Hugh Hefner may be turning 80 in April, but his new reality show is proof that he’s still the ultimate playboy.
“I’m a little slower than I was 20 or 30 years ago,” Hef told RedEye in a phone interview from the Playboy Mansion in L.A. at 2 p.m. California time. (He never makes appointments before noon.) He told us he was wearing his “gunfighter black” silk pajamas for the occasion.
Much like your grandfather might do, he often asked for questions to be repeated, and he sounded tired. But unlike your typical grandfather, his exhaustion stems from clubbing with gorgeous women.
Still, the aging bachelor said he’s feeling fine. He continues to work as editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine, approving all centerfolds and other content. He also is involved in marketing and promotions, and works with his daughter, Playboy Enterprises CEO Christine Hefner, on the company’s strategic initiatives.
“For my age, I’m young in both my personal and professional life,” Hef says.
You’d need some youthful enthusiasm to manage three live-in girlfriends, as Hef does. He shows the world how in “The Girls Next Door,” which airs at 8 p.m. Sundays on E! The show proves that while living with three buxom blonds can be fun, things can get tricky when jealousies arise. For the most part, the three women get along.
But in the premiere, Hef’s No. 1 girlfriend, Holly Madison (a 25-year-old from Alaska who studies real estate), confided that she’d like to get rid of the other two ladies.
She shares Hef with Bridget Marquardt (a 31-year-old from northern California with a masters degree in communications) and Kendra Wilkinson (a 20-year-old tomboy from San Diego who wants to work in sports massage). None of the girls is a Playmate, but they will appear in a pictorial later this year.
Hef said he likes things the way they are.
“It keeps you on your toes,” he says. “It is less trouble than a single relationship. I’ve tried it both ways.”
The Playboy magazine mogul was married to Mildred Williams in 1949; the marriage lasted 10 years. In 1989 he wed that year’s Playmate of the Year, Kimberly Conrad.
After separating from Conrad in 1998, he started dating again and has had as many as seven girlfriends living with him in the mansion at one time. It was fun, Hef says, but dating three women is “more convenient” because there are fewer people and emotions to consider.
He knows that group relationships are not the norm but said different things work for different people.
“A single guy at whatever age is dating more than one girl. All I’m really doing is saying openly that I’m doing it,” he says. “Girls like to hang out with girls. If they’re nice gals, it’s kind of like a sorority club.”
Hef says the longest relationship he’s had outside of his marriages was about eight years with Playmate Barbie Benton. He remembers all of the major relationships he’s been in, he says, but hasn’t kept track of everyone he’s hooked up with over the years.
“I couldn’t possibly remember,” he says. “That’s 50 years.”
New candidates for his affection pop up almost every time he leaves the house. He said he recently took his girlfriends out to dinner and a woman at the restaurant gave him a business card that read, “I’d love to give you a sponge bath. My dream is to become a centerfold.”
Other women have been even bolder, showing up unexpectedly in his bedroom, he says.
Does he welcome the spontaneity?
“It depends on who it is,” he says with a chuckle.
The lure of the mansion has brought more than aspiring Playmates to his door, though, as a recent episode of the HBO show “Entourage” depicted. In the episode, Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon) tries to sneak in by hiding in the trunk of a car, but his plan is thwarted by security.
Hef says similar incidents happen regularly. People arrive in fake tour buses and try to get in, he says. Others hide in the bushes or try to climb over the gates.
Some have tried, futilely, to pay their way in, but the only ticket into the mansion is being a hot chick or a close friend of Hef’s. It is not uncommon for hopefuls to offer Hef $15,000 to $20,000 to be admitted to a party, he says. Once someone offered him $50,000, although he didn’t take it.
Hef says he is amazed that people continue to be fascinated with him and his lifestyle after decades spent living in the public eye.
“The very nature of celebrity lasts for a little while,” he says. “It doesn’t tend to last many years. Not half a century.”
He decided to do the reality show to satisfy people’s curiosity about what it’s like living at the mansion. He has been approached by other networks about doing a reality show, but he liked E!’s proposal because it told the story through the eyes of his girlfriends.
“That took pressure off of me,” he says. The female perspective also creates a “unique appeal for people in the young demographic, both male and female.”
He and the girlfriends get together to watch each episode, and he says they are pleased with what they’ve seen. Chances are good that they will do another season if E! asks for one, he says. An E! rep says “Girls” is doing well, but no decision has been made regarding a second season.
For now, Hef will continue partying with his ladies. Plans are already under way for his 80th birthday extravaganza next year, he said.
Looking back on all those years, he says he is completely satisfied.
“I’ve done it all,” he says. “I think I’m the luckiest cat on the planet.”
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mcarberry@tribune.com
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THE MAKING OF HEF
1926: Hugh Hefner is born in Chicago.
1946-1948: He gets a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he draws cartoons for the campus newspaper. He also edits a campus humor magazine called Shaft, creating a “Coed of the Month” feature.
1949: The ultimate playboy tries married life, tying the knot with Mildred Williams. The marriage lasts 10 years.
1951: Hef gets a job as a copywriter for Esquire magazine,
earning $60 a week. When the magazine moves to New York
and his request for a $5 raise is declined, he quits and starts
Playboy magazine.
1953: Playboy’s first issue, featuring a nude Marilyn
Monroe, is produced on the kitchen table of Hef’s South
Side apartment.
1959: Hef purchases the first Playboy Mansion on the Gold Coast at 1340 N. State Pkwy.
1960: The first Playboy Club opens at 116 E. Walton St.
1971: The Playboy Mansion West is purchased in L.A.
1975: Christine Hefner, Hef’s daughter, joins the Playboy company as her father’s special assistant.
1980: Hef gets a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame for his help in reconstructing the Hollywood sign, which had been falling apart.
1985: Hef has a stroke, which he refers to as a “stroke of luck,” because it revitalized his life.
1988: Christine Hefner is elected chairman and CEO of Playboy
Enterprises Inc., while Hef remains the magazine’s editor-
in-chief and chairman emeritus.
1994: Playboy launches its Web site, playboy.com.
2000: In Chicago, Walton Street is named “Honorary Hugh M. Hefner Way.”
2005: “Playboy: The Mansion” video game is released.
2005: “The Girls Next Door,” a reality show about Hef’s girlfriends, debuts on E!
SOURCE: Playboy.com
