Since February this year, PJ Masten’s Facebook inbox has been filled with death threats. “ ‘You’re a piece of shit. You’re a liar. You’re a fuck this and fuck that,’ ” she says, repeating some of the messages she’s received.
Masten is no stranger to public attacks. In 2014, she alleged she had once been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby – a claim later echoed by dozens of women. But speaking out against the late nude-magazine founder Hugh Hefner has roused far more vitriol, Masten says. Not only for tarring the reputation of a beloved public figure, but for breaking ranks with a tightknit community: Playboy itself.
“It’s all from Bunnies,” says Masten, referring to the waitresses whose uniforms at the once-famous Playboy Clubs paid homage to the company’s mascot. “These are 85-year-old women running around with bunny ears on and I’m bursting their bubble. Being a Bunny was the best experience of my life. It was a great sorority of sisters. But the filth and language they’re attacking me with? I’m frightened of these vicious women.”
Masten, 71, is one of nearly 30 women who appear in , a 10-episode docuseries that takes aim at the legacy of Hefner, who
