Editing Dorothy Stratten (section)

===''The Killing of the Unicorn''===
{{Main|The Killing of the Unicorn}}
In August 1984, four years after Stratten's death, the publisher William Morrow released a book by Bogdanovich titled ''The Killing of the Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten 1960-1980''.<ref name="scott">{{cite news|title=Scott's World: Hefner fires broadside at Bogdanovich over book|first=Vernon|last=Scott|work=UPI|date=August 20, 1984|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/08/20/Scotts-World-Hefner-fires-broadside-at-Bogdanovich-over-book/4775461822400/|access-date=February 28, 2019}}</ref>

''The Killing of the Unicorn'' is, by turns, a biography of Stratten, a memoir of Bogdanovich's affair with the married Playmate who was half his age, and a scathing, feminist attack on Hefner, his Playboy philosophy, and the hedonistic sexual mores he celebrated in his magazine and practiced at his mansion, and the entire Playboy organization. By far the most controversial part of the book is the director's claim that Hefner had sexually assaulted a then eighteen-year-old Stratten in August 1978. According to Bogdanovich's allegation the assault occurred while the two were alone in a secluded area of the Playboy Mansion at the end of Stratten's first day of posing for the magazine's photographer.{{sfn|Bogdanovich|1984|pp=28-9}} (Bogdanovich chose to use the word "seduced" to describe Hefner's behavior in the book;{{sfn|Bogdanovich|1984|p=6}} however, he originally used the word "raped" in the drafts of his manuscript. Bogdanovich and the publisher made the change after being threatened with a lawsuit by Hefner and his lawyers.)<ref name="ciotti">{{cite magazine| last= Ciotti| first= Paul| date= July 1985| title = Doing Right by Dorothy| magazine = [[California magazine|California]]|location= Los Angeles| volume= 10|issue= 7|page= 82}}</ref>

Among the other allegations that Bogdanovich made in his book, the most significant are: 1) That Stratten had not married Snider out of love, but rather used her marriage as an excuse to block the advances of Hefner who, Bogdanovich claimed, pursued Stratten as a sexual partner after the purported assault, 2) That Stratten loathed nude modeling and dealing with Playboy in general, and only tolerated the humiliating work in order to promote her acting career, and 3) That Hefner was responsible, in part, for enabling Snider's killing rage when he was banned from entering the Playboy Mansion just days before the murder.<ref name="ciotti"/> Bogdanovich's underlying assertion for the last charge is that Snider was banned because Hefner hated the man. In his defense, Hefner explained that the purpose of the ban was to encourage Stratten and Bogdanovich to appear at the mansion as a couple.

Nearly every review of ''The Killing of the Unicorn'' in the U.S. press was negative.{{sfn|Yule|1992|p=193}} While few objected to Bogdanovich's attacks on Hefner and ''Playboy'', many were skeptical of his newfound feminism, pointing out, for example, that he "seemed oblivious to his own sexist susceptibility to '[[Madonna–whore complex|the whore/Madonna complex]]' in his view of women."<ref name="watts">{{cite book |last=Watts |first=Steven |title=Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream |location=Hoboken, NJ |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |date=2008 |isbn=978-0-471-69059-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/mrplayboyhughhef0000watt/page/384 |page=384}}</ref> The review that appeared in the ''Chicago Tribune'', for instance, had its tone concisely summarized in the blunt headline that led off the piece, "Shabby little shocker."<ref>{{cite news|title=Tempo/Arts: Shabby litte shocker: Bogdanovichz's 'Unicorn' Tempo reader|last=Gorner|first=Peter|work=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=August 9, 1984}}</ref> Film critic Roger Ebert, writing for the crosstown ''Chicago Sun-Times'', managed to express empathy for Bogdanovich and the tragedy of Stratten's death, but was no less critical, stating that he could understand why Bogdanovich felt the need to write the book, "but I wish he hadn't published it."

In an article that appeared shortly after the murder, Hefner, who was 33 years older than Stratten, used the word "friendship" to describe his relationship with her and was said to see himself as a "father figure" to the Playmate.<ref name="carpenter"/> The image that Hefner presented to the public as a supportive, benevolent, paternal figure to Stratten was emphasized the following spring when ''Playboy'' published her biography in its May 1981 issue. It was reported that Hefner had personally supervised the editing of the article.{{sfn|Watts|2008|p=336}}

In 1985, when asked again about his relationship with Stratten after the release of ''The Killing of the Unicorn'', Hefner did concede to a crucial detail that lay at the heart of Bogdanovich's allegation. Namely, Hefner admitted that several weeks after Stratten first arrived in Los Angeles, the two had taken a nude soak in the Jacuzzi on the Playboy Mansion grounds, the place where Bogdanovich claimed the sexual assault had occurred.{{sfn|Ciotti|1985|p=83}} In the same interview, while allowing that they had "hugged" in the Jacuzzi, Hefner denied having forced himself on Stratten. Hefner also denied, despite his reputation, that he had ever so much as made a pass at the young Canadian, suggesting that his sexual interest in Stratten had ended in the Jacuzzi after learning that she expected to become engaged to her boyfriend. (This conversation would have occurred approximately two months before Hefner first met Snider.)