The speculation may be rampant that Penthouse is on the verge of disappearing, but a spokeswoman for the magazine said that as of the morning of July 21 Penthouse was not stopping.
"We are not closing shop, we are open," said Lainie Speiser to AVNOnline.com from her New York office. She said she was told by her superiors to wait before making fuller, more formal statements, and that Penthouse was expected to make its own statement later the same day or the next day.
The speculation began with a July 18 report from Newsweek.com, published on MSNBC's Website, that Penthouse employees got only 25 percent of their normal salaries Friday while other company employees were working from their homes and not their offices.
"It's sort of had a snowball effect," Speiser said of that story, "but no one is working out of their house." She wouldn't say, however, who took how much less in their usual paychecks. "I'm not allowed to comment on anything financially," she said, "but we are working. It's a full staff here."
Newsweek.com also reported Bob Guccione was likely to lose his Penthouse Mansion as soon as July 22, when commercial real estate lender Kennedy Financing reportedly planned to foreclose on the century-old Manhattan residence. Speiser said she couldn't really comment upon that report. "The Mansion is a separate thing from the magazine, totally," she said.
Other Penthouse editorial and executive staffers told Newsweek.com they weren't allowed to talk about the actual situation at the magazine yet, not even about a July 15 meeting in which, allegedly, magazine staffers were told Penthouse missed a printing schedule because the company couldn't pay printing costs, meaning significant lost revenue and a possible snag in future ad sales.
The report said no new issues of Penthouse appeared from April until early this month. Speiser pointed out the July issue was in fact on the stands. But other reports suggested the missed printing schedule cost Penthouse dearly enough in terms of the all-critical newsstand positioning.
Newsweek.com said Guccione owes Kennedy Financing about $15 million and had a July 22 deadline to make the payment. The magazine said Kennedy believes Guccione resourceful enough, suggesting another unnamed lender was working to finance paying off the Kennedy debt. Guccione himself was reported unavailable for comment.
