Quick question: How many of you watch the Girls Next Door? Almost every girl I know watches it, and some guys too. This show has become extremely popular because it gives America an inside look into the lives of UI alum Hugh Hefner and his three girlfriends.

The show has managed to humanize Hef and the girls, making them appear likeable and normal. Or so I thought.

Then I read the book, "Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion," by Hef's former girlfriend, Izabella St. James, and learned that not everything is as it seems on the TV show.

As St. James appears to be a credible source of information - she was one of five Hefner girlfriends right before the show got started, lived with the Girls Next Door and is seemingly intelligent (she graduated from Pepperdine University School of Law) - I think the book can be trusted. And it really sheds a lot of light on what it actually means to be one of Hef's girlfriends, and believe me, some of it is very surprising.

For instance, the girls have a curfew every night of 9 p.m.! Plus, while the show makes it look as if their lives are full of non-stop parties, St. James said that for the majority of the parties, they would show up early, make an appearance and then leave soon after because Hef never wants to stay out too late. And to put it bluntly, Hef pays for his girlfriends. He gives them an allowance of $1,000 per week.

I also found it fascinating that the mansion isn't even owned by Hef - it's owned by the Playboy corporation, and Hef has to pay rent on the rooms that he and his girlfriends live in.

I think what surprised me the most in the book was that Holly and Bridget are nowhere near as nice, or even as normal, as they appear on TV. They both actually seem a little psychotic and possessive.

One of the creepiest things I learned about Holly is that she tries so hard to be the perfect girlfriend to Hef that she went to the extent of getting plastic surgery to resemble some of the girlfriends he had in the past, including her rival, Barbi Benton.

Plus, there is no way she is with him simply because she loves him. According to St. James, Holly was a Hooters girl who was sleeping on a friend's couch when she met Hef, and she plotted to become a Hefner girlfriend so she could live in style.

Bridget also surprised me because she is so likeable on the show, but in the book Bridget seems possessive of Hef and kept trying to get St. James and another girlfriend in trouble with him.

St. James said Bridget was only interested in being a girlfriend because it is her lifelong dream to be a playboy playmate, and she thought she'd have a better chance of becoming one as one of Hefner's girlfriends.

The most surprising thing I learned about Bridget was that she apparently is legally married!

I guess her husband doesn't mind his (presumably) older competitor?

St. James doesn't say much about Kendra, but that is probably because she left the mansion soon after Kendra became a girlfriend. However, she did say that Kendra is a former stripper.

The most disturbing part of the book comes when St. James describes in detail the sex that goes on between Hef and the girlfriends.

I won't get too graphic, but St. James said that Hef never once used a condom in all the times she was a girlfriend, even though he was having sex with multiple girls in one night.

These weren't just the girlfriends either, but often were random girls invited back to the playboy mansion.

He also refused to use a lubricant and instead slathered baby oil all over his body. Believe me, it gets even more disturbing than that.

This book really changed my opinion about the girls, and Hef, and I know I'm not going to be able to enjoy the show the same way I used to because I know what goes on behind the scenes. And it isn't pretty.

Colleen is a senior in Media and wants to point out that this book came out in August of 2006, so it is very possible that mansion life is different now. She can be reached at features@dailyillini.com.