Playboy Offends Itself in 'Shocking Breach' of Standards

July 9th, 2010 9:59 AM

It must be difficult to offend a company that makes its money off pictures of naked women (to be fair, there are also articles ... apparently). The folks at Playboy Portugal managed to do just that.

On Wednesday, news broke that the Portuguese edition of Playboy magazine published several photographs depicting Jesus Christ observing pornographic scenes.

On Thursday, the parent company, which licenses the Playboy name to international publishers, distanced itself from the controversy.

"We did not see or approve the cover and pictorial in the July issue of Playboy Portugal," Playboy's vice president of public relations, Theresa Hennessy, reportedly told the gossip blog Gawker in an email. "It is a shocking breach of our standards, and we would not have allowed it to be published if we had seen it in advance.

Hennessy told Gawker the magazine would be "terminating our agreement" with the Portuguese publisher. (Visit Gawker for the full statement. Content warning: some readers may find Gawker's photo offensive.)

As of Friday morning, however, the Playboy website still listed Playboy Portugal among its 27 international editions.