Guy Adams
October 18, 2008
From the day he picked up a pipe, slipped into a velvet smoking jacket and decided to launch his own publishing empire, Hugh Hefner has proudly told anyone who will listen that his career and self-worth revolve around two extraordinary creations.The first is Playboy, the 55-year-old magazine that pioneered the social and consumer revolutions of the 1950s and 1960s, spawned a global multimedia brand, and to this day symbolises his hedonistic-yet-luxurious version of the American dream. The second great creation, Hefner says, is his own life: a roller-coaster of fame, fortune and willing blondes played out against the backdrop of 10236 Charing Cross Road, the 1920s pile on the outskirts of Beverly Hills that he calls home, known as the Playboy Mansion.
Together they represent quite a legacy. And, although Hefner has never been one to blow his own trumpet, his enduring ability to perform in both the boardroom and the bedroom (even as he nears his 83rd birthday) has elevated him to the status of national treasure.
Yet nothing lasts for ever. In recent weeks, the institution that is Hugh Hefner has been rocked by public and private setbacks that have conspired to throw this elderly, somewhat deaf and increasingly frail man back into the public eye, for all the wrong reasons.
Some of his troubles revolve around the still-promiscuous love-life that jollify the Hollywood gossip columns; others centre on his commercial interests, and are being played out in the business pages. Some involve a trio of blonde girlfriends; others a haemorrhaging share price that leaves his entertainment firm facing an uncertain future. All, however, boil down to a single problem: Hefner's aura of Gatsby-esque sophistication is ever more at odds with his advancing years, and a changing world. The instinctive connection with the zeitgeist that was the secret of his success, and which saw him turn Playboy into one of postwar America's greatest cultural powerhouses, has started to disappear.
On the home front, Hefner was cuckolded last week by not one, but two girlfriends (one of them the supposed love of his life) leaving him deeply depressed. At work, his magazine's profits have evaporated and its circulation is in free fall, forcing Hefner to cut back on staff and, for the first time, to invite paying punters to his once-exclusive private parties. It has made Playboy, a brand that once looked cheeky and cutting-edge, seem out of touch and increasingly seedy.
So, as he enters old age at the Playboy Mansion, with its famous grotto, circular beds, "getting to know you" room, and walls that if they could speak would fill an encyclopaedia of Hollywood misdemeanour, Hugh Marston Hefner is facing a sobering reality: his two great creations appear, after all these years, to be unravelling. And he seems powerless to stop it.
The pouting face of Hefner's current troubles is Holly Madison, a former glamour model who is 28 years old, boasts measurements of 36D-23-36 (with the help of extensive surgery), and has for the past seven years lived at the Playboy Mansion as one of his official girlfriends. Madison is one-third of a pneumatic trio of blondes who star in The Girls Next Door, a TV documentary about daily life chez Hefner. Her status, in the show and in real life, is "No 1" girlfriend, meaning that she shares his bedroom, while the other live-in love interests, Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt, occupy smaller billets down the hall.
Last week, this cosy domestic arrangement fell apart. After weeks of frenzied speculation, on Monday Madison confirmed rumours that she had left Hefner for a younger and wealthier model, the celebrity magician Criss Angel.
The revelation left Hefner deeply upset. It also represented a severe setback for his long-cultivated public image of master swordsman, on which Playboy relies. But worse news was soon to follow. The following night, Wilkinson also confirmed she had ditched Hefner, telling the chat show host Chelsea Lately that she was in love with a Philadelphia Eagles gridiron player called Hank Baskett and had been indulging in "cybersex" sessions via Skype, from her room at the mansion.
For any man in the public eye, this would represent a bad week. For Hefner, always a creature of habit, it has made for a bewildering upheaval in the domestic set-up he has enjoyed since separating from Kimberley Conrad, his second wife and mother of two of his four children, in 1999. At this point, a brief history lesson: from the moment he bought the mansion in 1971, excluding the decade of his marriage to Conrad, Hefner has filled it with a rotating cast of girlfriends, who get a weekly allowance in cash (roughly $US1000 [$1500] at present) together with being fed, watered, and provided with health insurance, a car and free plastic surgery.
Despite rumours to the contrary, he enjoys energetic sexual relationships with them all (thanks, in recent years at least, to Viagra), and lives out the hypocritical male fantasy of a storybook sheik, expecting girlfriends to remain monogamous despite his own promiscuity. The harem has a 9pm curfew, except on two nights a week when Hefner takes them out, to a restaurant on one night, a nightclub the next.
To some, this set-up sounds suspiciously like a form of prostitution; to others, merely eccentric. But in all these years, Hefner has only twice made concessions on it: first, when he met Conrad, who appeared as a "playmate" in his magazine in 1988 and married him a year later; and when he first encountered Holly Madison in 2002.
Although Madison seemed little different from hundreds of previous girlfriends - short stature, dyed hair and a CV that included a spell as a Hooters waitress - she had since childhood been fixated by Playboy and was vastly knowledgeable about Hefner's career, which no doubt flattered his elderly ego. The two shared a laconic sense of humour, similar interests, and an apparent spiritual connection. In 2003, Madison was invited to move into his room in a newly created role as his "No 1" girlfriend.
Hefner says the relationship developed into a genuine love affair. Though he never gave up his other girlfriends (Madison never asked him to), friends and acquaintances concur. Steven Watts, a professor of history at the University of Missouri who last month published Mr Playboy, a biography of Hefner, says that for five years Madison has represented to Hefner something akin to wife, mother and lover combined. "Since Hef separated from his wife 10 years ago, there have been a lot of girls; seven at once, at one time. But Holly has always stood out," he says. "Hef told me on several occasions that it is the best relationship he has ever had, and that he wanted it to last the rest of his life."
So Madison's departure represents a personal tragedy for Hefner. Last week he gave a distraught interview to Us Weekly, blaming the split with Madison on the failure of attempts to have children with her, together with his refusal to make her his official third wife. "If she says it's over, it's over. But like I've said before, she is the love of my life, and I expected to spend the rest of my life with her," he said. "We tried to have a baby earlier this year and it didn't work out … She became very depressed … I did, too. I've been feeling like roadkill."
The tragedy of the situation is that Hefner's promiscuous private life, for so long a source of personal pride, could have contributed to him losing the one person capable of making him truly happy. While many will find it hard to sympathise with a wealthy man who has made the metaphorical bed he's forced to lie in, those close to him say he worries about spending the rest of his life searching for a soul mate. He is a surprisingly romantic individual, they say, who is particularly prone to a broken heart.
A broken heart is one thing. A broken wallet would be quite another. And in recent years, the foundations of Hefner's vast wealth have rapidly declined. Rumours about his firm's future have swirled around Wall Street for months. But last week, the first real evidence of trouble emerged when the Los Angeles Business Journal said he was "eyeing his household staff and other assistants for possible cutbacks". For the first time ever, it added, he will resort to selling tickets to the famous private parties he holds at his Gothic Tudor pile.
Tickets to parties hosted by Hefner will sell for $US5000 to $US25,000, it reported, depending on the event and the celebrity guests. An invite to this month's Halloween party, which in the past has drawn celebrities such as Paris Hilton, is going for $10,000. In the past, Hefner hasn't charged for such events because he hasn't had to: the rest of his company, Playboy Enterprises, has been very profitable.
Lately, however, shareholders have grown worried. Playboy Enterprises is run by Hefner's daughter, Christie (Hugh is its figurehead, editor-in-chief, and owner of 30 per cent of the shares). Its shares trade at less than one-tenth of what they were 10 years ago.
Martha Lindeman, the senior vice-president, has said reports of Hef possibly filing for bankruptcy were "absolutely untrue and absurd". But, in business, it's difficult to argue with the bottom line. The company's most recent report to shareholders reveals that, in the three months to June, the firm lost $US2.1 million, with revenues declining by 14 per cent to $US73.4 million from $US85.7 million. As a result, the firm has outsourced parts of its operation and is looking to cut down on its 789 employees, imperilling the future of many of the maids and gardeners (but not, so far, the bunnies) at the mansion.
If you want to understand the reasons behind Playboy Enterprises' decline, look at the pages of Playboy.
It is no longer agenda-setting, and its editorial highlight each month is a couple of question-and-answer interviews and pictures of scantily clad, identikit blondes, shot in a glossy style that feels distinctly 1980s. Where serious US magazines can feel like phone directories (a recent Vogue was more than an inch thick), Playboy is a mere 132 pages. Magazine and DVD porn has been devastated by the internet. Playboy, having for years faced rival publications such as Penthouse and Hustler and lads' mags such as Maxim and FHM, is finding it tricky to perform: US monthly circulation fell by almost 10 per cent in 2007, to 2.8 million.
Playboy Enterprises' business model today is similar to the 1980s version. The magazine is a figurehead for a wider branding and lifestyle operation, involving opening nightclubs and casinos around the world (a new London venture, mooted a few months ago, has been shelved). But several are yet to repay their investments
"There's little doubt that this has not been one of the high points in the financial history of the company," Watts says. "Part of the problem is the wider economy. But I would venture two other theories. The first is that Hefner's operation is a victim of its own success. So many things have copied Playboy that it's no longer the fresh face on the block; its long-term appeal has run out. The second is that lots of long-term investments have not yet come to fruition. For instance, in the last few years, he has invested heavily in building a large, new gaming complex in Macau. It's still not been completed, and they have sunk a huge sum into it."
Playboy has always been a unique company and Hefner has for years made a habit of confounding naysayers. But with a recession and businesses facing a combination of challenges unrivalled in modern corporate history, he'll need to be on top of his game.
A former girlfriend, Izabella St James, says Madison's decision to leave Hefner lays bare the potential problems of a system in which Hefner is surrounding himself with girls who are attracted to him because of who rather than what he actually is. "By putting Holly, Kendra and Bridget at the centre of The Girls Next Door, he made them celebrities in their own right, which gave them exposure and contacts, and opportunities they never would have had without the show. And guess what? When he gives someone an opportunity, they leave. Holly swore she would be there until she died. Well, now, of course, she has found someone with deeper pockets."
For now, Hefner is doing what he does best: trying to get over his broken heart (if not his crippled business) by filling the vacancy in his roster of girlfriends. He claimed last week to have two new women in his life, 19-year-old blonde twins (and Playboy models) Kristina and Karissa Shannon. He told Us Weekly they would "probably become my girlfriends". He could have his hands full. It was recently revealed they were arrested once on assault and battery charges. It looks like Hef's woes are set to continue.
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/10/17/1224351116190.html
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