I am a big fan of the E television show The Girls Next Door about three of Hugh Hefner's girlfriends who live at the mansion. Since I worked for Playboy in the early 1970's, I have been to the Chicago mansion and was at some of the wild parties that they had there. We often went to the Sunday night movie at Hef's house...complete with a fabulous buffet.
Since the bigger parties didn't start until eleven at night, and usually they were on a work night, it was rather hard to attend them without thinking of how tired I would be the next day. I still had a desk and a job to do in the morning. I met my husband, Bob Shea, while I worked at Playboy and even though I was there only a year, I met a lot of friends during that period. I was hired to work in the art department, and worked at the reception desk for a few weeks before that. I met Bob because I was sitting there reading a book of Ibsen plays, which he thought was rather remarkable. I was 21, young, blond and pretty. It was great fun. The Playboy art department was a wild and fun place to work and I have a lot of good memories.
This TV show is fascinating. First, I think it is just great PR for the Playboy empire, and they have had little success in the past with TV shows. These three girls are funny, cute, and rather charmingly pathetic, in a drop dead gorgeous kind of way. It is a strange life, but...Hollywood is pretty strange too. I love the quick cuts and quips and the way the editing is done on this show. It makes fun of the subject without being mean spirited.
Who needs to be mean? As long as there is a Playboy magazine, there will be pretty young girls who are ready to be a part of it--and why not? These three young blond and perky girls are more fun to watch than a lot of stuff on TV these days.
And George likes to watch too --probably for very different reasons.
Have a great day.
