Among the short-term results of this article were:

1) A long letter from Hugh Hefner saying that “your beef about the physical given the girls before they start work at the club prompted my eliminating it.” (He defended it as “a good idea,” but noted that my article was not the first time it had been “misunderstood and turned into something questionable.”) He also included the first seven installments of his own Playboy Philosophy. For most of the three-page letter, however, he insisted he didn’t mind the article at all.

2) “A one-million-dollar libel suit against me and a small, now defunct New York newspaper that had printed a report on my article, as well as allegations that the manager of the New York Playboy Club had clear Mafia connections. Though those allegations were not in any quote from me, I seem to have been included in the libel suit as a harassment gesture. I spent many unpleasant hours in depositions, and being threatened with punitive damages. Eventually, the newspaper settled out of court without reference to me. I was told by other reporters that such harassing actions, with or without actionable grounds, were a frequent way of discouraging or punishing journalists.

3) Serving as a witness for the New York State Liquor Authority to identify printed instructions given to me as a Bunny so they could be entered in evidence in a case against the Playboy Club for maintaining a public liquor license while advertising as a private club. This was related to the fact that the Playboy Club had paid to get its liquor license, then turned state’s evidence against the same officials. The State Liquor Authority fought back with the public/private suit in which they asked me to testify. Lawyers told me that other Bunnies they had approached had been afraid to testify, even on the simple question of identifying instruction sheets in which we were told to emphasize the private, exclusive nature of the club. Having seen many movies about courtroom proceedings in which justice prevailed, I agreed. After a Playboy Club lawyer had spent cross-examination time trying to demonstrate that I was a liar and a female of low moral character, I began to understand why the other Bunnies had refused. In the end, the Playboy Club kept their public liquor license.

4) Several weeks of obscene and threatening phone calls from a man with great internal knowledge of the Playboy Club.

5) Loss of serious journalistic assignments because I had now become a Bunny—and it didn’t matter why.

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