There may be other 83-year-old men hovering in the vicinity of the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend, but it’s unlikely many of them will get the kind of attention expected to be lavished on Hugh Hefner.
The legendary Playboy founder is making an appearance in support of Oscar-winning filmmaker Brigitte Berman’s new documentary, Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel, which gets its world premiere at TIFF Saturday afternoon. As he is most of the time in public, Hef will be accompanied by his Playmate entourage. The warren has been pared down in recent years - perhaps the economy - but three of the bunnies will be making the trip to Toronto: Crystal Harris, 23. and 19-year old twins Karissa and Kristina Shannon, all residents of his famous Playboy mansion in LA.
And Hef may soon be an eligible bachelor again. He disclosed this week that he has finally filed for divorce, ending his 11-year estrangement from his wife, Kimberley Conrad, with whom he has two teen-age sons.
When we spoke on the phone, I reminded Hefner that the late basketball star Wilt Chamberlain had once boasted of having bedded 10,000 women.
“No,” he corrected me. “The figure was 20,000, and I’ve done the math on that and if it’s true, he would literally not have had time to do anything else.”
“Well, you know where I’m going with this,” I said. ‘How about you?”
After all, for six decades, the man has managed to enjoy the company of the world’s most nubile women.
Hef paused for a moment and then said, “Well, I’ve always believed in quality over quantity.”
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