Playgirl

Playgirl is a monthly erotic lifestyle magazine published in the United States that features seminude or fully nude men. The magazine was founded in 1973 during the height of the feminist movement as a response to erotic men's magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse that featured similar photos of women.

Related Topics:
Erotic - Magazine - United States - 1973 - Feminist - Erotic men's magazines - Playboy - Penthouse

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Marketed as a magazine for heterosexual women, Playgirl editors acknowledge at least 25 percent of its readership are gay men.

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In a failed publicity stunt, Playgirl offered Charles, Prince of Wales $45,000 to appear nude in a centerfold in 1990. In another publicity stunt, the magazine published a nude pictorial called "The Men of Enron" in September 2002 in which the former Enron employees "lost their shirts". Unlike Playboy, Playgirl has not been successful in persuading many celebrities to disrobe, nor have any of its nude models risen to major stardom in films, the most famous of which is likely Sam J. Jones who went on to play Flash Gordon in a 1980 film several years after his nude layout. The magazine occasionally runs layouts of soap opera stars or singers which usually are no more than beefcake shots that could run in any mainstream magazine. The magazine has featured photographs of various celebrities, including Leonardo DiCaprio from movie scenes or in Brad Pitt's case, published candid shots of him that he did not approve. The magazine has often used photographs of movie stars and celebrities on the cover but these stars are usually just interviewed or profiled and do not appear in a nude layout.

Related Topics:
Charles, Prince of Wales - 1990 - Enron - 2002 - Playboy - Sam J. Jones - Flash Gordon - Beefcake - Leonardo DiCaprio - Brad Pitt

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Each year, the magazine publishes a list of celebrity Ten Sexiest Men and selects one of the centerfolds from the past year as Man of the Year. One of these men, Dirk Shafer, later produced a comic mock-documentary titled "Man of the Year" in which he revealed he was gay.

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As of 2003, the magazine was published by New York-based company Playgirl, Inc., which is the registered owner of the Playgirl trademark.

Related Topics:
As of 2003 - New York

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