![]() Meanwhile, there are reports of chaos at the new Penthouse. "It was pretty hostile," Bob mumbles, but Bell maintains that there was nothing unpleasant about it. (The Pets, Penthouse's answer to Playboy Bunnies, remain the star attraction of the magazine.)Īccording to Homlish, the relationship was severed within minutes of the ruling that approved Bell's takeover: "We got a call from the Penthouse office saying, 'You are no longer with the company,' and to send over all the materials, layouts, pictures, etc., we had at the house." Bell says that until recently he had been consulting with Guccione regularly and that Guccione and Homlish had helped him edit the Penthouse Pet of the Year issue. Guccione maintains he signed an agreement, but Bell reneged on the offer. Bell says Guccione declined an offer of $500,000 a year to stay on as a consultant. The two sides disagree about what happened next. He didn't reveal his plans except to say that the new version would be softer, "more like Maxim. Bell insisted he would turn the title around in three years and make it more viable. On October 5, 2004, Marc Bell, a 37-year-old private-equity investor from Boca Raton, Florida, acquired the magazine in a bankruptcy sale. Today, Penthouse's circulation is down to 400,000 from a 1979 high of 4.7 million, a victim of X-rated videos and pornographic Web sites. During that time Guccione has squandered about $500 million of his personal fortune on bad investments and risky ventures. According to a report in the New York Post last October, Penthouse has earned $4 billion since 1965, when Guccione founded it. ![]() He hired me as the executive editor of Viva, a sister publication of Penthouse that was billed as "the world's most sophisticated erotic magazine for women." That was during Guccione's glory days, when he was said to be one of the richest men in the world. She was working with Guccione when I first met him, in 1974. He still has 6 servants (down from 22), in addition to Homlish, who says she has no plans to leave him. Bob says he doesn't know how long he'll remain here, since he and his girlfriend, April Warren, are the only occupants of the house's 45 rooms. ![]() Luis Enrique Molina, who literally saved Bob from eviction in February 2004 by paying $24 million to his creditors. The mortgage on the house is now owned by Mexican businessman Dr. Part of a great carved fireplace that once belonged to the architect Stanford White is in Guccione's bedroom. There's also a huge paneled screening room, a winding marble staircase up to the "ballroom," and a double living room with antique-mirror walls. On the floor below is a fully equipped gym. He's especially proud of the mosaic-lined swimming pool on the ground floor, flanked by two lead Napoleonic sphinxes, each with a Marie Antoinette head. He uses the entire place-he even had a small dinner party here recently. He has just given me a tour of his mansion, one of the city's largest private homes, which he designed himself. The reason he sleeps during the day, he says, is that he is up until four in the morning working on projects and his oil paintings. His skin positively glows, and he appears almost serene, except for the dark, haunted eyes that glare out from under his thick, grizzled brows. Because he has difficulty swallowing, a liquid nutrient called Boost is piped into his stomach.Īnd yet he looks trim, tanned, and healthy. ![]() In 1998, a doctor performed laser surgery on Guccione's tongue in an experimental cancer treatment, so it is hard to understand him when he speaks. "Exaggeration," repeats his special assistant, Jane Homlish, to make sure he is understood. "An exaggeration," he croaks, attempting to smile. Having lost his entire Penthouse empire, he is said to be destitute, camping out in just four rooms of his princely home, on East 67th Street in Manhattan, spending most of his days curled up in bed asleep or watching CNN. Recent news reports have portrayed Guccione as a broken man. "Whenever I'm facing a crisis-and I'm certainly facing a crisis now-I just fight harder. 'I'm frankly amazed at my own optimism," says Bob Guccione, the 74-year-old pioneering pornographer and founder of Penthouse magazine.
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