Are these new accusations about to make Secrets of Playboy look wholesome by comparison?? A&E is set to premiere the first part of their new four-part docuseries Secrets of Penthouse on Monday, September 4 — and the models have a LOT to say.
Bob Guccione launched Penthouse magazine in 1965 as a rival to Playboy — only it infamously went much further. But did he??
Related: Crystal Hefner Tells All! Hef’s Penis, Group Stuff, & Getting ‘Stockholm Syndrome’!
Based on early accusations coming out of the doc, it gets pretty gross. For instance Penthouse Pet Jane Hargrave claims she began living in Guccione’s mansion with his wife Kathy Keeton — when she was just 18 years old! He tried to get physical with her — but what she remembers most is what he showed her! She recalls:
“At a time when Kathy was away for a couple of days, he asked me into the master bedroom. There was a huge bed in it, it was about double the size of a king. He actually had a video of women, of course, having sex with animals. A girl with a pig.”
What the actual eff?? The image is clearly burned into her memory as she says:
“I never realized that pigs had corkscrew c**ks. I think he wanted to shock me or something.”
Of course it wasn’t just shocking he wanted to do… Jane says:
“He started coming into my room and wanting to be intimate to some degree. I wasn’t really sure that I felt that comfortable with that because Kathy was in the other room and I didn’t like the feeling of that going on.”
Jane also remembered being given what seemed like a big break, starring in a big movie Guccione was producing. That movie was Caligula — and if you know anything about the Helen Mirren film, you probably heard it was recut to be X-rated with additional orgy scenes! So her part in this big movie ended up being, well, a different kind of part than she expected…
“I didn’t know I was going to be sucking someone’s c**k who I’d never met before and I’d never even done that before. I just had my 19th birthday. Little me realizing how unimportant I was from a man I was supposed to trust.”
Oof.
Sheila Kennedy, another Penthouse Pet, says Guccione had her perform a very unusual sex act for him:
“Bob was into some really bizarre stuff that turned him on. One night, Kathy was in Europe, and I went down to his bedroom, and I don’t know how he came up with this, but he said, ‘You know honey, there’s something I’d really love for you to do.’ He goes, ‘Have you ever heard of a golden shower?’”
Yeesh! We have! Politics are a little different these days than in the ’80s…
At first, Sheila says, she refused — she had been a bed wetter in her childhood, and it made her uncomfortable. Ultimately they went to the bathtub, and she did it despite her nervousness:
“He had all of his gold chains on, totally nude, and I just peed on him. I just found it such an odd fetish, like who would do that, who likes that? He was totally turned on by it.”
Far worse, as she explains it, was when he talked her into having a threesome with him and his wife. Sheila remembers she didn’t want to do it but again gave in:
“Eventually, he broke me down. It was the first time in my life that I thought, ‘This isn’t you, you did not have to do this,’ but I just knew I was going to be out if I didn’t do it. If there’s one thing I regret with Penthouse, it’s that.”
The really messed up part? They fired her anyway! She continues:
“After I was with Kathy, that’s when they fired me. I don’t know why. It shocked me, it really did.”
Some reward. Her job was probably sacrificed on the altar of marital politics. Gross.
Speaking of which… Guccione’s daughter Nina confirms he used to force contraceptives on all the models:
“He would say it makes the girls look more voluptuous before a shoot and it made perfect sense to me because I know your breasts get a little larger. But it occurred to me that he was probably trying to prevent the girls from getting pregnant. It’s disgusting, but he didn’t care.”
Yeah, we’re guessing it was more about the latter — especially hearing what he personally was doing with the models. And we’re guessing there’s tons more coming in these four episodes.
What do YOU think about these accusations? Are you surprised? Or did you already assume pretty the founder of Penthouse was sketchy?? Let us know in the comments (below)!
[Image via A&E/YouTube.]