Playboy learns discreet charm of clothing as nudity palls

The Sunday Times ^ | May 11, 2003 | Sarah Baxter

[MadIvan]

IN Playboy next month, Lisa Marie Presley tells all. Elvis’s daughter will not be baring all, though. The men’s magazine is behaving with uncharacteristic modesty as it celebrates its 50th birthday.

James Kaminsky, 42, the editor poached last year from the lads’ mag Maxim, is updating the middle-aged formula. There will be less full nudity and more semi-clad beauties with the approval of Hugh Hefner, Playboy’s roué founder and owner. “The reader would rather see a hot pictorial of Britney Spears that might not be completely nude, than a nude pictorial of somebody’s cousin,” Hefner said.

Celebrities who are not embarrassed about stripping off on stage have been giving Playboy a miss. Even this month’s cover girl, Sarah Kozer, star of the American reality TV show Joe Millionaire, retains a smidgen of modesty in her photo spread, after twice turning down Playboy’s offer of full-frontal nudity. “I was a women’s studies major (at university),” she said indignantly.

A celebrity wrangler has been appointed to lure more A-list names into its pages and centrefolds. Readers need to be tempted back. Newsstand sales dropped last year by nearly 19%, although Playboy Enterprises has just announced a quarterly profit of $632,000 after 16 straight losses.

The new money comes from the sale of erotic items on the internet, and television, video and licensing now yield more revenue than the publishing division. The magazine’s 3.2m circulation in the US still makes it a titan, but it was twice that in the 1970s, when bunny girls were fresh and funny and literary big reads by writers such as Norman Mailer and John Updike were fashionable.

Hefner, 77, who put a nude Marilyn Monroe in his first edition in 1953, remains incorrigible, hanging out in silk pyjamas with seven playmates at his Los Angeles mansion. But he has become persuaded that with porn easily available on the internet, there is no future in publishing ever more explicit content.

Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler, disagrees: “Hef thinks he is publishing Time or Newsweek. He has never been able to come to grips with the fact that he is a pornographer.”

[MadIvan]

“I was a women’s studies major (at university),” she said indignantly.

So let's get this straight, it's offensive to feminism to be fully nude, but not offensive to bare your breasts. Well that explains the whole burning bra thing.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[PJ-Comix]

I quit reading Playboy once all the Playmates started having IDENTICAL bodies due to implants.

[wimpycat]

“I was a women’s studies major (at university),” she said indignantly.

Yes, sweetie, and you're still posing for Playboy. Your professors wouldn't approve.

[WKB]

I heard there were web sites that show naked people for free!

[xm177e2]

So let's get this straight, it's offensive to feminism to be fully nude, but not offensive to bare your breasts.

If men enjoy it, it's offensive. Feminists want ugly women to go naked and lookers to wear burqas.

[goldstategop]

The feminazis are offended at men's admiration of the female body. Why the louts!

[Senator Pardek]

Lol...

[xm177e2]

I heard there were web sites that show naked people for free!

I don't understand why social conservatives don't publicly hype these websites. They would put a lot of the professional pornographers out of business.

[Arkinsaw]

“The reader would rather see a hot pictorial of Britney Spears that might not be completely nude, than a nude pictorial of somebody’s cousin,”

Dream on.

[krb]

I don't understand why social conservatives don't publicly hype these websites

Then they would have to admit that they visit them just as much as everyone else does :-)

[Archangelsk]

Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler, disagrees: “Hef thinks he is publishing Time or Newsweek. He has never been able to come to grips with the fact that he is a pornographer.”

Good ole Larry always cuts right to the chase.

[Archangelsk]

I don't understand why social conservatives don't publicly hype these websites. They would put a lot of the professional pornographers out of business.

Because, dear cousin of M16, sex will always sell in a free and robust country and social conservatives visit those sites too.

[Nekman]

I quit reading Playboy when all the ARTICLES had a feminist slant to them.......

[cubreporter]

Hefner, 77, who put a nude Marilyn Monroe in his first edition in 1953, remains incorrigible, hanging out in silk pyjamas with seven playmates at his Los Angeles mansion.


Good Lord...is this guy in a time warp or what? Silk pj's??? How 'bout some cool athletic looking outfits. Heff is in a world of his own and so are his playmates. They are so stale and old hat it is not funny. Implants all around.

[umgud]

I never understod why women's libs would burn their bras and then ask for support.

[Wolfie]

Look, the reality is that nudity is no longer the cutting edge. If a model is no longer baring the "pink shot", its not a big deal. For all of America's posturing on porn, its still a BILLION dollar industry. Cognitive disssonance at its best.

[Chirodoc]

"I quit reading Playboy once all the Playmates started having IDENTICAL bodies due to implants"

I never read Playboy but thats the same reason I stopped looking at it.

[LNewman]

Thank you Cubbie! AND airbrushed to the extreme ... now electronically of course.

Off to look for me silk pj's now :)

[Rightone]

Pictures, please. I don't get it...