Last week, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner died. He was 91.
He was an intensely controversial man, but he had no shortage of admirers.
Which is why the details of his funeral may surprise you. …
You’d expect a celebrity funeral to be, at the very least, the size of a normal funeral.
That would mean dozens to hundreds of attendees.
Some celebrities have larger funerals for their many different costars and business associates to attend.
Obviously, Hugh Hefner made no shortage of business contacts during his long life and lengthy career.
On top of that, he lived a larger-than-life existence. He was known for wearing his signature red robe. He
So it’s a little surprising to hear that his funeral was uncharacteristically low-key.
TMZ reports that Hugh Hefner’s funeral was on Saturday, at noon, in L.A.’s Westwood Village Memorial Park.
Hef’s four children, his wife Crystal Harris (who inherits none of his fortune), and some key Playboy staffers were in attendance. That was it.
It was a small, private ceremony. Nice, but downplayed.
Hef’s body was interred beside Marilyn Monroe’s, in a plot that he bought very deliberately in 1992 for $ 75,000.
And we have to talk about the fact that his body is resting beside Marilyn Monroe’s, even if it necessitates speaking ill of the dead.
Because … in no way is this not creepy.
When Hef launched Playboy, he obtained old photographs of Marilyn Monroe from before she was rich and famous.
As a teen, she had taken photos to obtain some much-needed cash. Hef bought the photos and the rights to distribute them and used them for his new business.
Marilyn, at the time, was terrified that it would ruin her career.
Many people have called out that Hef’s desire to be laid to rest beside her is creepy to the max and even a sort of violation.
(Even though, you know, they’re not alive anymore … the creepiness of it all still lingers)
That’s hardly the only thing about Hugh Hefner’s history that makes people uncomfortable.
As revealed by Holly Madison, not everything was necessarily as it seemed within the Playboy Mansion itself.
Reportedly, Hugh Hefner offered drugs to his girlfriends to make them more open to sex.
He also allegedly fostered a competitive environment in which the women competed with each other for his favor.
Furthermore, Holly says that Hugh would routinely reduce his girlfriends to tears, talking down to them, which sounds like emotional abuse and a pretty standard tactic used by people who want to keep others dependent on their praise and affection.
Kendra Wilkinson praises Hef’s name to this day and refutes Holly Madison’s version of their time at the mansion.
But it’s not uncommon at all for two people in what seems like the same position (that’s not a sex joke) to have very, very different experiences.
Other criticisms of Hugh Hefner include that he historically presented himself as a supporter of women’s rights, gay rights, and rights for people of color while all the time building a business that profited from images of blonde white women that catered to men.
He would neither be the first nor the last figure to receive acclaim for being progressive while seeming to do more to use and profit from women than actually help them.
(Joss Whedon, anyone?)
Of course, those who have compared Hugh Hefner to the likes of Woody Allen or Bill Cosby … need to chill the f–k out and are definitely in need of a reality check.
