Bill Cosby’s “sexual molestation” scandal has extended to his longtime pal Hugh Hefner – and now police want to quiz the Playboy founder, The National ENQUIRER has learned.
At least 24 women have accused Cosby of abuse and, in many cases, drugging them, and now a former Playboy employee claims Cosby raped her and up to a dozen other Playboy bunnies.
P.J. Masten, who worked as a “bunny manager” at Chicago’s Playboy Club in 1979, made the accusation.
Now 64, Masten claims Cosby assaulted her in a Chicago hotel after spiking her cognac with a knockout drug.
“There are a dozen former bunnies that I know of with similar stories,” Masten has reportedly said.
Playboy’s name first surfaced in the scandal when Judy Huth filed a lawsuit against Cosby, claiming he assaulted her in a bedroom of the Playboy Mansion around 1974, when she was just 15.
While Hefner, 88, is not named in the suit and has not been accused of any wrongdoing, Huth has been interviewed by the LAPD, who is seeking evidence at the mansion.
A police source told The ENQUIRER: “Cops now want to quiz Hefner because Bill was a regular there.”
Hefner admitted to The ENQUIRER: “Bill Cosby has been a good friend for many years and the mere thought of these allegations is truly saddening. I would never tolerate this kind of behavior, regardless of who was involved.”
In 1974, the same year of Huth’s accusations, Hefner was the target of a federal drug probe, suspected of “harboring illicit drug activity at his mansions and ordering a cover-up when drug agents closed in,” author Steven Watts wrote in his book, “Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream.”
While Hefner was never indicted in the probe, the scandal depicted “his lifestyle as a hotbed of drug use and depravity,” Watts wrote.
“It’s a nightmare all over again for Hefner,” a who hates having Playboy dragged into Cosby’s mess,” a pal told The ENQUIRER.
On Dec. 11, supermodel Beverly Johnson, now 62, joined the ranks of Cosby accusers, saying the comic, 77, lured her to his Manhattan home in the 1980’s,drugged her and attempted to assault her in the 1980s.
Cosby’s lawyer Martin Singer has vehemently denied accusations made by other women.
