Hefenomics: When Times Get Tough, Hefner Sells The Wife’s Mansion

When you’re a rich womanizer in this economy, what else would you do but sell your estranged wife’s mansion instead of your own? That’s what Hugh Hefner’s doing, announcing this week that he’s selling Holmby Hills, the adjacent property where his wife–yes, wife– Kimberly and their two teenage sons have lived since the late 1990s. Now that the boys are off to college, it’s bye-bye, Kimbo. But does Kimberly have Hugh’s daughter and former Playboy CEO Christie Hefner to blame?

Back in January, when Christie announced her resignation as CEO of the company, Playboy was in dismal shape. Thanks to free internet porn, it had been losing market share for years. The magazine was shutting its New York office and moving back to Chicago and replacing editorial director Chris Napolitano. But Christie insisted in an interview with Portfolio magazine that the company was most certainly not “in trouble.” It was just the recession and a poor ad market and when the recession turned around, so would Playboy. If the company were truly “in trouble,” she’d never leave it because her every move was done to protect her father’s interests:

There’s the expression, “Don’t bet the ranch.” We call that, “Don’t bet the mansion.” I don’t want to pick up the phone and call Hef and say, “Bad news, honey. The moving van is coming at noon. I found you a lovely two- bedroom in Westwood.”

So, instead, they called Kimberly. And P.S., twenty days after that interview, Playboy’s interim CEO Jerome Kern announced he was entertaining bids for the magazine. Can the Playboy Mansion be far behind? We think not. Below, Eva Longoria and her Mantoy Tony Parker in more plentiful times on the Hefner estate.

Hugh Hefner Selling $28M Mansion [HuffPo]