You go, girl!

An Oakville cosmetics sales manager was one of 15 women left vying on TV for the affections of Texas hunk Jake Pavelka after this week's premiere episode of the latest season of The Bachelor.

A model and actress, Jessie, 25, has posed for numerous SUNshine Girl photos.

Veteran Toronto Sun photographer Alex Urosevic regards her as "one of my favourite models," also calling the dark-haired beauty "a classy girl."

"She's very beautiful, to begin with, always smiling, well-dressed and she's very well-grounded," said the lensman, who added she's close to her family, educated and capable of discussing numerous topics, "from world affairs to sports."

One of the top reasons Urosevic likes photographing Jessie is her willingness to work long hours, sometimes under difficult conditions, without complaining.

Unlike self-centred models, "she will stick around and help," he said.

Urosevic has known Jessie many years and featured her most recently on a SUNshine Girl swimsuit edition in 2008, after a photo shoot in San Martin.

Jessie, whose last name the Sun has decided not to publish, also appears in Shark City, a comedy-drama movie due out this year.

Launched Monday and prerecorded in a Malibu, Calif., mansion, The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love follows a formula of dating, interviews -- and contestant eliminations.

After introductions to 25 bachelorettes at a party and an impromptu pickup football game in which Jessie caught his pass to score a touchdown, Pavelka rejected 10 beauties, including the only other Canadian -- from Vancouver.

Contestants aren't permitted to reveal whether they've received their walking papers and aren't to grant media interviews until the series concludes, a Warner TV publicist said from Los Angeles.

"Finding a wife is the most important thing in the world to me," Pavelka, 31, a commercial pilot from Denton, Tex., is quoted by ABC-TV as saying for its website.

Pavelka developed his profile on TV last year when he appeared on The Bachelorette.

One of the bachelors trying to win the affections of Canadian beauty Jillian Harris, Pavelka was rejected.

"Ever since Jake shared a magical date with The Bachelorette, Jillian Harris, millions of women have had their own high-flying fantasies about him," his bio says.

"A fan favourite for his rep as an honest guy with an open heart, viewers were stunned when Jillian rejected Jake just before the hometown dates."

Pavelka returned, but after being swamped with requests for him to appear again, ABC recruited him for The Bachelor's 14th season, featuring host Chris Harrison.

As for Jessie's current status, all ABC says is: "Still competing for Jake."