A squalid prison: Former Playmates tell of 'grubby' world inside Hugh Hefner's empire

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Playboy mansion? More like a squalid prison: Former Playmates tell of 'grubby' world inside Hugh Hefner's empire

By David Leafe
Last updated at 12:39 AM on 31st December 2010

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1342643/Hugh-Hefners-Playboy-mansion-like-squalid-prison-say-Playmates.html?ito=feeds-newsxml



His image as a fast-living Lothario has done much to make a success of the Playboy brand, and news of his impending nuptials to a woman young enough to be his great-granddaughter will further promote the idea of him as a lovable old rascal who has plenty of life in him yet.

This is certainly the image Hefner likes to project to the celebrities drawn to his lavishly debauched ­parties at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. The attractions there include a games house, with two guestrooms equipped with only a bed, a ceiling mirror and a phone.

But unfortunately for Hefner, some of his former ‘girlfriends’, as he calls them, have become disenchanted with life in his harem over the years.

One by one they have revealed what life was like behind the glittering façade of the Playboy Mansion. According to them, it disguises a grubby world where some girls feel they are no ­better than prostitutes, paid pocket money by an octogenarian obsessive who funds plastic ­surgery to turn them into his physical ideal, and yet must still take huge amounts of Viagra to manage sex with them.

The portrait of Hefner painted by Izabella St James is deeply unappealing. A pretty blonde law graduate, she was 26 when she met him in a Hollywood nightclub in 2002. Soon, he invited her to move in with him and seven other official ‘girlfriends’.

One by one they have revealed what life was like behind the glittering façade of the Playboy Mansion. According to them, it disguises a grubby world where some girls feel they are no ­better than prostitutes, paid pocket money by an octogenarian obsessive who funds plastic ­surgery to turn them into his physical ideal, and yet must still take huge amounts of Viagra to manage sex with them.

‘Everything in the Mansion felt old and stale, and Archie the house dog would regularly relieve himself on the hallway curtains, adding a powerful whiff of urine to the general scent of decay.’

[msongs]

1. anybody still reads playboy? sheesh the internet has tht market cornered lol nt

[Teaser]

2. wow

so these women are shocked and dismayed that Hugh Hefner was only interested in them for sex?

[katanalori]

3. "prison" ???? WTF?

The women VOLUNTEERED for FREE rent, FREE money, FREE plastic surgery and FREE exposure.

Sorry, I have NO sympathy. They could have walked out anytime.

[frylock]

4. those poor things, being held captive like that

:eyes:

[DCKit]

5. Mmmmmmm, playboy dungeons.

Seriously, what should we expect?

Hasn't "Criminal Minds" done about 15 shows about guys with his mentality, but not the money?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. As early as the 70s, former girlfriends said Hef "smelled."

He basically lived in those PJs and that bathrobe and drank Pepsi and smoked his pipe (which he apparently gave up after his stroke) and smelled like a guy who seldom bathed.

But hey, $1000 a week and free plastic surgery? There are plenty of candidates willing to hold their nose for that.

[Teaser]

8. "his mentality"

uh, are you talking about serial killers? what?

[DCKit]

10. Oh, no, of course not. Hosts of childrens shows, popular with all. nt

[Teaser]

11. I have never watched "Criminal Minds"

so I guess I'll have to settle for not knowing what you're talking about...

[Forkboy]

6. It must have sucked living under those conditions.

[TheMadMonk]

9. Oh pooh. No one to fight with. So let me simply concur.

Anyone with half a brain should realise that a public lifestyle like Hugh's requires a lot of under the hood life support. That some of it is, and must be show on the outside.

And when you think about it. Hugh's girls sold themselves cheaply in exchange for a security he provided that they couldn't have in the open sex trade. Call girls operating on that rarified level can demand a price that may easily run into four (or even five) digits a night. But as the recent encounter involving a well known actor demonstrated those prices don't necessarily buy safety.

This is not an illegal sweatshop with locked doors and an overseer with the power to destroy you in any way that matters.


These women may well find themselves in very big trouble if they can't make a viable case against Hefner, since I strongly suspect that a condition of their employment would have been not publically revealing sordid details. Except of course those details which reinforce the legend.