It isn’t just long-time subscribers who are miffed at Playboy’s surprising decision to eschew nude models in favor of scantily clad ones. Two celebrities who posed in the buff multiple times for the men’s magazine also think founder Hugh Hefner is making a big mistake.
Carmen Electra posed naked for the magazine five times, and been on three covers. She told FOX411 she’s disappointed that Playboy chose to follow the current men’s magazine crowd.
“I always considered Playboy the classiest nude men’s magazine. It saddens me that they are folding into the current trend instead of sticking to what Hefner fought for from the beginning, when Marilyn Monroe graced the cover,” Electra said. “That being said I support Playboy and wish them the best of luck in their new venture.”
Coco, who just started a new talk show and is pregnant with her first child, also thinks Playboy’s decision to follow the herd is unwise.
“They definitely need nudity. That is who Playboy is,” she said. “There are too many magazines with clothed models.”
Coco said that she understood that Playboy was between a rock and a hard place, with dwindling sales and the move of pornography onto the Internet.
“Magazines are not hot anymore. Everything is the Internet,” she said. “Four million people were looking at Playboy magazine worldwide at one time, and now 400,000 people get it.”
Playboy stopped featuring nude models on its website in 2014, but has several other sites that feature nudity, and then some.