Playboy September 2006

COVER STORY Hef's three girlfriends-Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt-return for our cover as E!'s top-rated series, The Girls Next Door, starts season two. Senior Contributing Photographer Amy Freytag orchestrated the simultaneous shooting of the front and back cover photos. Our Rabbit laces up on the front, then morphs into his distant German cousin on the back cover for a rear-window view. Features 54 INSIDE DEEP MINE 26 The U.S. is still the OPEC of coal, the cheapest and most plentiful energy source known to man. Descend into a Virginia coal mine with the workers who gamble their lives every day but make headlines only when it looks as if they'll lose. BY PAT JORDAN 64 SMASHING WINDOWS Last year Hunter S. Thompson's ashes were shot out of a cannon. Now comes another blast: a missive fired off 25 years ago to Ralph Steadman, his friend and illustrator, after Steadman complained about his own son's behavior. The good doctor's bizarre parenting advice somehow still resonates. BY RALPH STEADMAN WITH HUNTER S. THOMPSON 68 ARTISTIC LICENSE We rounded up a garageful of sports cars so exotic and exceptional that you are unlikely ever to see one. These ultra-exclusive beauties, crafted by small companies such as Pagani, Bugatti and Saleen, make Lamborghinis seem affordable. BY KEN GROSS 92 PLAYBOY'S 2006 PIGSKIN PREVIEW As we celebrate 50 years of selecting the Playboy All America Team, we tackle such crucial college football matters as our picks for the top 25 squads, our 2006 Anson Mount Scholar/Athlete winner and our Coach of the Year, Penn State's Joe Paterno. BY GARY COLE Fiction 74 THE UNLUCKY MOTHER OF AQUILES MALDONADO A successful major league pitcher discovers the price of success when guerrillas in his native Venezuela kidnap his saintly mother. He soon learns that once something is forcibly taken from you, it is seldom returned intact. BY T.C. BOYLE The Playboy Forum 43 POWER PLAY Our government has a system of checks and balances to keep President Bush from overreaching and becoming decider in chief. If Congress continues to let the president blatantly ignore the law, this balance of power could be thrown out of whack forever. BY MICKEY EDWARDS 20Q 108 EVA LONGORIA She became a household name by playing a seductive schemer on TV's top-rated Desperate Housewives. We ask Wisteria Lane's hottest resident how San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker wooed her, who should have a lesbian fling on the show and whether monogamy is overrated. BY STEPHEN REBELLO Interview 49 MICHAEL BROWN The maligned former FEMA chief became the fall guy for the disaster following Hurricane Katrina. The Bush administration wishes Brown would quietly disappear, but he keeps on fighting to clear his name. His gloves are off as he explains why Department of Homeland Security secretary. Michael Chertoff should be canned, how unprepared he thinks we are for a major disaster and which congressman can, as he says, "bite me." BY DAVID SHEFF Pictorials 58 ONE NIGHT AS PARIS Check out everyone's favorite hotel heiress in the nudesort of-when our look-alike checks in as Ms. Hilton. 78 PLAYMATE: JANINE HABECK Miss September, who was crowned Deutschland's Playmate of the Year 2005, is a testament to the power of German engineering. 110 LOVE THY NEIGHBOR The Girls Next Door are back for more, this time in fantasy themes of their own devising. Notes and News 11 THE WORLD OF PLAYBOY Tiffany Fallon and Joe Don Rooney sing at Kara Monaco's PMOY party; Cooper Hefner's band plays the Whisky a Go Go. 12 HANGIN' WITH HEF When David Letterman asks the question "Will It Float?" the Man and his girlfriends respond; Al Pacino sizes up the Mansion. 107 CENTERFOLDS ON SEX: CHRISTINE SMITH Before joining the mile high club Miss December 2005 practices with sex in some tight spaces. 147 PLAYMATE NEWS Miss February 1991 Cristy Thom makes the transition from Playmate to painter; PMOY Kara Monaco plays Willie Wisely's wife in his music video. Departments 3 PLAYBILL 15 DEAR PLAYBOY 19 AFTER HOURS 35 MANTRACK 39 THE PLAYBOY ADVISOR 90 PARTY JOKES 127 WHERE AND HOW TO BUY 151 ON THE SCENE 152 GRAPEVINE 154 POTPOURRI Fashion 98 DRESS SMART Witness the power of mind over matter: These are sharplooking suits and jackets that only a savvy guy would buy. BY JOSEPH DE ACETIS Reviews 27 MOVIES Brian De Palma revisits an infamous murder mystery in The Black Dahlia; hype-heavy Snakes on a Plane slithers onto screens. 28 DVDS Hugh Hefner's groundbreaking Playboy After Dark series debuts on DVD; United 93 proves it's not too soon for 9/11 films. 30 MUSIC Tennessee leads the way for American music; Radiohead's Thom Yorke takes his emo solo. 32 BOOKS Tom McGuane defends country life and the short-story form; our editors pick the best latePLAYBILL summer reads.