Hefner hasn't overseen the production and publication of the Playboy magazine editions (save for his rountine weekly inspection of the photographic prints, and the Playmate spreads) for most of what has been the past two decades, when in 1994, he gave over most of the "overseer" and editor-in-charge rights to his daughter, then instituted those rights officialy several months later.
I'm not sure what the point of that relevant piece of factual history has to do with the brand of the Playboy empire, other than to simply state that nowadays, the title and worldwide name of Hugh Hefner is seen as just the simple creator of Playboy, but he is also the ambassador to a lifestyle of excess sexual simplicity he helped create and bring into the average gentelmen's home.
He also routinely holds charity events and galas, but the guy is just an old retired man in a bathrobe now, sure, with a stamp of success, so I don't think its much of an argument that what he has, or hasn't, done in the past several years with his global brand and publication should rest squarely on his shoulders. I do think it would have been wise of him to relinquish his powers at a more even and gradual pace for his magazine, instead of giving them all up at once, and maintaining the illusion as though he still was the "guiding hand" during and after the Anna Nicole + Pamela years, but with exception of Karen McDougal, and the 50th Anniversary Playmate, I don't think that Hefner ever personally lobbied one way or the other for one girl he saw as really "special", and he probably just had a vote of whether a woman is fine enough to be a playmate of the month, whether she may need more time to mature, or whether it may be best to forget about this candidate.
I think I got quite too specific into the titles and privileges of one Mr. Hefner, but the simply stated notion I had is: I believe he retired his Playboy commissioner hat some 15-odd years ago, and now, sometime bordering too late, and where the hell were you? doe he find it imperative to not let his 5-or-6-plus decades of work just simply get washed away by the dying industry of print, as well as what his publication loosely now falls under the umbrella category of "pornography", and their curent problems of how to genereate the revenue they once benefitted from indulging.
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As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves. —Mohandas K. Gandhi
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