3-D Rage: Playboy Centerfold Goes 3-D

We always said that 3-D would go big when the adult entertainment industry began to embrace it.

And while you won’t yet see adult video offerings in 3-D (just yet), Playboy Magazine will go 3-D with its upcoming June issue.

That’s right–you can check out the Playmate of the Year in 3-D.

The issue, set to hit newsstands on Friday, will come with a pair of 3-D glasses and feature a 3-D image of Hope Dworaczyk.

The magazine, which has seen sales slumping in recent years (along with the rest of the magazine industry) is hoping the move will revive sales a bit.

“What would people most like to see in 3-D?” asked Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. “Probably a naked lady.”

Hefner makes no secret of hoping to capitalize on the popularity of 3-D movies such as “Avatar” and “How to Train Your Dragon,” even as he makes no secret of not quite getting what all the fuss is about.

“I’m not a huge enthusiast of 3-D,” he said in a telephone interview. “I leave real life to go to the movies and 2-D is fine with me.”

If the thought of grown men sitting back in their recliners with a pair of 3-D glasses doesn’t quite say “Playboy,” it should be noted that a few months ago the magazine put Marge Simpson — yes, the blue-haired animated mother of Bart — on the cover and in a two-page centerfold.

“In today’s print environment you have to create newsstand events,” said the editorial director of the Chicago-based magazine, Jimmy Jellinek. “Marge Simpson was one of those.”

Jellinek said he hopes the issue featuring centerfold  Dworaczyk in 3-D also reminds people that for all the infatuation with the Internet, there is nothing quite like having a magazine in your hands.

“People want things that last and have meaning,” he said.

Hefner notes there also are plenty of good old-fashioned 2-D pictures of Dworaczyk — the 51st Playmate of the Year, for those counting at home.

3-D may be all the rage, but Hefner said he first thought of using it when he launched his magazine in the 1950s.

“I actually signed a photographer to shoot two nude women in 3-D in Chicago,” he said. But he scrapped the idea when he discovered how expensive it would be to include the glasses.

This time around, HBO is helping out. HBO wanted a creative way to promote its show “True Blood,” and having Playboy include 3-D glasses with the show’s name on them seemed a good way to do it, said Playboy spokeswoman Theresa Hennessey.

So, do the glasses work? Well, it does kind of look like Dworaczyk is handing you the wine glass she’s holding. And she says the photograph makes everything a little, well, bigger.

“It’s kind of like it says on the rearview mirror,” Dworaczyk joked. “Things may appear larger.”