Playboy June 2009

FEATURES 48 THE HILLIKER CURSE In the second installment of his four-part memoir, author JAMES ELLROY kicks booze, gets published and continues his hunt for lasting lust and love. 52 WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER We look at things that make our favorite season sizzle, including shades, boats, new trends and, especially, sun-kissed beauties. 56 SOUL MAN Booker T. Jones is famed for the Memphis soul he made in the 1960s. ROBERT GORDON faces the legend's great new music. 80 THE PLAYBOY BAR: RUM Yo-ho-ho! Things are tasting tropical around here as we get insane with the sugarcane. INTERVIEW 31 SHIA LABEOUF Like the giant robots he shares the screen with in the Transformers movies, there is more to LaBeouf than meets the eye. DAVID HOCHMAN chats with the disarmingly frank young actor. 20Q 72 SCOTT BORAS Boras hits it out of the park for KEVIN COOK as baseball's "avenging agent" defends his hardball tactics and his stable of well-paid players. FICTION 82 LOVELY RITA In MAILE MELOY's elegiac tale of the demise of small-town America, a dead man's girl becomes a surprising raffle prize after a fatal freak accident at a plant. PICTORIALS 42 GOD BLESS AMERICA Feeling patriotic? Get ready to salute actress and singer America Olivo, the star of the much-buzzed-about movie Bitch Slap. 60 PLAYMATE: CANDICE CASSIDY Saddle up alongside Miss June as this Midwest farmer's daughter horses around and makes you feel all right. 86 PMOY: IDA LJUNGQVIST She is fluent in several languages, has lived in more countries than most of us will visit in our lifetime and has a goddess's looks that could smooth over any foreign relations. Talk about global appeal: Ida Ljungqvist is the 50th Playmate of the Year. FASHION 76 JIMMY ROLLINS NEWS AND NOTES 9 THE WORLD OF PLAYBOY Hef, Paris Hilton and other stars help PLAYBOY cover model Aubrey O'Day celebrate her 25th birthday; Holly Madison cuts a rug on Dancing With the Stars. 10 HANGIN' WITH HEF Life is a party for Hef. See him tie one on next to his sweethearts, with Playmates and celebrities like Brody Jenner, Brigitte Nielsen, Santonio Holmes and more. 116 PLAYMATE NEWS Jayde Nicole fights cancer with her charity, Lengths for Love; the British Royal Opera House plans a production based on Anna Nicole Smith's life. DEPARTMENTS 3 PLAYBILL 11 DEAR PLAYBOY 15 AFTER HOURS 18 REVIEWS 25 MANTRACK 27 SEX: SUZY MCCOPPIN 29 PLAYBOY ADVISOR 70 PARTY JOKES 124 GRAPEVINE FORUM 119 A POSTCARD FROM EUROPE DUBRAVKA UGRESIC reports political apathy and a deficit of social imagination are on the rise in Europe. 120 DREAD PIRATE ALTHEA LEGASPI catches up with Jared Bowser, one of the first people prosecuted for music-file sharing.