My offical Playboy photo shoot was on March 5, 2002.
"I Made it!" At least into Playboy.com
My pictorial for Playboy.com launched on April 11, 2002. I could finally write Playboy April 2002 on my list of accomplishments. There was an article published with my pictorial. The actual version of our collaboration can be found on the web at the following address
www.playboy.com/livinginstyle/guy101/poker.
During Hef’s birthday party it wasn't official as it hadn’t been published yet. Many people are photographed but that doesn't mean that they ever use the photos. When they finally published the photos then it’s official. I am considered a Playboy Bunny. But that wasn’t my ultimate goal. It was just a foot into the door. I really wanted to be in Playboy magazine.
But it certainly was a good start! I could finally call myself a Playboy model. I was so proud! I told everyone. Everyone around me knew how hard I had worked, and they were excited for me.
The visor and red shirt I wore in the picture went up for auction on the Playboy website. The description read: “T-shirt and visor worn by poker ace Jill Ann Spaulding on Playboy.com Place, the high bid on this high-stakes Playboy auction and you’ll own the red playboy T-shirt and visor that card shark Jill Ann Spaulding wore on Playboy.com! She slid the visor over her golden locks and squeezed herself into the skin-tight T-shirt for the sexy picture accompanied her poker tutorial from the Living in Style section! And in the spirit she upped the ante by autographing both items immediately after taking them off. If you can
maintain your poker face as the bidding gets heated, and if you come out on top at auction’s end, you can say you won these sexy garments during a no-holds-bar strip poker with the incredible Jill Ann Spaulding! Bid to win this genuine outfit from Playboy.com photo shoot today! It includes a letter of authenticity signed by Playboy photography director.”
Wow, how exciting—I felt like a celebrity! I watched as the bid went higher and higher. I thought it was pretty exciting that someone wanted the shirt I wore so much.
I even got a letter from my trainer:
Hi JillAnn,
I finally saw the pics! Great stuff! I’m so glad to see that dreams and goals and good thing happen to good people. I see a lot of kids every day, and they all have dreams and aspirations and 95 percent of them don’t make it to the Big Leagues. It’s tough to see, and a lot of kids get a lot out of their time and learn a great deal along the way, but everyone wants to meet their goals. You should be so proud of the achievement and your commitment. I know you made some sacrifices for this dream, and that makes it all the sweeter!
Yours in health, Trent
However, according to my Mom no one was allowed to tell my Dad because he would be very upset. I was surprised but understood. I sent a thank-you letter and gifts to all who were part of my photo shoot.
Naturally, I still wanted to appear in the Playboy magazine and I really did the .com shoot just so I would be able to be part of the Playboy family. It was a good thing to be able to put on my resume every time I
contacted Playboy.
92 I actually got paid $750—but it cost me thousands to get there (not to mention all the surgery and working out!). I still was not done with Playboy. I noticed a section for Playboy Poker (where you can actually gamble for real money) and decided to tell them my story to hopefully be used for their online poker section. I wrote to care@Playboycasino.com on May 8, 2002:
I just did my exclusive pictorial for Playboy.com because I am a professional poker player and very well-known around the world and you can find me at www.Playboy.com/livinginstyle/guy101/poker.
I am the Queen of Hearts for Playboy. Many of my gambling friends place bets on your site. When I told them that I had done a shoot for Playboy they all went to Playboysportsbook.com and figured I would be there. I would love to be, so if you can use any of my pictures to help promote your site, please do.
After Hef’s birthday party, I went home with Bruce and just got back into the swing of things. Working out and trying to stay in shape for my ultimate goal of being a Playmate; nothing had changed.
It had been a few weeks so it was now time to put my next plan of action into play. I decided to call the Playboy mansion to ask if they thought that I would be invited to any more parties.
Jenny Lewis said, “If you were invited to the last one, you’re probably sure to be invited to the next one.”
“I’m willing to travel and pay for my own flight to go to the Mardi Gras Playboy party or the Vegas parties or anywhere really.”
“Who am I speaking with?” Jenny Lewis asked.
“Jill Ann Spaulding.”
“Jill Ann, Mr. Hefner was so disappointed that you didn’t come up and introduce yourself.” I could hardly believe that she knew exactly who I was when I gave her my name.
“I did. I even got a picture with him,” I told her. (I suddenly realized I did go up to him, but I never told him my name; I just posed and was really intimidated and walked away as soon as the flash went off.
You know how it can sometimes be. You’re a little flustered or excited by a situation, and you sort of forget what you were going to say.)
“Oh. Well, he must have forgotten.”
Suddenly I was filled with dismay. “I feel awful. I went up to him a couple of times, but I thought he might feel I was bugging him.”
“Not in the least. He’s not like that,” she assured me.
“With so many guests I didn’t think he would have known me.”
Jenny laughed lightly. “Oh no, he was expecting you!”
I told her about my pictures having gone up on the website on April 11th. She wondered if they were from the party, but I explained they were done for an exclusive on Playboy.com. She indicated that Mr.
Hefner would certainly want to see these. I gave her the web address, thanked her and hung up.
I wrote a letter to Mr. Hefner and included a picture of me on the way to the party as well as from the pictorial.
Dear Hef:
Thank you so much for having me to your birthday party. It was wonderful! April has been a
completely amazing month for me with your party on April 6th and my pictorial on Playboy.com published on April 11th! Thank you so much for everything. Hope to see you sooner than the next party.
With love and luck Jill Ann Spaulding
What did I mean by that last sentence? I wanted to be one of the girlfriends who were sitting at the table. I had done some very dedicated research. I purchased the videos “Inside the Playboy Mansion.” After being turned away from the table at the party, I was determined to find out how to become a girlfriend, who
these girls are, and where they came from. There was never one current girlfriend, ex-girlfriend, or long ago girlfriend who had ever said anything bad about Hugh Hefner. I found that remarkable. Almost all
relationships end with negative feelings in some way or another. In Hugh Hefner’s case, ex-girlfriends still go to many of the parties and events. They all are always kissing him, hugging him, and making a huge fuss over him. In the video, the most the girls ever say about sex came from Buffy Tyler. She said, “People ask about sex, and I say I don’t kiss and tell.” The whole video is very evasive on the subject.
Here again, I wasn’t naïve, but the “pajama party” atmosphere, and that “Playboy sisterhood” again had me thinking that all those beautiful women were for show. I assumed he had one special girlfriend, and the rest of the girls were there to make him look sexy and desirable and powerful. Esquire Magazine: June 2002 by Wil S. Hylton quoted Hugh Hefner as saying, “I have slept with thousands of women, and they all still like me. . . . My life is an open book with illustrations.”
Time Out New York by Adam Rapoport, in the issue on April 6-13, 2000, Hefner was quoted as saying, “The girls have become close friends. It may be difficult to imagine, but there is no rivalry or jealousy . . . There are Sandy, Mandy and Brande and Jessica, and they’re the only girls I see.”
Brande Nicole Roderick became a Playmate of the month® April 2000 and Playmate of the year® 2001.
Sandy and Mandy Bentley made the cover and inside of the Playboy magazine in May 2000. I still was doing research before I decided to pursue such a thing. On MarksFriggin.com they have archives, and this is some of what it said: “On March 13, 2000, Brande Roderick came to the Howard Stern show to talk to Howard.
Howard asked her many of details about having sex with Hef, and she didn’t have many answers. Brande said they all hang out and watch movies in bed with Hefner. She said that she’s never seen the other girls having sex with Hef but thinks that they do. Most of the guys on the show didn’t believe that she actually does sleep with Hef. Howard believed her, but asked her to swear that she does. She ended up saying, ‘I swear on the Lord Jesus Christ that I sleep in
Hugh Hefner’s bed,’ and then added that she has sex with him. KC and Gary still didn’t believe her. Even Robin found it hard to believe what she was saying. After Brande swore to it, Robin said she wanted to get out of the studio before the lightning struck. KC told Howard, ‘If she’s sleeping with Hef then I’m Jesus.’”
MarksFriggin.com Archives read that Playmate Katie Lohmann was in the studio. Howard wanted to find out about her dating Hugh Hefner and if it was all true or not. Howard went on to ask Katie about the Hefner stuff. She was one of Hef’s seven girlfriends, and Howard heard that’s all hype. She said that she never had sex with him, but she’s not sure about the other girls.
She said she loved Hef but it was a “different kind of love” that she couldn’t really explain.
Quoted from Designboom.com, May 5, 2001, Hefner was asked My Favorite Occupation. “I’m dating seven girls, and it is a wonderful, romantic relationship and at my age quite remarkable; Tina, Jennifer, Regina, Michelle, Elaine, Tiffany and Stephanie.”
I decided it had to be an act. No rivalry, no jealousy—there had to be no sex. There was no way that all of these ex-girlfriends could be so happy, continue to go to the parties and never have anything bad to say about Hef. I believed it was a publicity idea for the magazine. It was every man’s fantasy and to hold on to the Playboy image, he had to appear to be a true Playboy.
I even discussed it with my grandpa, not in detail of course. I asked him whether he thought Hefner has sex with those girls. He was adamant that it was all for show. That was the extent of the conversation, but since I looked up to my grandpa it underscored what I believed.
I looked at the girlfriends that were on the video cover.
I’m not certain who the last girl was, but all of these girls were listed as girlfriends, and all of them were Playmates except Tiffany Holliday, but she still lived at the mansion so maybe this had something to do with it. I had to become a girlfriend. I would have to commit to moving into the mansion to fulfill my dream. I figured that you had to put in your time for promoting and doing events before they made you a Playmate. I looked at it as part of the job. For instance, if you are a powerful PR agent with clients all over the globe, you are basically committing yourself to living out of a suitcase. Every job, on some level, requires sacrifices. I
94 assumed, from all my research, that part of the package deal of being a Playmate was a commitment to keep up this pretense.
There is a list of all of Hef’s girlfriends who were documented in articles and on Playboy.com and Playboy magazine in the back of this book.
I know it sounds strange, because I was in a great relationship with Bruce, to consider being Hef’s
“girlfriend,” but I really only considered it to be in name only. I was utterly convinced this was no different from TV stars and models needing to do promotional events. Or think of how many totally fake
“relationships” between actors and actresses “suddenly” happen when there is a movie to promote and then afterwards, it over as fast as it started. It was part of the package for promoting the Playboy name. I assumed the girls who became his girlfriends were part of an image of luxury, sexiness, and allure that made the rest of the world want to be part of the “Playboy mystique.” Boy, was I in for a big surprise!