Can I still get the happy endings?It seems no one is immune to the stock market fallout. With the exception of the truly filthy rich, like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, the collapse of the credit market is wreaking havoc across all walks of life. No one is safe ... not even the once-mighty Hugh Hefner, emperor and earl of the Playboy empire, world capital of bleached blond T & A.
Everyone has always assumed the Hef is mad rich, maybe because of his lifestyle: He lives in a huge mansion. He wears silk pajamas all day. He founded Playboy, the original ... pull-rag, if you get my drift. From magazines he went into movies - cable television was a huge boon to the skin trade - and his empire just exploded.
Just when he thought he could die obscenely wealthy, along came the Internet, and life for Hef changed forever. Why should the pervs pay good money for his magazines or movies when they can find all that and more on the web? If you know where to look, you can even get it for free - so I'm told. Really.
While this has been an ongoing problem for all things Playboy, it seems things are taking a turn for the worse. The NY Daily News reported today that Hef has been told he has to lay off staffers in both NY and LA offices or face bankruptcy. There's also been talk of his selling the fabled mansion and quitting his reality show. The guy is 83 years old; maybe it's time to hang up his towel. On the towel rod.
