What Is ‘Playmates’ and Why Is The Movie Causing So Much Controversy?
Few things in Hollywood’s history have stirred up as much controversy as Playboy and the divisive Playboy Mansion under Hugh Hefner’s reign. Years after his death, more controversy has popped up, this time over the casting of a fictionalized movie, Playmates, set against the backdrop of the mansion.
What is ‘Playmates’ about?
Playmates is an upcoming coming-of-age film from Searchlight Pictures, written and directed by Lorraine Nicholson. The daughter of Jack Nicholson, she grew up in Los Angeles and has said the story is inspired by her real-life childhood friendship with Hugh Hefner’s children.
The film follows Elle, a 13-year-old know-it-all who considers the Playboy Mansion her second home. Over the course of the story, Elle befriends a young woman who is competing with other hopefuls to become Playboy’s Playmate of the Month. The cast includes Indiana Elle as Elle, Lily-Rose Depp as an aspiring Playmate, and Bill Pullman as Hugh Hefner. Jessica Biel as Hugh Hefner’s fictional wife. While Hefner was married three times, Biel’s character is completely distinct from all three women.
Crystal Hefner is asking people to pull out of the film
While the film has the green light and most of its cast set, Crystal Hefner is still hoping to prevent it from happening. At the very least, she’s hoping to convince Jessica Biel to reconsider her role in the movie. Hefner took to Instagram to share a direct message she sent to Biel asking the star to reconsider her involvement.
In the message, she wrote that she had been his wife and experienced abuse within the relationship. She went on to voice her concerns about romanticizing a man she says sexually, emotionally, financially, and physically abused her.
Crystal closed with an appeal to everyone working on the movie. She asked them to listen to the women who lived through it “before helping Hollywood turn it back into nostalgia.” Crystal said she’s hoping that, at the very least, the film will offer an honest look at Hefner and the power he had over the women involved with him.
Crystal’s comments are part of a broader discussion around Hugh’s legacy. In recent years, several former Playmates and girlfriends have spoken publicly about their experiences at the mansion. Few of those experiences were good. The 2022 A&E docuseries Secrets of Playboy touched on the darker underbelly of the lavish lifestyle.
How the film will address Hugh Hefner’s legacy remains a mystery
Neither Biel nor Searchlight Pictures has publicly responded to Crystal’s message. It is unclear exactly how the flick plans to approach Hugh’s legacy, his treatment of the women who dated him and were employed by him, or how the brand changed after his death. There are some concerns that Nicholson’s connection to the mansion could lean the film into a more romanticized version of life inside the estate.
Hugh Hefner died in September 2017 at the age of 91. His death, inside the Playboy Mansion, was attributed to cardiac arrest and respiratory failure. The death was brought about by sepsis from an E. coli infection. Hugh was married to Crystal at the time of his death. They married in 2012. He had been previously married to Kimberley Conrad from 1989 until 2010. His first marriage, to Mildred Williams, ended in 1959.
