Playgirl is an American magazine that historically featured pictorials of nude and semi-nude men alongside general interest, lifestyle, celebrity journalism, and original fiction. For most of its history, the magazine printed monthly and was marketed mainly to women, though it developed a significant gay male readership.
Since its founding, Playgirl has existed as a monthly and quarterly publication, in print-only, digital-only, and hybrid formats. From 1973–2009, the magazine was issued in a monthly print format, before transitioning to a quarterly print publication in 2009. Regular print operations were paused from 2016–2020, with only an online presence maintained. In November 2020, the magazine relaunched with a 10,000 print run in the U.S. and United Kingdom, before selling out and returning to press for a second printing. After that relaunch, the magazine resumed monthly releases as an online, digital publication.
History
Playgirl magazine was founded in 1973 by Los Angeles-based nightclub owner Douglas Lambert, who'd initially explored creating a men's lifestyle magazine featuring nude women to compete with Hugh Hefner's Playboy. At the suggestion of his wife, and inspired by the success of Helen Gurley Brown's use of male nudes in Cosmopolitan magazine (including a shoot featuring film star Burt Reynolds), Lambert refashioned his idea as a feminist response to Playboy and Penthouse instead. featuring television and film star Lyle Waggoner as centerfold and an interview and nude photoshoot with actor Ryan McDonald. Editorial in the issue included a travel pictorial on Hong Kong, long-form interview with actress Cloris Leachman, original fiction by Jillian Charles, and a guide to selecting artwork for the home. Editorially, the magazine covered hot-button sociopolitical issues like abortion and equal rights for the majority of its print run. In the magazine's first decade, it typically did so via long-form journalism, commentary, and feature interviews from well-regarded staff and freelance writers. and was subsequently acquired by Drake Publishers, Inc. After Drake's acquisition of the title, the restructured magazine began featuring simplified beefcake-style covers (usually highlighting a model from the issue in underwear or speedo-style swimwear), and implemented changes to cut costs and expand readership in an increasingly conservative and less feminist-friendly cultural environment of the late Reagan era. This resulted in substantial reductions in the in-depth, substantive journalism, political and social feminist commentary the magazine was known for, a decrease in non-pictorial pages, and an increase in advertising space.
Crescent's experiments in the 1990s with the publication of celebrity nudes acquired from external sources—including art nudes alleged to be actor Antonio Banderas and intrusive paparazzi photos of actor Brad Pitt (both presented as cover stories), proved short-lived after a series of expensive legal losses and settlements with Banderas, Pitt, and others. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio successfully sued to stop publication of photographs taken without his knowledge, and the pressure from Crescent to publish the photos led to the resignation of Editor-in-Chief, Ceslie Armstrong, who called the photographs "an invasion of privacy [that] I can't be associated with."
By the 2000s, Crescent had fully repositioned the title as an adult brand, relaunching Playgirl<nowiki/>'s website as a pay site primarily featuring co-branded hardcore straight pornography, and increasing explicit content in the print magazine. In November 2001, Crescent agreed to pay $30 million in refunds and subsequently changed its name to Blue Horizon Media, Inc.
In August 2008, the magazine announced that it would cease publication of its print edition as of the January 2009 issue.
Blue Horizon
In 2011, Blue Horizon sold the print rights for Playgirl and other titles to Magna Publishing Group, Inc. of Paramus, New Jersey, and the magazine continued to publish as a print title, approximately quarterly, until 2016, when with print subscriptions dwindling to approximately 3,000 the title ceased regular print operations.
2020 relaunch and current era
In 2020, new owner Jack Lindley Kuhns, a gay man, revived the title, relaunching the "New Playgirl Magazine" with a special print edition, featuring a pregnant and nude actress Chloe Sevigny on the cover (a nod to both Playgirl<nowiki/>'s feminist roots and the magazine's early issues, which often featured women on the cover), edited by Skye Parrott. The issue, described by Kuhns as "part political magazine and part art magazine" featured images of nude bodies of all ethnicities and genders, as well as writing about racial injustice, trans empowerment, and body positivity and sold out immediately.
Since the 2020 relaunch, the magazine has moved to a regular publishing cycle as an online-only title split across two domains: Playgirl.com, a free site featuring a mix of news, features, and photo essays, and PlaygirlPlus.com, a subscription site where access to the publication's archives and the magazine's traditional "Man of the Month" nude photospread, modernized with additional video and multimedia content, are hosted. Nicole Caldwell, a former editor-in-chief during the magazine's print run, oversees the online iteration in the same capacity. Under the direction Caldwell, Boardman, and production director Daniel McKernan, the brand has refocused on the traditional male physique and art nude composition the magazine is historically known for, incorporating additional video and multi-media content, moving away from the more explicit depictions of the print magazine's final years and reembracing the magazine's roots. Both domains highlight the decades of substantive journalism, commentary, fiction, and pictorials from the magazine's archives, presenting them in newly digitized formats. Olympian Greg Louganis disclosed in his autobiography that he hadn't wanted to do his shoot, but felt pressured to do as a marketing vehicle (to bolster the heterosexual "heartthrob" appeal of the then-closeted diver). Singer Johnny Mathis, unhappy with the results of his shoot, requested his feature not run (the magazine agreed), while NFL player Bob Chandler, who posed shortly after his team won the Super Bowl, was pleased with his layout, and displayed a framed shot in his home.
Actor Marcus Patrick claimed then-editors' use of photos more explicit than agreed cost him his role on the daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives, and singer Urban jokingly called posing pre-superstardom a "career regret", finding the photos, which featured him posing nude and in underwear with his guitar, embarrassing. Conversely, musician Peter Steele expressed strong regret for his unusually explicit shoot, reportedly repulsed by the attention he garnered from gay fans. Others, like straight soap opera actor John Gibson, found the attention from male and female fans equally flattering, with Gibson specifically crediting the positive attention from his Playgirl appearance for his career shift and subsequent success as an actor, model, and dancer.
While celebrities and public figures from many walks of life—including the military, circus arts, and politics—have posed nude for Playgirl, the majority of the magazine's high-profile nude models have come from the worlds of film and television acting, professional and world-class athletics (mostly professional baseball, football, and Olympic athletes), and music, including well-known pop, rock, metal, and rap artists. Actor Christopher Atkins once again graced the cover of the July 2025 issue. A new Greg Gorman photoshoot with Atkins was conducted for the issue.
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Celebrities and notable public figures who posed for Playgirl pictorials
|-
! width="10" |Year
! width="80" |Issue
! width="85" |Type
! width="150" |Style
! width="200" |Name
! width="400" |Field/Notability
|-
| rowspan="12" |1973
|January <small>(preview issue)</small>
|centerfold
|obscured full nude
|Mike Hiss
|professional race car driver
|-
|February/March
<small>(preview issue)</small>
|centerfold
|obscured full nude
|The Hager Twins
|singers, variety show stars <small>(Hee Haw)</small>, actors <small>(The Bionic Woman, Twin Detectives)</small>
|-
| rowspan="2" | June
| centerfold
|obscured full nude
| Lyle Waggoner
| actor <small>(The Carol Burnett Show, Wonder Woman)</small>
|-
| celebrity nude
|obscured full nude
| Ryan McDonald
| actor <small>(The Odd Couple, Days of Our Lives)</small>
|-
| July
|centerfold
|frontal nude
| George Maharis
| Emmy Award-nominated actor <small>(Route 66, The Most Deadly Game),</small> singer
|-
| rowspan="2" | August
|centerfold
|obscured full nude
| Gary Conway
| actor <small>(Burke's Law, Land of the Giants)</small> and screenwriter
|-
|feature
|rear, obscured nude
|Alan Landers
|actor, model <small>(The Winston Man)</small>
|-
| September
|centerfold
|obscured full nude
| Fabian Forte
| singer, actor <small>(The Longest Day),</small> Emmy Award-nominated producer
|-
|October
|centerfold
|obscured full nude
|Fred Williamson
|professional football player, actor <small>(Black Caesar, Julia)</small>
|-
|November
|centerfold
|frontal nude
|Don Stroud
|actor <small>(The Amityville Horror, Mrs. Colombo),</small> stuntman
|-
| June
|centerfold
|obscured full nude
| Cristopher George
| actor <small>(Grizzly)</small>
|-
|December
|centerfold
|frontal nude
|Jean-Paul Vignon
|French singer, TV host, actor <small>(The French Atlantic Affair, The Rockford Files)</small>
|-
| rowspan="10" |1974
| rowspan="2" |January
|celebrity nude
|rear, obscured full nude
|John Ericson
|actor <small>(Honey West, Stalag 17 original Broadway cast)</small>
|-
|feature
|frontal nude
| Sonny Landham
| actor <small>(48 Hours, Predator)</small>, politician
|-
|April
|centerfold
|frontal nude
|Peter Lupus
|actor <small>(Mission: Impossible),</small> champion bodybuilder
|-
| rowspan="2" |June
|group feature
|frontal nude
|San Diego State Rugby Team
|athletic team
|-
|feature
|frontal nude
|Angie Reno
|world champion professional surfer
|-
|July
|feature
|frontal nude
|Lou Zivkovich
|professional football player
|-
|August
|centerfold
|frontal nude
|Greg Rogers, Ron Rogers
|Australian swimmers, Olympians, Olympic medalist <small>(Gregg)</small>
|-
| rowspan="2" |September
|centerfold
|frontal nude
|Jim Brown
|professional football player <small>(Pro Football Hall of Fame)</small>, actor <small>(The Dirty Dozen, 100 Rifles),</small> Emmy Award-nominated broadcaster
|-
|feature
|frontal nude
|Mike Purpus
|champion professional surfer
|-
|November
|centerfold
|frontal nude
|Phil Avalon
|Australian actor and producer
|-
| rowspan="4" |1975
|April
|centerfold
|frontal nude
|John Gibson
|actor <small>(The Young and the Restless, The Warriors)</small> and dancer
|-
|June
|centerfold
|frontal nude
|Sam J. Jones
|actor <small>(Flash Gordon, The Highwayman)</small> and professional football player
|-
|September
|
|frontal nude
|
|Mexican telenovela actor, singer
|-
|October
|feature
|frontal nude
|Steve Bond
|actor <small>(General Hospital, Picasso Trigger)</small>
|-
|1976
|January
|centerfold
|frontal nude
|Jimmy Cavaretta
|celebrity trapeze artist, television personality
|-
|1977
|February
|centerfold
|frontal nude
|Dick Baney
|professional baseball player
|-
| rowspan="2" |1980
|November
|group feature
|frontal nude
|Eric Martin and Kid Courage
|musician, rock band
|-
|December
|centerfold
|rear, obscured full nude
|Dan Pastorini <small>#1</small>
|professional football player
|-
| rowspan="2" |1981
|July
|feature
|obscured full nude
|Dan Ford
|professional baseball player
|-
|December
|feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Bob Chandler
|professional football player <small>(Rose Bowl MVP, Super Bowl XV winner)</small>
|-
| rowspan="5" |1982
|January
|return feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Dan Pastorini <small>#2</small>
|professional football player <small>(Super Bowl XV winner)</small>
|-
|July
|feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Leon Isaac Kennedy
|actor <small>(Body and Soul, Lone Wolf McQuade)</small>, disc jockey, playwright
|-
|September
|feature
|frontal nude
|Christopher Atkins
|actor <small>(The Blue Lagoon, Dallas)</small>
|-
|October
|feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Steve Yeager
|professional baseball player <small>(World Series MVP)</small>
|-
|December
|feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|John Matuszak
|professional football player and actor <small>(The Goonies)</small>
|-
| rowspan="5" |1983
| rowspan="2" |January
| rowspan="2" |feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Tommy Chong
|actor <small>(Cheech & Chong, That 70s Show),</small> Grammy Award-winning comedian
|-
|frontal nude
|Don Williams
|professional football player
|-
|April
|feature
|obscured full nude, underwear
|Bubba Smith
|professional football player
|-
|June
|feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Warren Cuccurullo <small>#1</small>
|musician <small>(Duran Duran, Missing Persons)</small>
|-
|July
|feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Steve Stone
|professional baseball player <small>(Cy Young Award)</small>, Emmy Award-winning broadcaster
|-
|1984
|January
|feature
|obscured full nude
|Glenn Morrissey
|actor <small>(Emerald Point N.A.S., Force: Five)</small>
|-
|1985
|October
|feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Héctor Camacho <small>#1</small>
|Puerto Rican boxing champion
|-
|
|December
|feature
|obscured full nude, underwear
|Eric Dickerson
|professional football player
|-
| rowspan="3" |1986
|March
|feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Brian Pockar
|Canadian Olympic figure skater, national champion
|-
| rowspan="2" |August
|cover story
|rear nude
|David Lee Roth
|singer <small>(Van Halen)</small>
|-
|feature
|frontal nude
|Steven Pearcy
|singer and musician (<small>Ratt</small>)
|-
| rowspan="2" |1987
|August
|feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Greg Louganis
|diver, Olympic medalist
|-
|April
|feature
|rear nudity
|Jeff O'Haco
|actor <small>(Return to Lonesome Dove, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman)</small>, stuntman
|-
|1989
|April
|cover story
|underwear
|Frank Dicopoulous
|actor <small>(Guiding Light, Forever and a Day)</small>
|-
| rowspan="2" |1991
|May
|cover story
|obscured full nude, underwear
|Kip Winger
|Grammy Award-nominated musician <small>(Winger)</small>
|-
|June
|feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Big Daddy Kane
|Grammy Award-winning rapper, producer
|-
| rowspan="3" |1994
|January
|feature
|frontal nude
|Frank Sepe <small>#1</small>
|fitness celebrity, author, model
|-
|September
|cover story
|obscured full nude, underwear
|Chayanne
|Grammy Award-nominated Puerto Rican singer and actor
|-
|November
|group feature
|frontal nude
|Vincent Princiotta
|NYC firefighter <small>(fallen 9/11 first responder)</small>
|-
| rowspan="2" |1995
|October
|feature
|frontal nude
|Hermann Eastmond
|Pan-American Games medalist, national team athlete
|-
|August
|cover story
|frontal nude <small>(explicit)</small>
|Peter Steele
|musician <small>(Type O Negative)</small>
|-
| rowspan="2" |1996
|August
|feature
|frontal nude
|Father MC
|rapper, Grammy Award-nominated producer
|-
|October
|cover story
|obscured full nude
|Shawn Michaels
|professional wrestler (world champion)
|-
| rowspan="3" |1998
|January
|feature
|frontal nude
|Frank Sepe <small>#2</small>
|professional bodybuilder, author, model
|-
|May
|feature
|frontal nude
|Robert John Burk
|celebrity street performer <small>(The Naked Cowboy),</small> model
|-
|Digital
|PG Extras
|frontal nude <small>(explicit)</small>
|Warren Cuccurullo <small>#2</small>
|musician <small>(Duran Duran, Missing Persons)</small>
|-
| rowspan="3" |2000
|October
|cover story
|obscured full nude
|Christian Boeving
|actor <small>(Kingdom of Heaven, When Eagles Strike),</small> extreme athlete <small>(Battle Dome)</small>
|-
|January
|cover story
|rear, obscured full nude
|Victor Webster
|actor <small>(Days of Our Lives, The Matchmaker Mysteries)</small>
|-
|May
|cover story
|rear, obscured full nude
|Winsor Harmon
|actor <small>(All My Children, The Bold and the Beautiful)</small>
|-
|2002
|September
|cover story
|underwear
|James Hyde
|actor <small>(Passions, Monarca)</small>
|-
|2001
|April
|cover story
|obscured full nude
|Keith Urban
|Grammy Award-winning singer
|-
|2003
|May
|feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Darryl Worley
|CMA-nominated singer
|-
| rowspan="2" |2006
|April
|feature
|obscured full nude
|Brendon Small
|actor, comedian, musician <small>(Metalocalypse)</small>
|-
|June
|feature
|frontal nude
|Danny Lopes
|actor <small>(Desecration, Satan's Playground)</small>
|-
| rowspan="2" |2007
|April
|feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Vito LoGrasso
|professional wrestler
|-
|September
|cover story
|frontal nude
|Marcus Patrick
|actor <small>(Days of Our Lives, All My Children)</small>
|-
| rowspan="4" |2010
|Winter #1
|feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Levi Johnston
|political celebrity
|-
| rowspan="2" |Summer
|cover story
|frontal nude
|Ronnie Kroell
|actor, politician, reality TV star <small>(Make Me a Super Model)</small>
|-
|return feature
|frontal nude
|Héctor Camacho <small>#2</small>
|Puerto Rican boxing champion
|-
|Winter #2
|cover story
|frontal nude <small>(explicit)</small>
|Phil Varone
|musician <small>(Skid Row)</small>
|-
| rowspan="2" |2011
|Spring
|cover story
|frontal nude
|Tim Boyce
|supermodel
|-
|Fall
|cover story
|frontal nude
|Joey Kovar
|reality TV star <small>(The Real World),</small> bodybuilder
|-
| rowspan="3" |2013
|Spring
|cover story
|rear, obscured full nude
|Filippo Giove
|reality TV star <small>(Jerseylicious)</small>
|-
|Summer
|cover story
|frontal nude <small>(explicit)</small>
|Nick Hawk
|model, reality TV star <small>(Gigolos)</small>
|-
|October
|digital feature
|rear, obscured full nude
|Mike Shouhed
|reality TV star <small>(Shahs of Sunset)</small>
|-
| rowspan="4" |2024
|March
|digital feature
|underwear
|Maluma
|Grammy Award-winning singer
|-
|April
|digital feature, video
|underwear <small>(all)</small>, obscured full nude <small>(Telfer, video only)</small>
|Bryan Dattilo, Eric Martsolf, Paul Telfer, Robert Scott Wilson, Christopher Sean
|actors <small>(Days of Our Lives - all, Hawaii Five-0, Star Wars: Resistance - Sean, Emmy Award-winner - Marsolf)</small>
|-
|August
|digital feature
|underwear
|Lucky Daye
|Grammy Award-nominated singer and songwriter
|-
|December
|digital feature, video
|rear, obscured full nude <small>(video only)</small>
|Gleb Savchenko
|professional dancer <small>(Dancing with the Stars)</small>
|-
| rowspan="2" |2025
|January
|digital, feature
|underwear, rear nude
|NLE Choppa
|rapper
|-
|July
|digital feature, cover story
|
|Christopher Atkins
|actor
|}
Readership and gay following
Though the magazine was mainly marketed to heterosexual women, it developed a substantial gay male following. In 2003, then-editor-in-chief Michele Zipp acknowledged the magazine's gay readership, noting "it's 'Entertainment for Women' because there's no other magazine out there that caters to women in the way we do [but]...we love our gay readers as well, and the gay readership [of the magazine] is about 30%."
Dirk Shafer, one of the gay men featured, later produced a comic mockumentary titled Man of the Year in which he discussed balancing his own homosexuality with his role as Playgirl<nowiki/>'s "Man of the Year", a seemingly heterosexual sex symbol. While the magazine always presented its models as heterosexual, openly gay models have appeared in the magazine, including Scott Merritt, Playgirl's 30th-anniversary centerfold, who came out publicly in an interview with The Advocate. Some models featured over the magazine's print run also posed for gay-focused publications or worked in the gay adult entertainment industry.
- At the start of the 1980 horror film The Shining, Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, reads the January 1978 issue of Playgirl while waiting for the tour of the Overlook Hotel to begin.
- The third episode of MTV's Jackass season six (airing in 2002) is entitled "Playgirl Pontius" and features cast member Chris Pontius shooting nude photographs for Playgirl magazine.
- Cal Naughton Jr, a fictional race car driver played by John C. Reilly in the 2006 film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, reveals he'd previously posed as Mike Honcho for Playgirl
- A 2010 "April Fools" episode on Smosh, an American comedy YouTube channel, entitled "Anthony Poses for Playgirl?!" pranked viewers with a fake announcement that one of the channel's co-hosts had posed for the magazine
- In the 2019 episode of the sitcom Modern Family, the discovery of Mitchell Pritchett's old Playgirl magazine makes his husband, comically jealous.
- During the 2011 season of reality series A List: New York, cast member Austin Armacost shoots test photos and considers posing for Playgirl
- The protagonist of the 2017 film Lady Bird, portrayed by Saoirse Ronan, celebrates turning 18 years old by purchasing a Playgirl magazine.
- The 2022-2023 television dramedy Minx, followed the creation and running of a Playgirl-like magazine in the mid-1970s (the same time period the real-life magazine was founded)
Other versions
Playgirl is available in English and has been published in a number of other languages and international English-language editions during its history:
- Germany (1978–1980 and 1989–2003)
- France (1978)
- Australia (1985–88) and as Interlude in 1991
- Netherlands (1987–88)
- United Kingdom (1992–93, 2011)
- Spain (1992–93)
- South Africa (1995)
- Brazil (1985)
- Russia (2004–09)
- Japan (1986–2015)
When the Russian version of Playgirl was launched in June 2004, it contained photographs of nude, circumcised American men despite circumcision's being less common outside the U.S., being practiced mainly by Muslims and Jews in Russia.
Playgirl UK<nowiki>'</nowiki>s brief 2011 relaunch was accompanied by an announcement that it would feature no below-the-waist nudity, and would focus on attractive male celebrities rather than models and pornography actors. It was a failure, and ceased circulation soon after it began.
See also
- Feminist pornography
- Sex-positive movement
- Sexual revolution
- G Magazine
- Cosmopolitan Magazine
References
External links
- – Playgirl+