Playboy crashes the party

Hugh Hefner's Playboy empire is demanding a 25% cut of money raised for sick kids from a "bunny theme" charity ball in Christchurch, New Zealand, last week.

Craig Douglas, who organized the 500 person event, originally agreed to remove bunny ears and tails from waitresses' costumes and made other changes so that the Saturday-night ball could go ahead after being contacted from lawyers acting for Playboy Enterprises. But after the event, they got another letter.

"We got a letter from them saying they wanted us to pay them 25 per cent of the money raised back to Playboy Enterprises, including the charity money," Douglas was quoted as saying. "But we refused to do that, so they sent us a lawsuit."