Episode 99: Gaslighting Inside the "Cult-Like" Mansion?

I find the whole anatomy of cults intriguing and, most especially, corporate cults. For example, the NXIVM cult used NLP programming and provided so-called "Executive Success Programs" to lure people in. In 2022, when I saw an ad on TV regarding the Secrets of Playboy docuseries and Holly Madison claimed the women were subjected to gaslighting in a cult-like environment, I thought, "Woah. This may not be a tawdry sexposé. This might be something entirely different."

So was it?

⚠️ Explicit content within.


Links:

https://www.aetv.com/shows/secrets-of-playboy

https://www.amazon.com/Bunny-Story-Playboy-Russell-Miller/dp/0030637481

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2289560/15170983

Need more? You can visit the website at: https://consaracytheories.com/ or my own site at: https://saracausey.com/. Don't forget to check out the blog at: https://consaracytheories.com/blog. 

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My award-winning biography of Dag Hammarskjold is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Decoding-Unicorn-New-Look-Hammarskj%C3%B6ld-ebook/dp/B0DSCS5PZT

My forthcoming project, Simply Dag, will be available globally next summer. 

Transcript

Transcription by Otter.ai.  Please forgive any typos!

SUMMARY

Sara Causey discusses the A&E docu-series "Secrets of Playboy," exploring the exploitative nature of the Playboy empire. She delves into the cult-like environment at the Playboy Mansion, where women were objectified and manipulated. Key points include Hefner's hypocrisy, the rampant drug use, and the sexual abuse and exploitation of women. Sara highlights the corporate cult dynamics, the impact on women's lives, and the crony capitalist system that exploited them. She also references other corporate cults and the broader implications of such environments. The discussion emphasizes the importance of caution for women entering similar industries.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Playboy Mansion, corporate cults, sexual exploitation, gaslighting, Hugh Hefner, Playboy bunnies, drug trafficking, sexual harassment, corporate America, crony capitalism, sexual liberation, corporate manipulation, women's rights, corporate culture, media manipulation.

Welcome to con-sara-cy theories. Are you ready to ask questions you shouldn't and find information you're not supposed to know? Well, you're in the right place. Here is your host, Sara Causey.

Hello, hello, and thanks for tuning in. I really had to sit and think and stew a bit on how I wanted to tackle the subject matter of tonight's episode, which is the first season of a and ease Docu series, Secrets of Playboy. I did watch it back in 2022 I had no real interest in it because I thought that it was going to be your typical Triple X nasty sex Bose type stuff. Here's what this person liked to do in the bed. Here's what kind of predilections this guy had, here's what this lady liked to do, and I'm not a big fan of that stuff. Life's too short. There's other things to explore. But I saw this commercial where Holly Madison was saying something along the lines of, we were experiencing gaslighting in a cult like environment. And I thought, wait a minute, this might actually be interesting. I'm fascinated by just the general anatomy of cults, how they operate, how they lure people in, how they keep people in, how they're able to run their scams and schemes. It's crazy, but intriguing at the same time, and I'm most especially intrigued by corporate cults. I remember there was an article from Rolling Stone where former employees or franchisees, however you want to put it, of LuLaRoe were saying, holy shit, we think we're in a cult. That was interesting. I watched a documentary about Tony and Susie Alamo, and even though they were doing some evangelism TV preacher stuff, they also ran businesses. The NXIVM cult used NLP programming, and they had these so called executive success programs as a gateway to the sex cult. And I'm thinking, can you imagine, like if your boss said, I think you ought to go to this executive Success program, and it turns out you're in the front of a sex cult. It blows my mind. But also, in my opinion, which could be wrong. I feel like corporate America itself operates as one giant freaking cult. Hear me out on this. The whole purpose, the whole point, the way that people continue to be cogs in the machine is it's not about your will. It's not about how you approach something. It's not about how you believe a job should be done. No, niet. It's about subverting to somebody else's will, sitting in a cubicle or standing at a machine over and over and over and doing the most repetitive tasks. Sit down, shut up, and do what you're told, and then we'll reward you with a paycheck. It's probably not even going to be enough to cover your basics. So good luck. And that really begins when you go into the public school system, and then it continues again through college, because in school, you have to sit down, shut up and do what the teacher says. In college, you have to sit down, shut up and do what the professor says, because they'll hang your grades and your diploma, your degree over your head, like the sword of Damocles, if you don't do what you're told, if you don't read the most boring novels and the most boring rot known unto man, because I think it's important, I'll just simply not pass you so you have all of these years of conditioning in your formative years to get you ready to go into the cult of corporate America. So when I heard Holly say that she felt like there was this gaslighting in a cult like environment, I thought, Okay, wait a minute. This may not necessarily be triple X sex bosei. This might be about the business workings of Playboy. It might be about, Let's all hold hands and sing Kumbaya and sing the company song and just creepy cult like crap, like that, the stuff that I always hated when I was trapped in corporate America. So I checked it out, and it's disturbing. It is graphic. I decided to re watch it so that I could record this podcast episode about it, and I'm I'm going to avoid some of the graphic and pornographic details that are in the series. If you haven't watched it, I would really recommend that you. Launch it for yourself and draw your own conclusions, make up your own mind, and then download this or bookmark it and come back to it later. If you're still with me, I mean, not that there's really spoilers, since this is a nonfiction type of show, but if you're still with me, I will assume that you're locked in and ready to go, choose your frosty beverage of choice. And I would say we'll go down this rabbit hole, but that's a little too on the nose. Maybe that's a little too punny. So we'll, we'll take this journey together. Episode one is titled The Playboy legacy at the beginning, Sara Theodore, who was a longtime girlfriend of Hugh Hefner. She says that she's not throwing herself under a train for 15 minutes of fame. She wants to warn other women to really think about what they are getting into. She says there will always be a guy like HEF waiting in the wings. Hefner's legacy is a point of confusion and contention. He promotes free press and getting away from puritanical standards. He tells women that he's all about sexual liberation. But then there's a lot of hypocrisy around what's actually going on. I've written in my personal notes, one man's sexual liberation is another man's exploitation, and I'm thinking of the Soviet cartoons of Porky, the capitalist pig, we see an article from the Associated Press which says, oppressor or liberator, feminist in a silk robe or pipe smoking exploiter. Opinions were flying a day after Hugh apner's death over just what he did and didn't do for women. One of his employees says what, I personally believe he was transactional. He was a businessman bingo. Sara says that she could look at him and see the devil. Jennifer Sagan, or grew up at the Playboy Mansion. She describes it as a weird, fucked up place that was still magical. Her father was hefs, BFF and doctor, who had his own room at the mansion. She could have anything she wanted. She went to school in a limo with a lunch made by the butlers. Dorothy Stratton had been her babysitter at times, and she winds up for a while putting HEF on a pedestal. Hefner describes the Playboy Mansion as Shangri La, one of his male friends, talks about tennis and roller skating and reminisces on what he calls the innocent times. Heff also calls it Disneyland for adults and a projection of adolescent dreams. Steven tettenbaum, hefs former valet. He says that HEF thought that he was king or emperor and everybody else was just in the background. He didn't want to know staff names. Just memorize instructions and do your job. He drank 35 to 40 Pepsis a day. He ate two or three pounds of Eminem's a day. He wanted his Pepsis brought out in a red napkin. Staff is not supposed to talk to the girls you work for Hefner, not for any of them. Jennifer sagener says everything you heard about Playboy was exactly what Hugh Hefner and his PR team wanted you to hear. It was a very calculated misrepresentation of the truth we hear now from a journalist, Chris Jones, it was about individual freedom. I should be able to say whatever I want as long as I'm not hurting anybody, and I should be able to sleep with whoever I want as long as I'm not hurting anybody. I've written in my personal notes based on the stories that we hear. However, it doesn't really sound like this was that type of a benevolent environment. From a libertarian perspective, I agree you should have free speech and consenting adults behind closed doors if they want to have whatever heterosexual sex, gay sex and orgy. Not my freaking business. Everybody can sense everybody's an adult. They know what they're getting into not my business with that being said, when you pull the curtain back and you hear these stories, it doesn't sound like it was just as simple as, Oh well, it's all about free speech and free love. We're told that Playboy was classy pornography. It was leading the culture. Heff was a champion of civil rights, and he did not believe in segregation. Heff advocated for women's lib. Women should be able to express themselves freely. But is this freedom of expression, or is it HEF being free to manipulate and exploit? Ding, ding, ding, ding. At one of the feminist protests of Playboy, a woman is quoted as saying, there's something wrong in the world when a woman can make more as a Playboy bunny or a cover girl than anything else. And in my notes, I've written my dear that's because we live in a crony capitalist hellscape, for one thing, and it's also a patriarchy. It's all about pleasing heterosexual men, and you have these. Cronies that think the only purpose of a woman is to be an object dar or a slave to the men folk.

Mickey Garcia says something very interesting. She says that whenever she would be interviewed or confronted by a strong feminist, she would sort of patronize them and yes them on and tell them, This is my choice. I'm doing what I want to do. She then says that choice came at a cost, but I didn't realize it at that time, Jennifer sagener admits that she finally realized it wasn't about female freedom, it was about something much more sinister. She became trained to objectify women as commodities. Size zero knows job needs bigger. Boobs, needs slimmer hips. She admits she got plastic surgery at only 15 years old. She described scenes of women being treated like animals by groups of men laughing at them, also women being high on drugs and not even being coherent or knowing where they were. One of hefs friends admits that he said, I want to attract young ladies that want to run with me in my life. I am not going to run with them in their lives. They're going to come here and be with me. Heff sets up a harem type of environment where there's one quote, special girlfriend, and four or five other side chicks. They jockey inside this harem for the top spot. in my personal notes, I've written, what a hollow trophy. Jennifer Saginor says she was only 15 when she fell in love with one of heff's Girlfriends at the mansion. The two of them drank alcohol and slept together. Heff had cameras everywhere, and it definitely, to me, sounds reminiscent of teffry tepstein. Jennifer is called in at the age of 17 to hefs bedroom, and drinks are ordered. Suddenly, her lovable uncle figure looks at her differently. She was able to escape, but it opened her eyes to what he had in mind. He makes a creepy comment to her, like, We're all family here. After she writes her book, Heff tells her not to talk about how he knew she was having an affair as a minor on his property and he knew, like, don't talk about how I knew that you were having an affair with a grown woman when you were still a minor. She agrees, but HEF still gets promotional interviews canceled. She realizes that HEF is an advocate of free speech, as long as it doesn't include him. HEF gets in with the police and sets up his own version of a mafia. Sara admits that he invited media to his parties so that they would do something embarrassing, and then he would have blackmail videos complete with audio. Mickey Garcia says it was cult like and that the women were groomed and led to believe that they were part of a family. Heff believed he owned the women. Some women overdosed, some committed suicide. Anyone who wants to write a tell all book gets threatened. Bill Cosby still thought of at the time as America's dad was there, and nobody wanted to believe the stories about him. Episode Two is titled The Girl Next Door. Holly Madison says she didn't realize what she was getting into and that it was a dangerous choice. We see clips of the hit TV show The Girls Next Door, and as Holly says, HEF is portrayed like someone's kindly old grandpa. A couple of hefs friends, male and female, are irritated that Holly wrote a tell all book about HEF. Holly says she thought she could become a Jenny McCarthy, a Pamela Anderson, or an Anna Nicole if she went to playboy. She describes the scenario of Heff having girlfriends on a revolving door basis, and they all became centerfolds, and some of them did move on to bigger, better careers, but everybody seemed fine with the arrangement, as if to say everybody was getting what they wanted. The rumor mill says that HEF is an old man who doesn't even sleep with the women. It's just a perverted show for publicity. In the late 90s, early aughts, heth goes clubbing a lot with his assortment of women. Holly describes a night where he asks her to take Quaalude because he calls it a thigh opener. I've written in my personal notes. I'm not sure how that wouldn't be considered a giant red flag. Holly describes a night of grotesque and robotic sex, yet she moved into the mansion. She talks about being love bombed from early on. Sara was his girlfriend in the 70s, people would speak highly of him, and it seems like Heff is a golden Prince. Holly says Playboy is like a cult. It was seeing that in the advertisement that motivated me to watch this in the first place. I wanted to know well, tell me how it's a cult. How are you being gaslit? What's going on? She talks about isolation from the outside world. A 9pm curfew, no friends coming over. Don't leave unless it's a holiday. A friend of Hefner's wife describes a bizarre lunch. Where she showed up with a bodyguard who reported back to Hefner on her every move, including trips to the bathroom. Holly describes the situation of Heff manipulating the women against each other. Saundra says the same thing. Heff wants to create drama and watch women fight over him. Also, very disturbingly, Saundra says that Heff was obsessed with Charles Manson. She says he was fascinated by the idea that women were in jail, yet would apparently adore Charles Manson until the day that they died, and they would not become disloyal to him under any circumstances. We're told that Heff even possessed the Manson Family Home Videos. Saundra says that HEF always wanted more. Some of Holly's critics point out that she knew what she was signing up for. She never seemed unhappy when she was at the mansion. And if she had been unhappy, why didn't she pack her things and leave? Holly said she felt scared that if she left, Hefner would release revenge porn The Girls Next Door is born for reality TV to reinvent Playboy for the aunts instead of being a springboard, Holly feels that she was trapped by Playboy. Sara says that HEF was like a vampire who sucked the life out of young girls for decades. Episode Three is titled the bunnies and the cleanup crew. The Playboy clubs open as an extension of the magazine. The girls are told that they are like the Ziegfeld girls from a bygone era. The men can look but they cannot touch bunnies. Talked about the metal stays in the bunny suit cutting into them, high heels crusted with blood. Some would get kidney infections from not urinating often enough. Some would put their feet in the toilet bowls in order to soak them. Women were evaluated on image, saggy breasts, crooked teeth, weight gain, chipped nail polish. Hefner has an executive protection team. The bunnies did not have their own executive protection team. Some were assaulted after hours, members considered to be VIPs at carte blanche, regular key holders were considered off limits, whereas women were encouraged to schmooze with celebrity VIPs, a group of women from the great gorge resort were lured away by a group of men claiming to represent a Hollywood production. The women were held for a few days and sexually assaulted while drugged. The women were fired. The other employees were not allowed to talk about it. Just sweep it under the rug. The rule of thumb was that if you opened your mouth, you lost your job. Every club had scandals and a clean up crew. One of the security men says he was told up front that if he ever tattled to the media about anything, he'd wish he didn't, the women were treated like pieces of meat while it was just fun and games for the men. In 1979 two young bunnies went out dancing. They were invited by Don Cornelius to go and party at his house. They were tied up and sexually abused for days. Playboy security, not the police, dealt with it. Cornelius was back in the club the following week. Episode Four is titled The price of loyalty. In this episode, we hear accusations, not only of rampant drug use, but also drug trafficking from the Playboy Mansion. Bobby Arnstein was hefs executive secretary in Chicago, and according to Saundra, the two were close. The police went to see her to see if she would turn on HEF regarding drugs, she killed herself. There was also Joni Mattis, who was HEF Social Secretary. According to Saundra, Joni said Bobby didn't actually commit suicide. The DEA said that Bobby had cocaine in her purse. They wanted to link Hefner to the drug trade. Bobby gets accused of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. We hear the story of how a bunny named Adrian Pollock died from an overdose of Quaaludes. Sara says Quaaludes were used as a way to cajole women into sex. We hear from Lisa Barrett, who is hefs executive assistant for more than 10 years, that he would get Quaaludes and dexedrine from various employees to keep in his secret stash. She also describes piles of cocaine in one of the bathrooms. Sara describes cocaine being everywhere, and even how a dog became addicted to coke. We're told by PJ Maston that Adrian and her boyfriend were allegedly supplying drugs to Hefner since he never left and wouldn't go out to buy drugs himself, Adrian's own sister talked about how she called from Florida and claimed she was with a drug cartel. The sister says she believes that Adrian was involved in trafficking drugs. Bobby is convicted of drug trafficking, and her lawyer tells a story of how the government said there was a contract out on her life, and she should be leery of friends and foes alike. She receives a subpoena to appear. For a local grand jury to say what she knew about Adrian Paulette. Shortly thereafter, she committed suicide. Saundra admits that she was a drug mule for HEF she says she picked up drugs for him countless times. At the end of this episode, we see a clip of Hefner himself saying, when a kid with a sweet tooth gets thrust into a candy store and he can have all the candy he wants. After a while, he starts thinking about something other than candy I've written in my personal notes. This comports completely with what my friend Bob told me about Hollywood.

Last year, I recorded an episode about hostel. What were the hostile movies based on a true story? And I told what my friend Bob, who lived out in Hollywood and was trying to make it as an actor, what he told me about things that he saw, and that's it. These people have had so much sex with so many people all over the world that just normal intercourse that would make a normal, well adjusted person happy and feel intimate just doesn't do anything for them anymore. They have to keep upping the ante. I'm also thinking about a similar analogy that Marlon Brando used, and how he said that whenever he really hit it big in the Broadway production of streetcar there would be women outside his dressing room at every single performance, standing in line waiting to sleep with him, and he felt like a little boy that had landed on top of a pile of candy. Well, as Hefner says, when you are a kid in a candy store, and then you can have all the candy you want, nothing feels special about it anymore. You start to want something other than candy. This is very important food for thought. No pun intended.

Episode Five is titled The Circus. Saundra says Hef reached a point of wanting to try everything that was possible. Nothing was enough. HEF friends vouch for Saundra loving HEF and not having some type of weird Vendetta. Sara says she was scared because HEF wanted more and weirder perverse things. He was taking the girl next next door and soiling her. Have hired a woman Sondra's own age to befriend her and spy on her to report back to him. Sondra not only procures drugs, but also lures in young women for Heff. Steven Tannenbaum says Hef was not a romantic. He was an emperor, a woman either went in the bed or the magazine or she went home. According to Sara, Heff, really drives home this message of, we're all family, even while they're having orgies. 10 bomb talks about Thursday night being, quote, pig night pimps would bring hookers from sunset to the mansion. Heff referred to these sex workers as pigs, as Jennifer Saginor observes, over time, the men had to push the boundaries further and do things more transgressive in order to feel pleasure. When you can have anyone you want and do anything it becomes boring. People tell stories of bestiality at the mansion, which is horrifying. Saunders says she became emaciated and terrified and may as well have been a sex toy. She says, I lived a luxury life, but I paid dearly for it. There's a weird interview excerpt between Hugh Hefner and Bryant Gumbel, where HEF says he'd like to meet Jesus and find out what that's all about, whatever that means. I'd like to meet Jesus and find out what that's all about. He says he imagines they'd have similar values because Jesus forgave the whores. That's exactly how he puts it. The whores. Episode Six is titled The Corporate game. Women were abused and sexually harassed. They didn't have a voice when anything happened. The photographers say things like, Do you know how much money you can make? Do you know the opportunities you will have? We're told that heth expected the women to compete to be Playmate of the Year and to sleep with him as part of their desire to win that title. I've put in I've put in my personal notes. I feel like the feminists who said it's not women's live to take your clothes off for the pleasure of men, got it right. One of the women from the promotions team admits that the playmates were coached to always be gracious and to play the role of ready and willing girlfriend, whatever you like, that's what I'll be. I'm clean. I'm the girl next door. I've written in my personal notes, and we wonder why we have a rape culture. That's it, this perception that any woman I see is ready, willing and able, even if she tells me No, even if she tells me to buzz off and leave her alone. Deep down, she's ready, willing and able, whatever you want, whatever you like, that's what I'll be. I'm clean, I'm fresh, I'm any woman you want. That's rape culture. Mickey Garcia says she always told the women that they. Were in a highly sexually charged environment, and that they had to be careful, because the men wanted the women to be their own personal playmates, which, again, it's like what else would be expected. These women are trotted out like tethered goats to a throng of horny dudes, and they're signing copies of pornographic magazines so dangerous. Christy Hefner becomes leader at Playboy to push back against the feminists who loathed the magazine. The men in the organization take it for granted that any woman they find should be sexually harassed. Mickey Garcia says she was raped while she was on the road by a famous actor. Men in the office would make lewd comments and grab body parts. PJ Mastin said she was raped by a corporate executive who told her she had to play sex games in order to get ahead. There is a system here of both men and women abusing women. Episode Seven is titled The big Playboy lie. Mickey Garcia says the big Playboy lie was become a Playboy Playmate, and all of your dreams will come true. She says she realized that the launching pad was actually a pit Playboy was supposed to be art that celebrated the female body, not hardcore porn. It wasn't supposed to be a nasty magazine. Then competition comes along with full frontal nudity, and everything has to get raunchy. Rebecca Armstrong says Playboy was viewed as the respectable men's magazine. Mickey says some of the girls were photographed at 17, and then the photos were held, supposedly, until they turned 18. I've written in my notes this is fringing on Epstein for me. When Playboy channel launches, the women are expected to do soft core videos. Mickey warns the girls to avoid the mansion. The women are trapped by contracts and not even paid well, in spite of having these promises of big money. As one of the women says, when you're in an environment like that, with a lot of drugs, a lot of sex, a lot of partying, anything could get out of hand. And I'm sitting here like, yeah, exactly. If you're in that kind of environment with sex, drugs and rock and roll, I think it's a safe assumption that anything could get out of hand. Something bad could happen, literally at any moment, eating disorders are also rampant. Drugs are used for weight loss as well as control. Some women go home skeletal and some lost all of their teeth. There's an employee who is described as a pimp for Hugh Hefner. The women go out on promotions, some of which turn out to be dates, where they are expected to function as escorts. Mickey Garcia testified against Playboy at the Attorney General's commission on pornography back in the 80s. Some of her testimony included allegations that women were alienated from family, alienated from friends and their religious practices, sexually exploited, sexually harassed, discriminated against for jobs, raped, mentally abused, physically abused. There were murders and attempted murders, illegal drug abuse, attempted suicides, prostitution, unwanted and unplanned pregnancies, abortions, venereal diseases and unnecessary plastic surgeries. Playboy kept archives of photos and retained editorial control. Playboy responded that the allegations were false. Mickey felt that she had no support and that no one wanted the truth out, not even women she protected, or other female employees. The meese commission results in porn magazines going off magazine racks in convenience stores. HEF sues, and the compromise is that the magazines could be on the racks, but they'd have to be covered so that people couldn't walk by and see suggestive photos, as one of hefts friends wisely observed, Playboy always won. It made the magazine more subscribable. I've written in my personal notes, crony capitalism. On the surface, it might seem like, Oh, these naughty people are being punished, but not really. No, not really. The AIDS epidemic also impacts Playboy in the 80s, even though heth is publishing articles about AIDS and HIV awareness. Rebecca Armstrong, who has HIV, admits that life at the mansion did not change. Mickey thought the Playboy engine might stop after her testimony in the meese commission. But of course, that didn't happen. Episode Eight is titled predator's ball. Melanie Myers describes a playmate named Paige young killing herself on top of an American flag on a wall in her room. Paige had made a collage of photos and clippings. At the top of it, she wrote, Hefner is the devil. Melanie said, within two days, everything was cleaned up, and it was like nothing ever happened. It didn't make the news the way that Melanie thought it might. Steven tenbaum says Hefner wanted to be a movie director, and that was one reason to move to Hollywood, one of hefs. Friends admits that the film Macbeth that Hefner worked on with Roman Polanski was a terrible film that lost a lot of money.

Tannenbaum said the Hollywood sets saw Hefner as a wannabe who tried too hard, but they used him to get into the mansion for easy sex. An old interview with Dick Van Patten is shown. He mentions Warren Beatty, Bill Cosby and Jack Nicholson coming to the mansion. He claims it's easier to relax there because they aren't bothered by fans out in the public. PJ Maston mentions Robin Williams and Chevy Chase. There's a video of Arnold Schwarzenegger before he became famous. Wilt Chamberlain James Conn Sara Theodore describes them as kids in a candy store. PJ Masten describes Mary O'Connor as a pimp. We're having a party send the bunnies up. The women were encouraged to schmooze with the VIPs. One woman said Tony Curtis had a drinking problem and she didn't know what he would do once he was drunk. A photographer said she was molested by Bill Cosby. Melanie describes Paige as being interested in the Playboy Mansion and the girl next door who still likes sex mantra, but once she made it to the Grotto, something happened that broke her Paige's suicide note names names of abusers, including Hugh Hefner and director John Huston. Melanie said that someone at the mansion filmed her having sex without telling her, and perhaps planned to use it as revenge porn. Melanie said Paige was not shy about her body or about sex in general, and it made her wonder just how explicit that tape was. Saundra says that HEF would film women even after they said they did not consent to it. Steven tettbaum describes an Epstein like environment of Hugh taping famous people having all types of debauchery at the mansion. So in my personal notes, here's what I've written. Here's my question, was HEF only a voyeur, or was something deeper at play? Were these videos strictly for himself? Were they held in reserve in case he needed to blackmail somebody, or was he doing it at the behest of higher powers? I understand that it's a conspiracy theory, Sara, I get it, but do we really think Epstein was doing what he did just for himself? He sure had a lot of friends in high places. He sure had access to a lot of money. Connect the dots. Connect the dots. One of hefts, former body guards, set body guards, says that Bill Cosby was at the mansion three or four times a week in the early 80s, and he wasn't just there for lunch. In 1974 Cosby brought a 15 year old child to the mansion and is accused of drugging and raping her. A number of women affiliated with Playboy come forward to say that they were assaulted by Cosby. PJ Maston says she knew Cosby for several years and that they were on good terms, but in 1979 she says he slipped something in her drink and raped her. She was told to shut her mouth, because that was hefs best pal, Charlotte Lewis says she was raped by Roman Polanski at 16. We see a very grotesque interview clip of Polanski saying the girl he raped in 1977 was only 13, and he knew it, but if you had seen her, you wouldn't think anything of it. In my personal notes I've written, OMG, Full Tilt. Epstein Sara said the topic of Polanski was like he was an idiot to get caught, not that it was wrong, but merely that he was foolish to get caught. Russell Miller reiterates the story from bunny about HEF seducing a girl from his daughter's sweet 16 birthday party. Men who beat and raped women were allowed to come back on the property. There was a sense of Heth looking the other way. If that man was a celebrity of some kind, the suicide rate for women affiliated with Playboy is higher than the general American female population. Episode Nine is titled The Shadow mansions. People from hefs Inner Circle created shadow mansions to take the women Playboy rejected and simulate hefts lifestyle with them. Jennifer sagen or describes her father's friendship with Hugh Hefner as being next level, like they were soul mates. Women would come and go as interchangeable sex objects, but Mark remained. Mark got in trouble with LAPD for date rape. HEF distanced himself from Mark after this, we're told about Bernie Kornfeld, who owned gray Hall mansion and who ran a talent agency with dormitories for women upstairs. The agency, we're told, was a front for the owner's sexual appetite. As the 90s rolled in, Heff wanted more press for the women. Heff also got married to Kimberly Conrad in the midst of the AIDS epidemic, Kimberly wants Heff to leave the playmates alone. Women. And look at Pamela Anderson, Jenny McCarthy and Anna Nicole Smith, and think Playboy can be a vehicle for fame. In other words, they have achieved some fame and some notoriety. Maybe if I go and take my clothes off, the same thing will happen for me. Have so called scouts would prey on women who were deemed not hot enough to make it in Playboy by promising them other opportunities. Women at the mini mansion parties would be drugged and then photos or videos would be taken. Some were date raped. Peter Nygaard is in the mini mansion orbit and is now known as a predator. He was indicted in 2021 in Canada on multiple counts. Jennifer sagen, or believes that HEF and her father were more than just platonic BFFs. Sara Theodore says that HEF and Mark became lovers. Jennifer feels that they had a connection that nobody else could compete with. One of Anna Nicole's friends said that when she was 29 or 30, the comment was made by HEF that it was time for her to be phased out. Jennifer says her father had explicit photos of women in degrading S and M situations, and he told her, it's okay, the women want this. Jennifer talks about a woman from Europe who she believes died at a mini mansion party. This woman's father came looking for her, and they acted like, Nope, don't know her. Haven't seen her. Jennifer says that after Heff died, Mark married a woman from rehab at the wedding, he honors HEF and has his picture everywhere. There were men with Playboy pins on their suits, and Jennifer felt like they were all in a weird, private cult. Episode 10 is titled predator number one, HEF is in an interview saying that he wants women to have power and to do what they want. Several women call Heff a predator. Susie kraubacher talks about sexual abuse in her childhood mixed with insane religious practices. At 15, she left and got into modeling. She was not 18 when she took her Playboy photos. Heff tells her she's in a safe environment at the mansion. While there, she was drugged and raped by have by Hefner at the mansion. She said he looked like Satan. Sara says that have had a skeleton key for all the doors. She said he would use this skeleton key at will, and even raped a woman who was asleep. She says he liked young women from a broken home with no father around. Dorothy Stratton is primed to become a Hollywood actress. It seems like these dudes all want to hang on to her and steal a piece of her potential. Steven tenbaum tells the story that he heard Dorothy screaming in the Grotto, and HEF was sodomizing her while she screamed for help if anyone tried to tell the excuse was always people are just trying to get money from Hefner. Heft evolves from a liberal magazine writer to a rich Hollywood debauched creep. Peter Bogdanovich talks openly about how Dorothy was sexually traumatized and she naively bought into the whole Playboy mythology, an unfortunate love triangle emerges of Paul Snyder Heff and Peter Bogdanovich. One of hefs assistants claimed that on the day Dorothy was murdered, HEF was worried about getting some other woman's phone number. Sara talks about going to the mansion for the Easter egg hunt because it was a child friendly family event I've written in my personal notes. Why on earth would you take kids up there? Episode 11 is titled, behind The Girls Next Door. The Girls Next Door as a reality show bolsters hefts image, and it makes the whole lifestyle look fun and funny. The fan base is largely young women, the image of HEF and the women is carefully curated. Christina and Carissa Shannon moved in and became hefs new girlfriends. They tell the story of turning 19, but going to a club and drinking under age, smoking pot and going to hefs bedroom and receiving unknown pills from him. They say they received media training, and they were coached on what to say to protect hefs image, but not their own. As Holly says, the image of HEF on the show is like someone's kind, harmless old grandpa. Yet that's not what they found. In reality, the twins say security would follow them and report on everything they did, including their food intake. They accuse Hefner of racism and say he was mad at them for talking to an Asian woman and a black man. They felt isolated and were also locked into their bedroom if HEF wanted to control them, Carissa became pregnant with hefs baby and had an abortion.

Episode 12 is titled The aftermath. Lisa Guerrero invites the women for a follow up show to address some of the criticism of this documentary, there are various comments. I didn't speak earlier because I didn't want to ruin the fairy tale. I stayed friends with Heff, but I don't know why. I wanted to make everything okay. I bought into a fantasy Saundra says she cut Heff off when he began grooming her 18 year old daughter. Daughter, there's some pushback on the information presented. For example, we see a screenshot from Renee Baio saying, I don't support the AE TV documentary that starts this evening. I know the truth as I live there. I also don't support the women dragging a dead man when they all profited off of Hugh Hefner, and they all gained fame because of him. I stand with HEF and his family. End quote. There's a woman named Candace Jordan who says, Sara A and E secrets of Playboy. That is not my Hugh Hefner, someone else who I guess would not be a public figure because the information is blurred out. This person tweeted, if I did those sick things these females did, just to please have I would be coked up and mind fucked too. But at the end of the day, these females had a choice. They decided to do these things. Someone else, whose information is blurred out, has written, it's crazy how all these gold diggers that took advantage of an older man are now coming up with these new stories. End quote. Someone with the handle, Heather Hollywood has written, so weird, I'm a playmate. And attended all the mansion parties and spa days on Sundays. I never saw anything bad and nothing bad happened to me. Cooper Hefner has written, some may not approve of the life my dad chose, but my father was not a liar, however unconventional, he was sincere in his approach and lived honestly. He was generous in a nature and cared deeply for people. These salacious stories are a case study of regret becoming revenge. End Quote, Sara says she thinks people believe the women, generally speaking, but they think they deserved it because Playboy was all about sex. It was not a convent. I've written in my personal notes. I also wonder how much of this boils down to an exploitative, crony capitalist system. But see, we're not supposed to go there. I want to do a little bit of point counterpoint advocate and devil's advocate here. I hate these exposes and tell alls that come out after a person is dead, or in some cases, long dead, even though we all know that the American justice system is a joke, it does not operate the way it's supposed to, in theory, it's a good system. You're entitled to due process. You are entitled to your day in court. You're supposed to be able to see your accuser and to know who's accusing you and what you're being accused of. That's one of the things that makes Kafka's The trial so horrific, which I still need to sit down and write an episode specifically about that, or record an episode specifically about that, but it's like you're supposed to know what am I being accused of and who is accusing me of. It. You're supposed to have your right to a defense and to hire an attorney to help you put on that defense, to have a jury or a judge sit and hear the evidence and render a verdict, as opposed to being tried in the court of public opinion, most especially when that person is dead, and I think about all of the spurious rumors and just wackadoodle nonsense that's been perpetrated around JFK for decades, that's a sore spot for me. And I would also say the same thing about Dag hammarsk, some of the spurious, weird, creepy rumors that are not only damaging to his legacy posthumously, but some of the negative things that were said to him and about him when he was alive that hurt him deeply. He didn't show it out in the public, but privately, he would talk about how his feelings were hurt and it sucked to be dragged through the mud, and to have people just lie, and to wonder what kind of diseased minds would make up such things on other people. When you're talking about going after somebody that's deceased, they can't see you, they can't have their day in court. They can't rush to their own defense. They can't say, here was my part in what happened, and also, here was your part in what happened. There's no back and forth. There's no opportunity to hear that person's side of the story, because they're dead. That, to me, is definitely a fly in the ointment for this series. I think as part of my research for this episode, I checked out the book bunny, the real story of Playboy, which was written by Russell Miller. And the copy that I found from the library is from 1986 so at this point in time, this book is published while Hefner is alive and well and would have the opportunity to sue. For defamation, to come out in public and say, well, here's what bunny alleges about me, but I want you to know the truth. However, I'm not seeing any evidence that he went after anybody, or that he tried to stop the publication of bunny and wasn't successful.

I mean, I know some celebrities will say, you can't sue everybody, but you have to wonder, here's a quote from bunny, for example, hefts the easiest man in the world to please, says Mary O'Connor, providing everything is done just the way he wants it. In quote Russell Miller Chronicles Hugh Hefner's early days, from when he was married and trying to make it as a cartoonist and then as a publisher. And he has all of these failed business ventures, and he wants to make, you could say, kind of like a risque or pornographic version of Esquire, he's able to obtain those old nude photographs of Marilyn Monroe, and that's what really catapults his publication into stardom, so to speak. There are women in bunny who say similar things, I would say not as graphic and not as firm and blunt and to the point as we see in secrets of Playboy, but there is definitely this idea of fresh faced women showing up, thinking that this is going to be their ticket to fame and fortune, or at least to some kind of steady paycheck. Some of them were in dire straits. Were living in poverty, and they were looking to make some real money, and then they just get chewed up and spit out. There's copious drug use, and the women figure out that they've gone into a cesspool, and some of them leave just a shadow or a shell of their former selves. There's also on page 135, of the 86 paperback version that I found through the library. Here's an interesting passage, and he he talks about this very briefly in secrets of Playboy, one day, milde was surreptitiously checking out the blue log book when she noticed the latest entry was a name entirely unfamiliar to her in the Comments column Hefner had written friend of Christie's. Hefner had not had much contact with his children since he divorced from Millie in 1959 but when Christie was 16, he hosted a sweet 16 party for her at the mansion, she was allowed to invite 10 of her school friends for a sit down dinner in the ballroom with printed menus and all the trimmings. Hefner enjoyed playing the role of indulgent father, just as he enjoyed making love to one of the guests. A few days later, the girl telephoned him after the party and said she would like to see him again. Hefner guessed what she wanted, and briefly agonized. He asked Bobby Arnstein what he should do about the seemliness of bouncing a friend of his daughter on the round bed. In the end, the temptation proved too much. End Quote, so he has the sex log of every woman he's ever slept with, and apparently sleeps with one of the girls that was a guest at a sweet 16 birthday party. We don't know, to be clear, we don't know if this girl was underage. We don't know if she was an 18 year old woman that is a consenting adult.

We just simply don't know. I If at a sweet 16 birthday party, it seems the odds would be in favor of her being under the age of 18, but we just don't know. In any event, Is it gross and creepy? Yeah, yeah, it is. Even if she's 18 years old and a consenting adult. The idea that she's friends with your own daughter who was there for her sweet 16 birthday party, and now you want to screw around with somebody that your daughter is friends with that's gross if she's under the age of 18, is flat out illegal. So what do we make of all this? Is Cooper making a valid point that at the time, the people participating in the activities were consenting adults. They knew what they were doing and they wanted to be there, but later, as time has gone on, they regretted Sex, drugs and rock and roll. Did they not know what they were getting into? Why wait? Is it because Hefner was rich and powerful and well connected and they were scared, maybe even scared for their lives. I don't know. I'm not a fan of Hefner or playboy. I. I agree with the person who said they believed that Hefner was an opportunist and someone who was transactional. It was a business for him. I suspect that he enjoyed the access that he had to sex, drugs and rock and roll. Otherwise, why do it? He could have been running a pornographic magazine and then going home every night and going to bed at 9pm and reading the Bible, if it was purely a business thing, I'm sure he did like the sex drugs and rock and roll. But I also think it's important to not lose sight of the crony capitalist Porky, the capitalist pig part in all this that the women were commodities. They were judged and rated like they were livestock in the livestock show, instead of human beings. And the accusations in this documentary are the accusations made by the individual people, not by me, because I wasn't there. I don't know. I think we as the audience are left with a decision to make of, what do we think is true? What do we not think is true, and then what do we do with it? At the very least, I will say this, I think, as the women have said, they want to warn others, not all that glitters is gold going to one of these pornographic magazines thinking that it's going to catapult you into fame and fortune and be your gateway out of poverty. It's going to open all of these doors. You're going to become a legitimate Hollywood actress, probably a massive long shot. More than likely, you'll be chewed up and spit out. You'll come home with a drug problem, you'll be halfway starved, you'll be sex trafficked, at the very least, I think heeding those warnings is so important. I think back to some of those conversations I had with my friend Bob about what he saw and what he encountered in Hollywood, and how bad he wanted to get out of that place, because it was just a freaking pit. Watch the documentary, read the book bunny, come to your own conclusions, but just be safe. Be really careful and judicious with your choices. And if you're thinking about doing something like that, potentially life altering, life changing, something that will follow you around forever, really think about what you're doing and understand that these crony capitalists are always around to exploit you. You don't have enough money, you don't have a place to stay. Well, here we'll help you out. All you have to do is take off all your clothes and make porn that'll follow you for the rest of your days. Be careful, stay safe, make good decisions. I will see you in the next episode.

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