How'd You Like to Be the First Woman to Write for Playboy?

Susan Braudy has the scoop:

Almost as soon as I arrived in Manhattan to seek my fortune, I backed into a knuckle-bruising battle with Playboy’s Hugh Hefner.
My new city-slick literary agent Lois Wallace had signed me because she liked my articles in a zippy new Yale monthly called The New Journal. So after Playboy editors approached Lois about a piece on something called the new feminism, she lipped a smoke ring into her telephone and asked me, “How’d you like to be the first woman to write for Playboy?”
The year was 1969. I thought Playboy defined cheesy, but I was too timid to say so. Furthermore, I was afraid to admit I’d never heard of any new feminists.
Lois, however sophisticated, was a shouter: “You’re in New York, dammit, not in some ivory tower.”
Jim Goode, Playboy’s articles editor, contacted me that afternoon. Speaking more slowly than I thought a human could, he explained that Playboy wanted an objective account of the entire spectrum of the brand new “women’s lib” movement. “These women have important things to say, and I want our readers to hear them,” he said. “Let yourself go. Write anything you like but don’t pass judgment. Be fair.”
He concluded, “Write in a tone that’s amused if the author is amused, but never snide.”

[Jezebel]

Advice for Entrepreneurs from a Guy Who Wrote a Book About Porn (& Pong)

Creates a cult following: My book Porn & Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture created lots of controversy with its risqué cover, intense premise and cultural arguments (It actually got banned from one country, too, which has become a point of pride.). It was my first major book, so I was naive about how to weather the negative press and feedback. The biggest surprise, though, was how many people to this day are super passionate about my work. It was and is a divisive book and, through the book tour and social media, I learned it resonated with a surprising number of people.

[Inc.]

A Guide to the Trial for the Perverted

At the request of Mr. Bollea’s lawyer, Mr. Denton read aloud from Mr. Daulerio’s sexually explicit piece on the video, in a gentle British accent. And a juror asked Emma Carmichael, the editor of Jezebel, the feminist site,who was testifying about the publishing process, whether she had ever slept with Mr. Denton or Mr. Daulerio. The Tampa Bay Times, which has been following the trial, described that moment:
The question, while clearly ignorant of the fact that Denton is gay, hinted at something darker. It appeared to suggest that Carmichael had slept her way to a position of power, and it stunned the courtroom. Heads swiveled and voices hushed.
“No,” Carmichael replied smoothly. She left it at that.

[NYT]

Hulk v Gawk Continues ...

In today's edition of Bollea v Gawker, the court watched a video of Heather Clem's deposition, in which she wept while recounting the details behind her videotaped sexual encounter with Hulk Hogan.

"I was asked to go to Mr. Bollea's room by my husband, and I did," Clem said, using Hogan’s real name, Terry Bollea.
Her recollection contradicted Hogan’s own testimony that Clem had hounded him for sex during a time when he was particularly vulnerable because of his divorce from Linda Hogan.
"Did Mr. Clem generally pick who you had sex with?" she was asked during the deposition shown to the St. Petersburg, Fla., jury.
"On the occasion that I had sex with someone other than him, yes," Clem replied.
When she realized Bubba had recorded her with Hogan she became upset and demanded the video be destroyed, Clem said. 

[NYDN]