'Playboy' creator Hefner turns 80

LOS ANGELES -- Playboy creator Hugh M. Hefner is in the middle of an interview about his 80th birthday when a TV cameraman asks him to move a statue of former playmate Barbie Benton from the shelf behind him.

The statue's nude breasts were in the shot and that might not pass muster with TV decency standards.

"As much as things change, they stay the same," Hefner remarks, disappointment in his voice. "There is still controversy about, maybe even more than before, not just nudity -- a nude statue."

That is Hefner's point -- that Playboy with its mission of sexual liberation is as relevant as ever in these days of federal government crackdowns on television content that some consider indecent.

"Attitudes toward nudity and Playboy have changed, in many ways, very little," says the man who gave the world the Playboy centerfold. "In some ways it is even more political than it was in the '50s and '60s."

The invitation to Hefner's 80th birthday party today unfolds to show three photos of him: one as a toddler, one holding his new magazine in 1953, and one showing a smiling young Hefner with black hair and his iconic pipe.

The hair is thinner now and gray, almost white in places. His hearing is gone in one ear and he has the slightest bit of trouble getting up from his library couch after the interview. He quit smoking after a stroke in 1985.

But otherwise, the man dressed in black silk pajamas and a scarlet silk jacket with black lapels shows few other signs that he is becoming an octogenarian.

"Maybe to some extent 80 is the new 40," he says, smiling. "I truly believe that age -- if you're healthy -- age is just a number. On many levels I feel younger today than I did 10, 15 years ago."

Although he continues to personify the Playboy philosophy, he is not unaware of the passing years.

"You come to a point in life in which you begin to lose some very dear friends, some of whom are peers in terms of age," he said.

Any regrets?

"Certainly it is a life well-lived and I wouldn't trade places with anybody," he said. "My life has been so rewarding and so satisfying, I would be hesitant to change anything."