One of the hosts of a just-announced fundraiser for Kamala Harris is Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's youngest son, who has become increasingly vocal about politics and is launching a new website described as a combination of "Fifty Shades of Grey" and BuzzFeed.
The 27-year-old Cooper Hefner has already contributed the maximum allowed $5,600 to Harris, according to federal campaign records, and now he's signed on to co-host a Hollywood fundraiser for her next month. According to his Instagram page, he's already attended events with both Harris and South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg this year.
The increased political activity—records indicate his contribution to Harris and smaller one to Buttigieg were his first ever—come as he's preparing to launch a new website called HefPost. The website will feature "everything from news to adult content" and has been described by CNN as "the millennial version of Playboy or maybe BuzzFeed and 'Fifty Shades of Grey' combined."
The website hasn’t launched yet, but it’s already active Twitter account appears to be teasing a potential interview with Harris in its cover photo, which can be viewed below.
The text on the HefPost image of Harris says, "The Interview." Harris's campaign did not respond to emailed questions on whether she has already done or plans to do an interview with HefPost.
Hefner had spent the previous few years at the helm of Playboy, where his most notable move was restoring nudity at the magazine. He said Playboy's CEO at the time made a big mistake removing nudity from the company and had it restored after pushing the CEO out.
"When you have a company and the founder is responsible for kick-starting the sexual revolution and then you pluck out that aspect of the company’s DNA by removing the nudity, it makes a lot of people including me sit and say, ‘What the hell is the company doing?'" Hefner said.
Hefner has also criticized the "anti-sex" sentiment that came along with the "Me Too" movement, which he said was "incredibly positive" but also "absurd" in ways.
"To suggest that sex should be put in the closet or should not be talked about because of the conversation around male and female roles and gender identity and the power dynamics between the sexes is absurd," Hefner said. "So my take is that the Me Too conversation and the events that have happened around that movement, while they are incredibly positive, there's also sentiment in that particular movement that is very anti-sex and it's really important that a line is not drawn in the sand and there is a battle of the narrative that is drawn, stating this is a male versus female issue, when in actuality it's not."
He has rejected the notion that putting important news content side-by-side with adult content on HefPost will be an issue.