Smallscreen News

The Girls Next Spore: Playboy Mansion mystery disease

By April MacIntyre Feb 13, 2011, 20:47 GMT

The sort of Vulcan greeting is extended by Hugh Hefner and Crystal Harris - Playboy Magazine Presents 2010 Playmate Of The Year - Rain Nightclub Palms Hotel and Casino - Las Vegas, NV USA © PRN / PR Photos

Cooties are real, and allegedly Hugh Hefner's Holmby Hills estate is full of them.

The LA Times reported that the scene of many a grimy reality TV show and Grotto orgy, the infamous Playboy Mansion, has delivered a "mystery illness" to some visitors.

From the Times: "L.A. County health officials are investigating a possible respiratory infection outbreak after dozens of illnesses are reported by people who attended a recent fundraiser."

The Playboy Manse has come under fire from a memoir penned by Izabella St. James, who recounts the Playboy Mansion was far from the glamorous pleasure palace she had imagined. ‘Each ­bedroom had mismatched, random pieces of furniture,’ she recalls in her autobiography Bunny Tales. ‘It was as if someone had gone to a charity shop and bought the basics for each room.

‘Although we all did our best to decorate our rooms and make them home-y, the mattresses on our beds were ­disgusting — old, worn and stained. The sheets were past their best, too.

Hef fired back via Twitter: “Isabella Kasprzk (her real name) didn’t get along with Holly, so I asked her to leave.  That’s why she wrote the self-serving book.”

Either way, something is rotten in Hef's house, as the Los Angeles County health officials are investigating what caused mysterious respiratory ailments that afflicted people who attended the fundraiser on Feb. 3, held at Hefner's Holmby Hills mansion.

Apparently over a dozens complaints of illness were filed after the annual DOMAINfest Global conference in Santa Monica.

DN Journal, a website that reports on Internet domain commerce, broke this story when it revealed a Swedish attendee returned home and tested positive for the Legionella bacterium.

The LA Times reports that the Health department sent an e-mail Friday to all participants warning them that the agency had received reports of a possible respiratory infection outbreak among attendees at the conference, which held events at several locations, including the Playboy Mansion.

"An investigation into the cause and extent of illness and into potential sources of exposure is ongoing," said Sarah Kissell, a department spokeswoman. Those who reported illness complained of respiratory problems, flu-like symptoms and pneumonia, officials said.

Playboy spokeswoman Teri Thomerson told the LA Times that the Playboy Mansion was cooperating fully with the Department of Public Health's investigation.