Playboy Mansion

I was trying to explain to the wife what a tough decision this is: Do I join the guys in Colorado for the fifth game of the hockey playoffs, stay overnight in a Denver hotel and miss her? Or do I cover the unveiling of the 2002 Playmate of the Year at the Playboy Mansion, and get the chance to come home some time Thursday night to be with her? Or early Friday morning? She seemed to think it was a pretty easy decision, and while I can't remember the last time she packed my suitcase for me, she must be a little out of practice because she packed like I was going away for a month or two. I TOLD Kings' center Jason Allison Tuesday morning at the team's practice facility I had to decide between the Pepsi Center or the Grotto, and right away he jumped to conclusions: "So I guess we won't be seeing you in Colorado."

Hugh Hefner has purchased a house in Holmby Hills for $4.5 million, real estate sources said. The Playboy magazine founder, who lives in the nearby Playboy Mansion, bought the house as an investment, according to Dick Rosenzweig, executive vice president of Playboy Enterprises. "He had been watching it for a while, and there was a point where he thought it was a good investment," Rosenzweig said. Originally listed in May of 1999 at about $6.

Party on, Hef! Neighbors' charges that Hugh Hefner is running a commercial party business out of his famed Playboy Mansion have been rejected by Los Angeles officials who say they inspected "every square foot" of the place without finding anything illegal going on. Wednesday's announcement ends a nine-month city investigation. But it is unlikely to end the controversy over the seemingly nonstop series of nighttime soirees staged at Hefner's 31-room, Tudor-style Holmby Hills estate.

Al Gore and Joe Lieberman can preach family values from here to eternity. The true values of the Democrats were displayed prominently in your section ("L.A.'s Long, Strange Tryst With the Democrats," Aug. 9). Clinton standing proudly with Hugh Hefner, a photo of a self-described "feminist sex activist" and a scene from "Boogie Nights." Oh, and let's not forget the [attempted] Sanchez celebration at the Playboy mansion. Family values? ROSANNE GAMBOGI Palos Verdes Estates

The Democrats have throttled Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) because she had plans to have a Hispanic fund-raiser at the Playboy Mansion? Sounds like gross hypocrisy to me. These are the same Democrats who have a party leader who has a hard time keeping his zipper zipped, have accepted sizable campaign contributions from Hugh Hefner and constantly hammer us about how they are the party of inclusion. And whatever happened to freedom of speech? Frankly, I am overjoyed to see the true realities--read that hypocrisy--of the Democratic Party for all to see. ROBERT L. FRANZ Placentia If Sanchez were a man, would they be questioning her independence and not following the "party line" or threatening to deprive her of a speaking slot and removing her from a committee position?

She was the woman who had embarrassed the Democratic Party by making the controversial location of her fund-raiser national news. So, when they saw Rep. Loretta Sanchez enter a Wilshire Grand Hotel ballroom Thursday morning, a seated crowd of roughly 100 Latino delegates let her know how they felt about her: They stood and cheered. It was a typical reaction on the last day of a week's worth of Hispanic Caucus meetings held inside the hotel.

Even though Rep. Loretta Sanchez agreed to move her fund-raiser to a more sedate location, the Playboy Mansion continues to provoke strong words. Shadow Convention hostess Arianna Huffington arrived at a mansion party dripping acid about the brouhaha: "In a city which is the capital of poverty, Al Gore doesn't get upset about that. He gets upset about a party at the Playboy Mansion."

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) on Monday stunned Democratic Party officials--again--by withdrawing as a speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. But her decision did nothing to put an end to the flap over her now-canceled fund-raiser at the Playboy Mansion. And if anything, it has heightened her political profile, if not endeared her to party leaders.

Loretta Sanchez, Ms. August, is a bright and popular Southern Californian now serving her second term in Congress. Born: Jan. 7, 1960. (Capricorn.) Resides: Garden Grove. Education: Chapman U., B.A.; American U., M.B.A. Committees: Armed Forces; Education and the Workforce. Likes: Sitting in the House of Representatives; passing a bill; walking on Orange County beaches in the rain. Dislikes: Being told where she can hold a fund-raiser; Al Gore "cloaking himself in issues of morality."

Re "Rep. Sanchez Should Dazzle at Convention," Agustin Gurza's Aug. 5 column: Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) doesn't have Bob Dornan around to "trash" her anymore, so evidently she has settled for trashing herself. Her planned fund-raiser at the Playboy Mansion was an affront to women and to those Latinos who thought that Sanchez represented our values. She doesn't, and she never will. She is so pro-choice that even partial-birth abortion does not faze her. And unlike Bob Dornan, she is more than willing to pander to liberal extremists, including the increasingly powerful homosexual lobby.