Summary
- Celebrities have earned varying amounts from posing for Playboy, from $0 for Marilyn Monroe to $2 million for Denise Richards.
- Playboy has shifted its payment structure, now offering $25,000 for a spread and $100,000 for Playmate of the Year, with more flexibility for models.
- Some celebrities have mixed feelings about their Playboy shoots, like Kim Kardashian who has expressed regrets about being too trusting during her 2007 shoot.
Playboy is etched into American history; its purchase a rite of passage for any straight teenage boy since its first issue in 1953. The magazine has long been the subject of scrutiny and scandal, with outrage often focused on which female celebrity has shown a little too much skin in its glossy pages. What "good girl" has given into sinful impulses when she agreed to pose for a spread?
What is empowering to some is trashy to others, and nothing ignites that controversy quite like the trope of the celebrity issue of Playboy. For many celebrities, a nude or nearly-nude photoshoot has come with a high price tag, necessary to offset the risk of a public image crisis the publication often comes with.
Here are 10 of the most famous celebrities who have posed for Playboy, and how much they earned for their work.
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Updated May 2024: The "Playboy" of today is making strides to move away from the publication that Hugh Hefner and his family ran. Instead of barely paying women for their decision to pose for "Playboy" and keeping them from taking any other form of employment while under contract, according to "Secrets of Playboy" women are now being paid $25,000 for posing for the magazine and $100,000 if they are chosen as the Playmate of the Year. Women also have the option to find employment elsewhere, so that they do not have to become poor if they want to pose for "Playboy."
10 Marilyn Monroe
Money paid for posing for Playboy - $0
Marilyn Monroe earned $0 for her pictures in Playboy, which were in the very first issue of the magazine in 1953. She had posed for the photos a few years prior, and when Hugh Hefner purchased them for Playboy, she had long since given up creative control over the photographs.
Hefner had purchased them from a company that made calendars and was so infatuated with her, he was eager to put them on the very first cover.
9 Lindsay Lohan
Money paid for posing for Playboy - $1 Million
Lindsay Lohan was once known for being the plucky, wholesome tween who made us see double when she played identical twins Annie and Hallie in Parent Trap, but she quickly shed her good girl image and moved on to racier ventures, one of which was a Playboy cover shoot.
Lohan turned down $750,000 and eventually accepted the offer at $1 million.
8 Carmen Electra
Money paid for posing for Playboy - $500,000
Carmen Electra remembers being "so shy" in front of the camera when she first posed for Playboy in 1996. She pushed through the nervousness, though, and it turns out it paid to do so.
Electra was reportedly paid $500,000 for her appearance at that time, and quickly became comfortable, citing the kind, supportive crew and atmosphere, and has since posed for the magazine four more times.
7 Jenny McCarthy
Money paid for posing for Playboy - $140,000
The famed actress and anti-vaccine mom first posed for Playboy in 1993, which earned her $140,000 and the title of Playmate of the Month. The following year, she won Playmate of the Year and went on to pose seven more times, six of which are on the cover.
Most recently, McCarthy posed for a spread in 2012 and reported feeling more confident and sexy at age 39 than she ever had before.
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6 Pamela Anderson
Money paid for posing for Playboy - $25,000
Pamela Anderson's first appearance on the cover of Playboy was in 1989, and that was the beginning of a long and lucrative career of posing for the magazine. In fact, she still holds the record for having posed for Playboy the most times of any model.
Though the price tag has fluctuated during her 33-year tenure as a model, one cover reportedly netted her $25,000, which she donated to charity. She is active in many humanitarian and animal activist efforts.
5 Denise Richards
Money paid for posing for Playboy - $2 Million
Denise Richards earned $2 million for her cover of Playboy, released in December of 2004.
Richards explained to DailyMail that she was open and honest with her two eldest daughters (whose father is her ex-husband Charlie Sheen) about the nude modeling she had done and reports that they have a strong relationship because of it.
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4 Rachel Hunter
Money paid for posing for Playboy - $1.8 Million
Actress and model Rachel Hunter, originally from New Zealand, posed for Playboy in 2004 and earned $1.8 million for her work.
At that time, she was fresh off her notorious appearance in the music video for Fountains of Wayne's "Stacy's Mom", which undoubtedly played a part in the sky-high purchase numbers for her issue at the time.
3 Drew Barrymore
Money paid for posing for Playboy - $1 Million
Drew Barrymore exploded onto our screens and into our hearts when she played Gertie in E.T.
All grown up at 20 years old, she was paid $1 million to pose for Playboy.
Steven Spielberg, who directed her in E.T. and is also her godfather, sent her a quilt after her 1995 photoshoot that said "Cover Up." In return, she sent him a framed set of pictures in which she is jokingly posing in nun's clothing. She captioned the pictures, "I'm sorry," and "I've seen the light," and the pictures still hang in Spielberg's home.
2 Kim Kardashian
Money paid for posing for Playboy - $110,000
Kim Kardashian's 2007 Playboy photoshoot got her $110,000 and, as it turns out, some lasting regrets.
Despite originally describing it as an honor, she more recently explained that she wishes she hadn't been so trusting in her younger days. Her mom (and manager) Kris Jenner had overseen the whole process during the shoot (obviously).
1 Heidi Montag
Money paid for posing for Playboy - $1 Million
Heidi Montag's 2009 Playboy shoot didn't contain any nudity, but that doesn't mean it wasn't scandalous. Her beach bikini pictures appeared alongside revealing details about her sex life with husband Spencer Pratt.
Montag received a reported $1 million for the spread.
Source: Secrets of Playboy
