Playboy News

THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING . . .

Famed television producer David Wolper is developing a six-hour miniseries on the life of the man behind the Playboy empire. "Hugh Hefner: The Man and the Myth" (working title) will be filmed in Chicago, Los Angeles, and select cities for airing on CBS early next year. In addition, the Arts & Entertainment channel is currently finishing up a two-hour program on Hef for their "Biography" series, which will air later this spring.

CELEBRATING THE FIRST AMENDMENT

The 1996 Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards Luncheon will be held on Wednesday, April 24th at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. This year's winners, former "Washington Post" investigative reporter Morton Mintz, Parents for Rock and Rap founder Mary Morello, Mark Twain scholar Jocelyn Chadwick-Joshua, "San Francisco Examiner" investigative reporter Seth Rosenfeld, Oregon Coalition for Free Expression co-founder Tom Hull and Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics founder Jeffrey DeBonis will be honored and presented with a $5,000 check to celebrate their achievements.

UPDATED PLAYBOY INTERVIEW CD-R0M DEBUTS

More than 380 movie stars, politicians, artists, and athletes bare their souls in Personalities and Profiles, a new Playboy Interview Collection CD-ROM. The updated version of the former Playboy Interview -- Three Decades contains 30 more full-text interviews than the original edition, plus additional audio clips and video footage from the actual interviews.

Sundance image

LEAVING THE CLOSET AT SUNDANCE

Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's documentary "The Celluloid Closet" received the 1996 Playboy Foundation Freedom of Expression Award at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Narrated by Lily Tomlin, the film explores Hollywood's portrayal of homosexuals in cinema history through hundreds of classic film clips and interviews with many performers, writers and directors.

Jeffrey Friedman (left) and Rob Epstein (right) with Lily Tomlin. Photography by Ken Sax/HBO. Courtesy of HBO.

PLAYBOY HOME VIDEO GETS TOP HONORS IN "BILLBOARD"

For the first time, Playboy Home Video clinched the #1 spot on "Billboard" magazine's 1995 Top Video Sales Labels Chart, beating out second-place Walt Disney Home Video. Playboy Home Video dominated 20% of "Billboard's" overall chart titles last year.

FICTION AND FLESH FOR THE STAGE

Chicago-based City Lit Theatre Company has adapted five short stories from the "Playboy Stories Anthology" for the stage. Beginning February 23 at the Chicago Cultural Center, the six-week run of "Playboy Stories: Forty Years of Fiction in the Flesh" will include Charles Beaumont's "Black Country" (the first original story published in Playboy), Shirley Jackson's "A Great Voice Stilled," John Irving's "Brenbar's Rant," T. Coraghessan Boyle's "Modern Love" and Ursula Le Guin's "Unlocking the Air."