Comments on: Jessanne Collins: The Truth About 'Playgirl' and Levi Johnston

By: she of the socks

she of the socks — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0000

That should be "about where," not "there." But you all knew that.

By: she of the socks

she of the socks — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:58:51 +0000

I interned at Playgirl on-and-off for two years and was initially extremely confused by the news that Levi was posing for Playgirl. I was under the distinct impression that the magazine no longer existed and I recall constantly being told that "male stars don't ever want to pose nude." So while the second point still remains true (apologies to Hollywood Ricky), I'm still uncertain about there the nude pictures are showing up. Are they going to be plastered all over Playgirl.tv? Are they making a special print edition just for Levi? Is the magazine coming back? Can they hire me?

As for the press coverage on Playgirl that paints the former staff as some coven of homophobic spinsters, well. I'm glad Jessane cleared that up. The editorial and artistic staff had to pretty much shank someone in the eye in order to get a piercing or a tattoo or a nude picture of someone with actual body hair into the magazine.

By: Godot

Godot — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:30:20 +0000

Interestingly, as a gay male, I happened to LIKE the somewhat out-of-date aesthetic- maybe not so much the long hair, but certainly the willingness to show men who didn't NECESSARILY look like screaming twinks. And I think that's true of most of Playgirl's gay following. Though I can't speak for the women, I also have to say that the issue with the magazine wasn't JUST the photos, but also the actual article content. Whereas Playboy at least has some pretension to intellectualism, the actual articles- written by females for females- tended to be puerile and embarrassing.

As for Daniel Nardicio- I have met him many times over the last decade, and I know many people who have dated him and worked for him and with him. He is a self-aggrandizing narcissist, and an absolute bottom feeder ("promoter" is a very kind term for "pimp," but whatever.) That he is using Playgirl and Levi to get quoted in as many publications as possible has little to do with Playgirl and everything to do with him.

By: LMGTS

LMGTS — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:03:43 +0000

Daniel did what? I think not. But wait, it's gonna hit and hard — I ain't talking aboutthe wall either. National boycott is what ought to occur, Hmmm. brb.

By: LMGTS

LMGTS — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:00:46 +0000

No comment. I was involved only for the publicity. I prefer men in fact I have four books out there if you are intersted.

By: miss c

miss c — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:53:25 +0000

Daniel -
How adorable. From reading your reply I can tell that you really DO believe you walked into the Playgirl office, sold a "vision" and will successfully overhaul the brand. But I've got news for you. You were hired because you had an idea that will make the magazine some one-time money…and you'll eventually be let go because you don't actually have anything to offer besides bravado and an ability to lie to the media about "old" editors that came before you. People stopped caring about Playgirl a long time ago. I realized this when I worked there, and none of us were crying when it shut down.

And it's pretty stupid of you to not fully understand why the last batch of editors were actually let go…it could end up saving you a lot of trouble in the end. It's not that the employees working on the magazine "didn't try to enforce a vision," but your new bosses being too incredibly out of touch to put through anything we pitched that would have brought the brand out of its (still continuing) downward spiral.

I feel bad for you that you don't want to believe that the same will happen all over again. But at least don't slander me and my equally amazing girls to whatever media outlet thinks you have something to say. It's immature and completely besides the point of the silly charade you're involved in now. I know it's hard, but TRY to not be such a little dumbass.

By: joeclark

joeclark — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:20:57 +0000

And heâ€™d frigging well better be uncut.

By: My Number Is My Address

My Number Is My Address — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:20:20 +0000

Hustler is way worse than High Society.

By: MattP

MattP — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:50:24 +0000

What does Mike Honcho have to say about all of this??

By: CaptainFantastic

CaptainFantastic — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:00:55 +0000

@jfruh: There are scores of small towns* in every non-east-coast state in the country.

*your definition: more than 45 minutes from a 50k-person or larger town (I'll even add) and more than 10 miles from an interstate highway.

By: kitten_witawip

kitten_witawip — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:48:23 +0000

Next time you set up a photo shoot for Playgirl perhaps you could find a subject women find attractive.

By: LMGTS

LMGTS — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:24:50 +0000

Great article and I will post an excerpt of what I just emailed….

Dear editor,

The story about who and why Levi Johnston is doing this Playgirl spread is missing the key element – my involvement. I am 'cc' ing a copy of this email to my attorney monsieur Philippe Praliaud in Lyon, France just as a matter of record.

I am happy to have read today the story on your website by Jessanne Collins who might remember me from Arizona n 10 or 11 years ago – I am the CNN producer who help Greg Weiner coordinate the Men of Arizona edition and gave the story top billing on our TV station and advocated the other networks in Phoenix to do the same which they did….

Anyway, here a misadventure which you might want to correct supported of course with documents such as phone records and e-mails.

Playgirl is lying to the media… Yes, read on. Yep they are:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/28/794956/-Levi-Johnston,-Playgirl-s-LGBT-Human-Rights-Connection

LeeAndrew

By: CNBClass

CNBClass — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:57:11 +0000

Does anyone remember Sweet Action Magazine? They were known as 'porn for girls-only' and photographed hot rocker types. If you donâ€™t remember it, you're not alone, it died quickly. Point being, the business model that Jessanne says she and her pro-female porn workers wanted simply doesnâ€™t work.

An article about relieving soggy menstrual blood opposite a sexy guy is a fucking stupid idea.

By: kitten_witawip

kitten_witawip — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:21:21 +0000

They could ad it as a tag.

By: kitten_witawip

kitten_witawip — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:20:14 +0000

The difference is that it was not always just a porno magazine in the sense that Playboy was not always just a whack it mag and at one point in history actually had editorial content.

Then Playgirl was bought by a porno publisher and not unlike movie porn producers they had no idea what women were interested in seeing and reading and no interest in finding out. So they hired a gay guy because everyone knows only gay men read Playgirl.

By: Natan

Natan — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:17:35 +0000

I was interested to learn that Dweezil Zappa was a goddamn piece of ass.

By: Bucko

Bucko — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:33:03 +0000

What an odd article. As if anyone cares what the "truth" of the matter is with respect to some porno magazine's management strategy. I can see why the author wants to be vindicated, but why is theAwl interested in providing her a platform to air her personal grievances?

By: MontaukMonster

MontaukMonster — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:12:02 +0000

A better title would have been: "Playgirl: How the Sausage is Made"

Then again, you sound a little too bitter to use humor.

By: ProfessorBen

ProfessorBen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:16:37 +0000

Right on; I do love your work by the way, and don't mean to be snarky. I hail from the midwest and it's always nice to read some smart commentary with that region in mind. (Though having spent a tiny bit of time in Alaska really don't think it's a stretch to call any part of it 'small town' – even Anchorage had many qualities related to 'small-town-ness'.)

By: Aatom

Aatom — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:12:44 +0000

Well played.

By: Abe Sauer

Abe Sauer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:31:46 +0000

I'm also not a managing editor complaining about the less intellectual direction direction my magazine took.

By: ProfessorBen

ProfessorBen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:28:58 +0000

Abe can you really fault a write their 'its' mistakes? I'd prefer calling your first sentence "breathless" than a run-on.

By: sunnyciegos

sunnyciegos — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:27:46 +0000

Oh hi!

By: jfruh

jfruh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:26:44 +0000

Abe, I'd say that, with interstate highways everywhere and the miles of infill sprawl said interstates spawn, there are very few places left that might qualify as true "small-town America," if you're going to get technical about it. Most towns that might have once been considered small towns are now less than 45 minutes of commuting time from some decently sized urban center of 50,000 people are more, and thus are more properly considered exurbs than small towns. And of course their small-town downtowns are completely empty, replaced by a string of big box stores on the edge of town near the freeway exit, thus further degrading their sense of place as a distinct locality. Of course there are still real small towns that exist more or less in isolation, but outside the very thinly populated states in the north-middle of the country, most people who may think of themselves as living in "small towns" are actually in outer-ring suburbs.

(This of course is beside the fact that most coastal elitists think of any city with less than 200,000 people as a "small town".)

By: Abe Sauer

Abe Sauer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:18:21 +0000

I'd agree with that, but add that he isn't really from that small of a town Wasilla is 6000 people but a suburb of 300,000+ Ankorage. It's like calling Westchesterites "small town" Americas. In this case I probably would have passed on it if not for the "nobody but lonely truckers in Midwestern gas stations…." bit.