Was Barbara Walters Once a Playboy Bunny, and Other Playboy Questions?

Answer a series of forehead-slapping anecdotal factoids. It's up to you to weigh each fact in each anecdotal factoid. They're tricky. One might seem like total B.S. until it's revealed to be strangely and disturbingly "True." Another anecdotal factoid might seem to contain all solid and verifiable facts until it's revealed to be yet one more big fat garden variety "Bald-Faced Lie." And here's the trickiest part: an anecdotal factoid might even be "Half-True"; in other words, a mishmosh of truths and bald-faced lies, where you don't know where one ends and the other begins, much like the usual slop served by Madison Avenue, Washington D.C., and the Internet in its entirety.

Category: Viagra's Best Friend Quiz

Decide for yourself, and mark "T" for "Truth", "F" for "Bald-Faced Lie" or "TF" for "Half-Truth" in the blank slot next to each factoid.

The answers will be revealed on the next page.

1) __ At 81 years old, "Playboy Magazine" founder Hugh Hefner credits Viagra for his staying power. In fact, he now lives with three pulchritudinous blonde girlfriends at the Playboy Mansion. Two are in their twenties.

2) __ The Playboy bunny logo has become so well known in American culture that a rabbit species was named after Hefner: the Sylvilagus palustris hefneri.

3) __ When Hefner first published his magazine in the early fifties, it was called "Stag Party." The logo for the new magazine was a rabbit's head on a stag's body; a bunny with hooves.

4) __ The Playboy bunny uniform is registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

5) __ "The View" co-host Barbara Walters was once a Playboy bunny.

6) __ Hugh Hefner was one of Dr. Alfred Kinsey's first subjects in his groundbreaking sexuality study in the 1940s. This inspired him to publish a sexually-oriented magazine.

7) __ In 1969, in a private ceremony, Hugh Hefner became the only celebrity to put an imprint of his penis in the cement in front of Hollywood's famous Grauman's Chinese Theater.

8) __ In 1970, Hefner produced an X-rated version of Shakespeare's "MacBeth" directed by Roman Polanski.

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Here are the answers for the Viagra's Best Friend Quiz.

Answers:

A reminder: "T" is for "Truth", "F" is for "Bald-Faced Lie" or "TF" is for "Half-Truth".

1) T: It's true that 81-year-old Hef heartily endorses Viagra. It's also true that he lives with three girlfriends at the Playboy Mansion. The E! channel reality series "The Girls Next Door" documents his life with Holly Madison, Bridget Marquard, and Kendra Williamson.

2) T: It's true that a rabbit species, the Sylvilagus palustris hefneri, was named after Hefner.

Note that it's an endangered species.

3) F: It's false that Playboy was first published as "Stag Party", even though he originally preferred the name to "Playboy." It was only because a men's magazine called "Stag" already existed that this didn't become Hef's magazine's name. If the "Stag Party" name would've been used, the logo for the new magazine would've been a rabbit's head on a stag's body. When the "Playboy" name stuck, the rabbit's head logo stayed and the stag body didn't.

4) T: It's true that the Playboy bunny uniform is registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

5) T: It's true that Barbara Walters was once a Playboy bunny. She went undercover for four days when she was a reporter for "The Today Show."

6) F: It's false that Hugh Hefner was one of Dr. Alfred Kinsey's first subjects in his sexuality study. The study itself, however, did inspire him to publish a sexually-oriented magazine.

7) F: It's false that Hefner put an imprint of his penis in the cement in front of Hollywood's Chinese Theater.

8) T: It's true that Hefner produced an X-rated version of Shakespeare's "MacBeth" that was directed by Roman Polanski. The critics, however, assailed the film more for its violence than its sexual content.

SOURCES:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005005/bio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboy_Bunny

"Happy Birthday, Mr. Playboy", Jaime Weinman, McLeans, URL: (http://www.macleans.ca/culture/media/article.jsp?content=20060320_123397_123397)

"Hugh Hefner", Chris Colin, Salon, URL: (http://www.salon.com/people/bc/1999/12/28/hefner/index2.html)
(http://www.salon.com/people/bc/1999/12/28/hefner/index3.html)

"Hugh Hefner: the ultimate lifestyle entrepreneur", Scott Allen, About.com, URL: (http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/famousentrepreneurs/p/hughhefner.htm)

"Hugh Hefner, Playboy Enterprises", Caryle Adler and Hugh Hefner, CNN, URL: (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2003/09/01/350793/index.htm)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/arts/television/05HEFF.html?ex=1186804800&en=0c41f78c77c68a56&ei=5070

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067372/trivia