Debt puts squeeze on Hugh Hefner to sell Playboy mansion
The Australian
Hugh Hefner, its octogenarian master of ceremonies, is coming under pressure to sell up and move out.
The tycoon is trying to ride a financial storm unparalleled since he introduced the US to mass-market soft pornography with a nude centrefold of Marilyn Monroe in the first edition of Playboy. Hefner launched the magazine in 1953 by pawning his family's furniture for a few hundred dollars.
Now his antiques, art collection and mock-Tudor mansion in Charing Cross Road, Los Angeles, may become collateral in a struggle for control of his financial legacy.
Creditors, due $US115 million ($116.7m) 16 months from now on a bond owed by the loss-making Playboy Enterprises, are reported to be taking a "hard look" at the mansion.
Penthouse, a long-time rival, which has offered $US210m to take over the publishing group, is undertaking a similar exercise.
An adviser said last week: "They have to decide whether the mansion is vital to the brand or an unnecessary expense."
Hefner, 84, famous for wearing pyjamas and dressing gowns even outside the mansion, has declared he will only leave his home "slippers up". But he has recently been forced to make economies, sacking household staff and some gardeners last year.
He is preparing his own counter-bid to fend off Penthouse, which could sell the house.
He pays the Playboy company $US800,000 a year to live in the mansion, which critics say does not cover the upkeep of the 2ha estate.
Hefner claims back the cost of entertaining his girlfriends - named in a company report last year as Crystal Harris, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, Kendra Wilkinson and twin sisters Karissa and Kristine Shannon - as promotional assets.
The publisher maintains that his "man about town" image is critical to boost sales of the magazine, although circulation has slipped from a peak of 7 million a month to 1.6m.
Others are more sceptical: David Miller, a Wall Street analyst, recently warned investors about Hefner's costly lifestyle at the mansion, despite the staff cuts. "We believe Mr Hefner's death could result in a material stock price uptick (increase) on the notion that the mansion could be eventually sold, which would leave the company net debt-free," he concluded.
When Hefner moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1971, he bought the mock-Tudor mansion for $US1.1m.
Hefner claimed Elvis Presley spent a night there with eight women. Many stars, from John Belushi to Eddie Murphy, joked about their adventures in a hidden grotto, described in media reports as "sex central".
Regardless of the house sale, Hefner already knows his final address. Although he never met Monroe, whose nude photo helped make his fortune, he has bought the crypt next to hers in a Los Angeles cemetery.
The Sunday Times
Nov. 15, 2010