“PLAYGIRL” RISES AGAIN!
and Daniel Nardicio Declares, “There Must Be Full Frontal!”

“Playgirl”, the revolutionary publication which promoted equal opportunity nudity since 1973, is back!  Back in print form, that is.  Although the men of “Playgirl” have been available online since the last print issue in winter 2009, many afficionados of male beauty are happy to have the physical mag back in their sticky hands.  The re-launch issue features Levi Johnston as cover boy.  Inside, there’s an exclusive interview with the young Alaskan DILF, as well as over 15 pages of Levi photos by Greg Weiner.  Even though Levi doesn’t go full frontal (The only stick he shows is… his hockey stick!), there’s no shortage of penis in the Winter 2010 issue.  The mag features nude layouts of four of the Hottest Bartenders in New York City, and meaty spreads of four other diesel models as well… with all the guys in various states of, shall we say, “excitement”.  The renaissance of “Playgirl” was celebrated at the Hell’s Kitchen hotspot Therapy on February 24th.  What a night!  Like the new issue of “Playgirl”, Therapy was packed with men… although there were a generous number of girls there too.  One of them was Gusty Winds, our Hostess for the evening.  The drag diva teased the out-of-towners, joked about Sarah Palin (of course!) and Jessica Wild from “RuPaul’s Drag Race”, and made the crowd REALLY work for the night’s many free giveaways.  It was worth it. In addition to lots of free copies of the envied magazine, there were official Playgirl T-shirts, samples of Boy Butter, and Baskit Underwear up for grabs. Two of the Hottest Bartenders featured in the new issue (Kairi J. and Jeff P.) were also in attendance that night. 

The man behind the “Playgirl” juggernaut is Daniel Nardicio, Director of Publicity for the magazine and one of New York City’s busiest nightlife gurus.  Inside the big “Playgirl” bus parked outside Therapy (Oh my, if that bus could talk!), the tall, perpetually smiling Nardicio gave an exclusive interview with Jed Ryan about Playgirl’s new direction.

JR: Congratulations on the success of the event!  So, how has the response been to the re-launch of “Playgirl”?
DN: We got a lot of press on it.  The magazine went on sale on newsstands today, and I hear that it’s been really selling well.  So, that’s great. From what we hear, it’s selling out at all the kiosks and stuff, so I’m very happy about that.  That was my job, and I did it, so I’m happy.

JR:  Yeah!  What new things do you have in store for us with the magazine?  
DN: The next person I’m getting for the magazine is a fashion model– a well-known fashion model. We’re doing a fashion-inspired shoot, with fashion photographers.  So, we’re taking it a little bit more glamorous.  The next celebrity interview that I’m getting is Kathy Griffin, which I’m very excited about.
JR: Wow!
DN: Yeah, she’s doing an interview with me, so I’m going to Anchorage next week.  I’m really excited about that, and they asked if they could film me for a show for it.  That’s kind of how I’m changing it.  “Playgirl” was sort of going in the direction where it was just naked guys.  And, I love naked guys!  If anyone in this club loves naked guys, I love naked guys!  But I also said, Why don’t we look into making it a little more political– like Levi– and have a little more fashion– like the next guy, who we’re gonna announce in the next day or so– and also, to put in some really fun articles that will appeal to our gay and straight readers– like Kathy Griffin. That is gonna be the template by which I’m gonna go in the future with the magazine.  I’m always trying to find interesting and unique people to get for it.  But hot people, that’s the only thing!

JR: Gotcha!  Is there any celebrity skin that you’d really like to get?
DN: Well, I’m kind of partial to Cheyenne Jackson!  I’m with the cult of Cheyenne-tology!  I’m a huge fan.  I actually recently hung out with him at an event, and I told him that I was a Cheyenne-tologist, which he got a big laugh out of.  I think he’s super hot.  So, he’s someone I would love to get.  The problem is that about 90 percent of the people that I want to get aren’t gonna do it.  But there’s that ten percent… so you just gotta ask 100 people!  My new thing is that I asked Michael Vick, the football guy that got kicked out of the NFL for dog-fighting.  We were gonna give a million dollars to PETA if he’ll do it.  Michael Vick hasn’t responded yet. That’s sort of a dream, more so, to give money to an animal rights organization.  And then, there’s my dream of hot guys.  I have a huge list of hot guys that I’d love to get in there…like Channing Tatum!  But they’re not gonna do it.  So, it’s about being really creative and finding the next guy that’s willing to do it.  After Levi, I want to only do full frontal.

JR: Yeah!  Now, there was a rumor that the guys of “Jersey Shore” were interested.
DM: No!  We asked them, and we were in talks with Pauly D. to do it, and in the interim– much like what happened with Levi– their fame got so big that you couldn’t get them to do what you wanted to do. And I don’t want to do another shoot where there’s no full frontal!

JR: Right!
DM: I think that with the Levi thing: we weathered it, we did fine with it, we did the best we could with it… but the next shoot I do, I want to make sure that people are like, “OK, they’re not joking! This guy’s dick’s in there!”  So, if you can’t so full frontal, then you can’t do the magazine. That is where we are with that.

JR: I understand!  So, what’s your next big thing, nightlife-wise?
DM: I want to build more of a web presence, so I’m working on a lot of interesting and unique web ideas: ways for guys to interact.  I’m not really big on just sitting online; I’m more of finding ways to connect people together and creating communities.  So, I’m working on something that I think will be genius if it comes into fruition… which I’ll know in the next few weeks.  It’s more of a web-based thing: with the party element, and the radio show, and all the things that I do– sort of creating a whole sort of … empire!  No, I hate the word “empire”!  Make that “network”!

JR: I don’t know… “empire” sounds good!
DN: It sounds good, but it might be pretentious!  So, that’s what I’m working on next!

Remember, this Emperor likes the guys with no clothes!  Visit www.Playgirl.com for more!