Hugh Hefner - Madam Planning Playboy Playmates Expose

A Hollywood madam is threatening to lift the lid on HUGH HEFNER's Playboy Playmates - she plans to go public with allegations the girls have worked as high-class escorts.

Michelle Braun, who was recently sentenced to three years probation for money laundering, alleges she would regularly set up dates between Hefner's girls and a string of wealthy clients who could afford the $10,000 (£6,250) fee.

Braun, who ran escort agency Nici's Girls, insists she has matched Playmates up with two kings, athletes and even one of U.S. TV's most famous personalities.

The allegations, which will be laid bare in the book, could ruin Playboy's image of only hiring wholesome girls who do nothing more than strip for the magazine.

She tells the New York Post's Page Six, "I only worked with famous girls, mostly Playmates. Hef couldn't keep any of his girlfriends in the (Playboy) Mansion. At one time, seven of the eight girls living in the Mansion were working for me. I had one of his girlfriends in the Mansion just to recruit for me."

The tell-all tome is expected to find a publisher in the New Year (10).