Porn Valley – Hostilities are escalating between Playboy magazine icon Hugh Hefner and outspoken ex-Playmate Victoria Zdrok. The 31-year-old Zdrok – Miss October 1994 – says Hef and Playboy are trying to sabotage her planned New York summer porn fair, Supermodel Expo, by telling former Playmates to stay away.
“Basically, they’re extremely controlling and try to keep a tight rein on the Playmates,” Zdrok told me yesterday. “They throw the bunnies a carrot every so often to keep them loyal, but they don’t want them involved in anything not associated with Playboy.”
Playboy spokesman Bill Farley acknowledged that “the 70 working Playmates” were advised last week not to participate in the June expo, but insisted: “This isn’t a demand. If some of the girls decide to appear, they won’t be punished. We’re just letting them know that we much prefer them not to.”
In response to Zdrok’s pitch to her centerfold sisters, Playmate Promotions manager James Gonis wrote in a mass E-mail: “As you may know, Victoria has not worked with Playboy for many years and has said unpleasant things about Playboy in general and her experience as a Playmate in particular. Hef has expressed concern that some of you may feel this is a Playboy sanctioned or sponsored event and may be thinking about signing up with Victoria. It isn’t, and we strongly urge you not to do so.”
Supermodel Expo sponsor Fred Schechter, president of MaXiMotion LLC – which markets packs of “Fleshcards” on which Zdrok and other bombshells strut their stuff – told me he’s considering suing Playboy for “interfering with an advantageous business relationship.” Farley called such a lawsuit “absurd.”
This isn’t the first time Zdrok and Hef have clashed. Last month, Zdrok told Steppin’ Out magazine that Hef “likes to watch all kinds of gay porn” and last year revealed to VH1 that he had banned her from the Playboy Mansion because she refused to stop modeling for an Internet porn site, Danni’s Hard Drive.
“Dear Victoria,” Hef wrote in a March 2000 letter that Zdrok held up to the camera. “I’m really sorry to learn of your venture into porn. I’ve always felt you were one of the best and brightest of Playboy’s Playmates and I hate to see you take this step that will obviously hurt your reputation and ours.”
Zdrok, an emigre from the former Soviet Union, said: “This is just what the Communists back in the USSR did to people who didn’t follow the Politburo party line.”