Entertainment
Crystal Hefner urges Jessica Biel to reconsider playing Hugh Hefner's wife in "Playmates"
Hefner's widow sent Biel a message urging her not to glamorize the Playboy founder. She alleges abuse during their marriage.
Crystal Hefner has a request for Jessica Biel: rethink her new role as the wife of Hugh Hefner.
Word broke this week that Biel had signed on to "Playmates," a film set in the world of Playboy. The movie is not a biography and Hefner is a supporting character. Bill Pullman takes on the Playboy founder while Biel plays an invented version of his spouse.
The message
Crystal, who wed Hugh Hefner in 2012 and was his wife when he died in 2017, posted the private Instagram note she sent the actress. In it she describes the marriage as abusive physically, sexually, emotionally and financially. She adds that she is far from the only woman to say so. Hugh Hefner is no longer alive to answer them.
She also cites what she calls troubling concerns about minors. She asks Biel to reconsider if the project romanticizes Hefner or the Playboy world and urges others involved to think about whether they are helping polish the brand.
About the film
"Playmates" centers on a 13-year-old connected to the Playboy Mansion. She helps a would-be model land a magazine cover and gets help with her own crush in return. Biel has not publicly responded.
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