LOS ANGELES -- A spokesman for Playboy magazine denied a former playmate's allegations that the publication gave drugs to models and urged them to participate in orgies to satisfy publisher Hugh Hefner's 'interests.'
Miki Garcia, who appeared in Playboy as Miss January 1973, told the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography Thursday that Hefner's security force helped cover up the discovery of an international ring of call girls in which 'more than one' playmate was involved.
'I want the public to recognize that Playboy magazine is not the 'coffee table' literature that Hugh Hefner says it is, but rather a pornographic magazine,' she said.
Garcia, also claimed that Hefner fed women drugs and coerced them into bisexual acts and orgies at his Los Angeles mansion to 'satisfy (his) interests.'
Garcia, 40, said she was director of Playmate Promotions from 1976 to 1982 and was told by models about sexual, mental and physical abuse, drug addiction, attempted suicide and prostitution.
Although models complained they were harassed by advertisers, Playboy allowed the abuse to continue because it was good for business, Garcia charged, saying that Playboy's attitude is: 'You are now a playmate. Don't be so stuffy. It's all right to do this. It's LA chic. She falls prey to this.'
Playboy issued a statement later denying the allegations.
'The only thing factual in Miss Garcia's testimony was that she was a Playboy employee from April 1976 to May 1982,' said spokesman Don Rogers.
'This ex-employee has been attempting to peddle a book about Playboy which has been rejected by every publisher to whom it has been submitted. The (Attorney General Edwin) Meese Commission and Miss Garcia are apparently using each other to further their respective questionable ends.'
The federal commission heard and saw other graphic testimony Thursday.
'I was not acutely aware of the severity of the sadomasochistic material being produced or of the commercial production of child pornography, which certainly appears to be more than just a cottage industry among pedophiles,' said commission member Deanne Tilton.
The 11-member commission has already held hearings in Washington, Chicago and Houston, and more are scheduled this year in Miami and New York.
In addition to the former playmate, the commission heard Thursday from sex film producers, parents, undercover vice investigators and others who spoke about conventional pornography, as well as such recent innovations as dial-a-porn phone messages and the burgeoning market for sex movie video cassettes.
