Crystal Harris, Hugh Hefner’s ex-wife, is urging Jessica Biel to rethink her decision to feature a fictionalized version of the Playboy founder’s wife in Lorraine Nicholson’s film. Playmates.
Harris posted a screenshot of an Instagram message she sent to 7th heaven actress after her casting announcement this week. In the post, she wrote: “Please reconsider playing Hugh Hefner’s wife if this film intends to romanticize him or the Playboy world. I was actually his wife and suffered sexual, emotional, financial and physical abuse in that relationship.”
Harris and Hefner were married from 2012 to 2017, until the time of his death. She spoke about her experience as a wife and her memoir 2024; Harris also spoke out against her foundation’s handling of Hefner’s private materials in February, particularly explicit albums, which she said “may include images of girls who were minors at the time and could not consent to how their images would be maintained or controlled.”
In Harris’ message to Biel, she added: “Many other women have also come forward with allegations of rape, coercion, drugging and exploitation. There are also deeply troubling concerns regarding minors. I hope everyone involved in this film takes the time to listen to the women who lived through it before helping Hollywood turn it into nostalgia.”
Playmates will mark Nicholson’s directorial debut, which will be inspired by her frequent visits to the Playboy mansion as a child. Lily-Rose Depp will star alongside Indiana Elle, who played Amanda Seyfried’s daughter in The cleaning lady. Bill Pullman will play the role of Hefner.
By Searchlight Pictures, Playmates focuses on “She, a 13-year-old know-it-all who considers the Playboy mansion her second home, meets Anna, one of seven contestants vying to be Playmate of the Month. The two form an unlikely friendship as each tries to help get what the other wants most, a magazine cover and a boy.”
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