Its assets were subsequently acquired in June of that same year by WGCZ Ltd., the owners of XVideos,[3] when it won a bankruptcy auction bid.

The magazine's centerfold models are known as Penthouse "Pets", and customarily wear a distinctive necklace in the form of a stylized key which incorporates both the Mars and Venus symbols in its design.

Guccione offered editorial content that was more sensational than that of Playboy, and the magazine's writing was far more investigative than Hefner's upscale emphasis, with stories about government cover-ups and scandals.

Writers such as Seymour Hersh, James Dale Davidson, and Ernest Volkman exposed numerous scandals and corruption at the highest levels of the United States Government.

[citation needed] Contributors to the magazine included Isaac Asimov, James Baldwin, Howard Blum, Victor Bockris, T. C. Boyle, Alexander Cockburn, Harry Crews, Cameron Crowe, Don DeLillo, Alan Dershowitz, Edward Jay Epstein, Chet Flippo, Albert Goldman, Anthony Haden-Guest, John Hawkes, Nat Hentoff, Warren Hinckle, Abbie Hoffman, Nicholas von Hoffman, Michael Korda, Paul Krassner, Michael Ledeen, Anthony Lewis, Joyce Carol Oates, James Purdy, Philip Roth, Harrison E. Salisbury, Gail Sheehy, Robert Sherrill, Mickey Spillane, Ben Stein, Harry Stein, Tad Szulc, Studs Terkel, Nick Tosches, Gore Vidal, Irving Wallace, and Ruth Westheimer (Dr.

[7] Without professional training, Guccione applied his knowledge of painting to his photography, establishing the diffused, soft focus look that would become one of the trademarks of the magazine's pictorials.

As the magazine grew more successful, Guccione openly embraced a life of luxury; his former mansion is said to be the largest private residence in Manhattan at 22,000 square feet (2,000 m2).

[7][failed verification] Penthouse has also featured a number of authorized and unauthorized photos of celebrities, such as Madonna and Vanessa Williams.

However, in the late 1990s, poor business decisions were made by Guccione, from not incorporating digital marketing in the technology age to changing the content of the magazine and publishing control gradually slipped away from him.

In a desperate attempt to boost sales, the magazine began to showcase more "fetish" content, including subjects such as urination, bondage, and "facials.

On January 15, 2016, a press release emanating from then-owner Friend Finder Networks announced that Penthouse would end its print operations and move to all digital.

[10] According to the magazine in January 1973: In 1982, Guccione was listed in the Forbes 400 ranking of wealthiest people, with a reported $400 million net worth.

In 1975, for example, Guccione was honored by Brandeis University for focusing "his editorial attention on such critical issues of our day as the welfare of the Vietnam veteran and problems of criminality in modern society".

It was produced by Jeremy Frommer and Rick Schwartz, who have since created a premier website inspired by Bob Guccione as an extension of the film called Filthy Gorgeous Media.

It also began to regularly feature pictorials of female models urinating, which, until then, had been considered a defining limit of illegal obscenity as distinguished from legal pornography.

[26] In 1976, Guccione used about US $17.5 million of his personal fortune to finance the controversial historical epic pornographic film Caligula, with Malcolm McDowell in the title role and a supporting cast including Helen Mirren, John Gielgud, Teresa Ann Savoy, and Peter O'Toole.

The film, which was eventually released in late 1979, was produced in Italy (made at the Dear Studios in Rome) and was directed by Tinto Brass.

[34] Called Libido Libations, the spirits line is distributed by Prestige Imports LLC and produced by The Melchers Group BV.

[36] In March 1975, Penthouse published an article headlined "La Costa: The Hundred-Million-Dollar Resort with Criminal Clientele", written by Jeff Gerth and Lowell Bergman.

The owners, along with two officials of the resort, Morris B. Moe Dalitz and Allard Roen, filed a libel lawsuit for $522 million against the magazine and the writers.

In turn the plaintiffs issued a statement lauding Penthouse publisher Guccione and his magazine for their "personal and professional awards".

Some of the people named in the case included Marc Bell, Jason Galanis, Fernando Molina, Charles Samel, and Daniel C.

[39] In December 1984, a group of radical feminists began a civil disobedience campaign against Penthouse which they called a National Rampage.

Led by Melissa Farley and Nikki Craft, they went into stores selling copies of the magazine and ripped them up, and they also burned an effigy of Bob Guccione in front of a bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin.

The women were not allowed to speak, but they removed their coats, revealing images from a Penthouse shoot about Japanese rope bondage—among which two poses were construed by Farley to evoke dead bodies—ironed onto [their] shirts.