Exclusive Interview: Jennifer Saginor, Playboy Insider

Hugh Hefner’s engagement to 24-year-old Playmate Crystal Harris has reinvigorated interest in the goings-on at the Playboy mansion. Jennifer Saginor is the daughter of Hefner’s personal physician, “Dr. Feelgood,” who made a name for himself during the 30 years he lived there. Saginor grew up in the Playboy mansion and wrote about it in her 2005 memoir, Playground: A Childhood Lost Inside the Playboy Mansion, which depicted her life in the mansion as a drug- and sex-fueled whirlwind that barely left her emotionally and physically intact.

Saginor spoke exclusively to me about the Playboy brand, how it’s changed since her girlhood, and why young women should be aware of what they might have to experience on their way to becoming one of Hef’s girlfriends.

How do you think the portrayal of the Playboy brand has changed from the 1980s, when you were growing up in the mansion, to now?

As a result of The Girls Next Door, the Playboy brand is viewed as so much more acceptable and mainstream. When I was growing up in elementary school and high school, it was not something that was viewed with any respect. It’s now cool to be a Playmate. It looks like this light, fun party atmosphere instead of what our society saw as some outcast, dirty, trashy brand. Now my straight college friends who are very conservative are watching it because it’s on TV in their living rooms. I mean, Playboy energy drinks are now sold at gas stations.

It’s superficial and fun, and it doesn’t seem like pornography anymore — I think that’s the biggest influence on society. And his image is, of course, this forever playboy. He’s living every man’s dream — he’s living the magazine. He’s on his third marriage, he’s 84, and he’s marrying this young, hot 24-year-old blonde. He’s living the brand that he created.

What’s another thing that’s changed?

In the past, I never saw his girlfriends work. Ever. I mean, maybe they would have a manager, but aside from being in Playboy, I never saw them actually, really get many parts, in regards to acting. Maybe a small, little teeny part here and there, but definitely it wasn’t something that Hefner pushed.

Most people probably don’t realize that how the show looks isn’t reality.

From, say, Kendra [Wilkinson]’s perspective, everything looks really light and fun. People don’t really know what’s going on. It’s relatable to teens and 20-somethings because now they’re striving to be Playmates, and all they see is to become Hefner’s girlfriend, it means that you’re going to be rich and famous.

Sure, [Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Wilkinson] are rich and famous now, but at what cost? Somewhere along the lines, did they compromise themselves or their values? How about your neighbor’s daughter or your cousin? What will she have to endure in order to become Hefner’s girlfriend, the number-one girlfriend, or married to him? What we’re not being shown is what’s really going on behind closed doors and how much young girls are willing to sacrifice to reach their goal and perpetuate this trendy image.

You’re right: The fans are so young now these days. At Kendra Wilkinson’s book signings, if you look at the audience, I mean, it’s all very young women.

I think that these girls — young girls — are willing to go to any length for money and fame, and I don’t agree with portraying this image. I don’t think it’s a depiction that represents a girl living up to her full potential in life, whether it’s within herself or giving back to society.

They’re buying into a brand in which they end up… I mean, I don’t know if [the most recent girlfriends] are compromising themselves, because I don’t know these girls intimately. Maybe they’re not. Maybe they don’t mind doing whatever they think they need to do to get where they want to be. But it’s definitely not an accurate depiction of what it is they’re going to have to go through and what it is that they’re going to have to do in order to get there. What are they doing when they’re his girlfriend, and what are they going to do to get on TV?

I know exactly what you’re saying: Shouldn’t young women be aspiring to more than being part of a harem?

It’s just striving to be rich and famous, not even knowing the hoops that you’re going to have to jump through to get there. They say, “I want to live this life of wearing fancy clothes and getting all dressed up to go to parties, and having this really fun, exciting life, and having cameras everywhere following me.” That’s what it looks like — living this Barbie doll existence. [Young girls are] sending their pictures in, they’re trying to go to the parties, the clubs, they’re trying to go anywhere to be seen. I’ve met so many girls who have tried to do that.

And when they get to the mansion, how much are they going to have to compromise themselves and their values and who they are to get to what it is that they think they want?

Where do you think the brand is going to go in the future?

I think the brand is just going to continue. I think he is the brand. So as long as he’s alive, I think this image is going to continue. That’s my opinion. He is living Playboy and living what he created. So as long as he’s alive, this is what it is.

Saginor’s forthcoming book, Medicated: Letters From Rehab, picks up from the onset of The Girls Next Door and continues to present day. She is looking for the right publisher.