* A candidate for state Senate has been claiming that she was a Catholic nun for five years. Phil Kadner says she wasn’t…

Republican Barbara Bellar boasts on her website and on the campaign trail for the 18th District state Senate seat that she was once a Catholic nun.

But when asked if she ever took vows of fidelity and obedience she refused to return telephone calls for days and repeatedly walked away from this columnist during a Republican candidate forum at Moraine Valley Community College on Saturday.

“Dr. Bellar served as a Benedictine nun for five years and remains active in her church,” Bellar claims in a biography on her campaign website, which includes a logo that reads: “Barbara Bellar, State Senate, There’s ‘Nun’ Better.”

But Sister Patricia Crowley, prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Chicago, said Bellar was only a postulant in the order, meaning she was there for a year and was a candidate to join the order.

Crowley explained that the layman’s definition of a nun really doesn’t mean anything to her order.

Now I’ve seen everything.

Wow.

Just.

Wow.

*** UPDATE *** Check out Bellar’s yard sign…

Oy.

Catholics make up most of that district. What a disaster.

[ *** End Of Update *** ]

* Nothing could possibly top that story. But there’s an, um, interesting candidate running for Kane County Board…

Kerri Branson didn’t expect that her past as a video-game actress and Playboy model 20 years ago would be in the spotlight when she decided to run for a seat on the Kane County Board.

“It has actually been rather funny how my past is blowing up like this,” said Branson, the Democratic challenger in the race for Kane County Board District 18.

Branson, 42, of North Aurora, has been fielding interviews about the Sonya Blade character she portrayed in the Mortal Kombat video game series and her nude, lingerie and swimsuit poses for a dozen Playboy special newsstand magazines.

“I don’t regret what I did,” said Branson, who is from Minnesota. “I was very successful at it and it brought me to Illinois, where I met my husband and have a beautiful family.”

She and her husband have four children: twin sons, 15, who suffer from severe cerebral palsy, a son, 12, and daughter, 10.

Hey, it takes all kinds to make a world. And at least she didn’t lie about it.

* I’ve told you before about Natalie Manley, the Joliet Democratic House candidate who was arrested for allegedly beating up her daughter. The charges were later dropped. But the House Republicans are running a new ad that, while not directly mentioning the alleged assault, most certainly alludes to it. You gotta watch this one…