What the heck? He's in his eighties.

I thought this was kind of funny.

Hugh Hefner continues to maintain the image that he's portrayed for decades. Not necessarily just the image of sexual liberation, but the whole "living the good life" image to which Playboy readers want to aspire. Buy the magazine, Hefner whispers, and you'll sip fine wine and smoke fine cigars.

But - surprise, surprise - the image doesn't necessarily jibe with the reality.

Here are some excerpts from a New York Times article:

The [Playboy] mansion...has seen better days. During a July visit, the game house (the one with a room that has a mattress as flooring) smelled musty, while the bird aviary needed scrubbing. That famous grotto, with its Jacuzzis of varied depth, seemed more like a fetid zoo exhibit than a pleasure palace (although nearby shelves were stocked with enormous bottles of Johnson’s Baby Oil).

In March, with the housing market in a nosedive, he put his wife’s home, located next door to the Playboy Mansion, up for sale for $28 million. It sold in August for $18 million....

Mr. Hefner’s retinue insists that money is not tight, but a series of actions has made it look that way. The Los Angeles Business Journal reported last year that the mansion’s staff had been cut. People can now buy tickets (up to $10,000 each) to what were once invitation-only parties, which remain a vital part of stoking the Playboy brand.

But this one was the most interesting:

Former live-in girlfriends, including those who have appeared on “The Girls Next Door,” have portrayed him in interviews and a book as a control freak who enforces a curfew of 9 p.m.

Hefner lives with three young women, and he puts them to bed by 9:00 pm? The man doesn't need Viagra, he needs coffee.