Hef gets into bed with reality TV

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“I think there’s two main adjectives people think when they see us: bimbo and slut,” Marquardt says, with a fixed smile and giggle.

And while all the women profess to enjoy their female camaraderie, Madison lays out the hard truth (and if she’s playacting for reality’s sake, she does a good job).

“Do I like him having other girlfriends? No,” she said. “I know I’m his No. 1 girlfriend but I think he needs to get rid of the extra girls.”

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The extras, however, seem intent on maintaining the status quo.

“Kendra and I are just icing on the cake,” Marquardt said, adding: “I can’t turn this down and go back to Lodi,” a reference to her small California hometown.

“I love him. He loves me,” Wilkinson firmly declares.

While “love” is a word that rarely slips from Hefner’s lips, at least on camera, he insists he is deeply romantic, the result of growing up with the glossy music and Hollywood love stories of the 1930s. Those who simply tally his exploits are missing the point, he said.

“What gets the publicity is the number of relationships I’ve had over the years ... but the remarkable thing is I am still close to almost all of them,” he said. “To live a life with a family of friends and share all that is very special.”

The series comes as Playboy Enterprises takes advantage of global markets and new technology, including online services, wireless and video on demand. Daughter Christie Hefner is in charge as chairman and CEO, while Hefner has the title of editor-in-chief.

He proudly notes that new versions of the once-flourishing Playboy clubs are due, with one planned in Las Vegas and one in China under licensing agreements. There’s also the international popularity of Playboy merchandise carrying the famed bunny logo.

Maybe a change in perception is helping, with the cheesecake shots once denounced as female exploitation recast, at least by some, as female sexual empowerment. Besides, Hefner says, conservative times such as these beget sexual rebellion.

He’s on a personal high, too, after coming through a 1985 stroke and separating from wife Kimberly Conrad Hefner (the couple has two sons) in 1998. Against all logic, he said, life is better than ever.

“The marriage lasted 8 1/2 years and I was faithful to it the entire time. I came out of it emotionally beat up and bruised to find that a whole generation had grown up and was waiting for me to come out and play.”

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