Retro Raunch Revisit

Today marks the 40th anniversary of GALAXINA (1980) opening in theaters. Starring 1980 Playboy Playmate of the Year, Dorothy Stratten (real name Hoogstraten), this low-budget nod to STAR TREK, STAR WARS, ALIEN and westerns was her 4th movie appearance (and first breakout lead) after a handful of tv appearances. The film is sadly more known for its tragic footnote & ugly aftermath of Stratten being killed by her estranged jealous scumbag husband/manager Paul Snider in a murder-suicide just 2 months after the film's release. Stratten was having an affair with director Peter Bogdanovich while working on her next & final movie. He went on to marry Dorothy's sister Louise in Dec 1988. He was 49 and she was 20, and they divorced in 2001 but remained close. Prior to all of this came the mudslinging -- In his 1984 book, Bogdanovich recounts his devastation and blamed Hugh Hefner's hedonistic lifestyle, porn empire and casting couch Mansion as being responsible for Stratten's end, and having also allegedly raped her. Hefner held a press conference vehemently denying the accusation (and claiming it caused his heartattack) and retaliated saying Bogdanovich was a hypocrite for the affairs he had with actresses. But most damning was Hefner calling him a groomer & child molester like Roman Polanski, and who seduced Louise when she was only 13 (and later coercing her to get plastic surgery to look more like her big sister) while having also slept with the mother (Nelly) after Dorothy's death. The Stratten family filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit which was later dropped. Dorothy's outcome spawned 2 movies: 1981's DEATH OF A CENTERFOLD starring Jamie Lee Curtis and 1983's STAR 80 starring Mariel Hemingway. In music, she's been sung about by Bryan Adams, Prism, and Bush. Hefner died in Sept 2017 and in the years after his death, his reputation would plummet with disturbing claims made by former employees & models contending drug abuse and sexual misconduct. A former valet of the Playboy Mansion repeated the reputed rape of Dorothy. Bogdanovich died in Jan 2022. (As late as 2019, he said in an interview that he had celebrated when hearing of Hefner's death, still calling him "a piece of shit.")