The Daily Beast has a new interview with Hugh Hefner, in which they ask him about the details about life at the mansion in that Bunny Tales book that was written by his former girlfriend Izabella St. James and came out a few years ago. Hef tries to discredit St. James by questioning her motives and saying she was kicked out the house for not getting along with the other girls. He pretty much confirms everything she said about him though: that he pays the girls $1,000 a week, makes them come home at 9pm, and doesn’t bother to wear a condom while having sex with them all. He defends himself by saying that they do STD testing and that most of the other women he paid for their company speak highly of him. That’s probably because they still earn good money to show up at his parties. Here’s part of the Daily Beast’s interview, with more at the source.

Hef’s responses to St. James/Kasprzyk’s claims are variously dismissive and indifferent:

* On the charge that he paid each his girlfriends, out of safe in his bedroom, $1,000 a week in cash: “That part is true. If you write it and make it sound sleazy, that’s easy to do. But the girls got a clothing allowance.”

*On the claim that he imposed a strict 9 p.m. curfew, by which time all his girlfriends had to be at home or else: “That was also true—and widely publicized. It wasn’t a big secret.” Why the curfew? Hef laughs: “So they wouldn’t be running around on me!”

*On St. James/Kasprzyk’s allegation that he handed out Quaaludes as aphrodisiacs: “If she was taking Quaaludes, she was taking them on her own. I wasn’t supplying drugs to the girls.”

*On her account of Hef’s downing Viagra at a nightclub and then consulting his watch so he’d be ready with the girls when it finally kicked in: “The description of the Viagra thing is a fantasy that reflects an ignorance in terms of the use of Viagra. Once you take Viagra, you don’t have to be looking at a watch. Viagra takes about an hour to kick in, but lasts for about half a day… It simply permits normal sexual activity.”

*On the charge that nobody was medically tested for safe sex: “Nobody in the group had sexually transmitted diseases. I was very careful and very concerned about taking care of everybody in terms of sexually transmitted disease. Absolutely there was testing. One of the things that can be pointed out is that over all the years of extensive sexual activity, nobody ever got pregnant, and nobody was having any serious problems with diseases. The only time anybody ever got pregnant in a relationship with me was the two times I was married.”

*On the claim that he refused to wear a condom: “I think one of the ways that you resolve that problem is to have sex with people who don’t have sexually transmitted diseases.” That claim, in other words, appears to be true.

According to Hef, “her self-serving, clearly fabricated stories in the book give the impression that they are somehow reflective of former girlfriends. The reality is the opposite of that. My former girlfriends, as I’m sure you know, speak highly about the relationship with me, they speak with great love. One of the things that sets my relationships apart from many others is the fact that I have managed to remain close to many of my former girlfriends, including my former wives, because I’m a decent human being. And I treat women very well. I take pride in that.”

Hef argues that the book’s description of life at the mansion is wildly at odds with generally accepted reality. “The point is we’re not talking about some place in Transylvania—some place that nobody has visited,” Hef says.

As for being a jealous lover, “Kendra’s wedding was held here,” Hef says. ”She and Hank, her husband, are very close friends. As a matter of, I got a very sweet Twitter, or tweet, from Kendra a week ago congratulating me on the marriage.”

[From The Daily Beast via Gawker, Fark]

Hef has a point. He’s not a nasty pimp, and his requirements of his paid companions are rather tame compared to life on the streets, or even in some sultan’s harem. (Although there’s probably more jewelry and cash involved when you’re screwing an oil heir and his buddies.) He’s just a very old dude in a mansion with 70s decor who surrounds himself with beautiful surgically enhanced women and pays them with the cash he makes from featuring them in his magazine. It’s technically legal probably, but that doesn’t make it much different from prostitution, whether he’s a nice guy about it or not.

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