There have been reports today from various sources stating that Playgirl had offered Dancing with the Stars' participant Ian Ziering $100,000 to appear naked in the pages of Playgirl magazine.  Initially, I believed the report because, well, we're talking about reality TV.  Sex tapes seem to come out on a weekly basis.  It's hard to be skeptical of any reality TV news.  However, as it turns out, this was all a terrible ruse.

TMZ.com reports that there is no validity to the offer and cites a Playgirl representative, who says, “Playgirl doesn't have those kinds of funds to work with.”  This makes sense, and I trust TMZ; they tend to be right most of the time.

Saying that, if Ian Ziering really were offered such a deal, would he consider taking it?  I'm guessing not.  Ziering has to be receiving some sort of royalties off of Beverly Hills 90210 still, with residuals from syndication and the newly released DVDs, so he doesn;t need the money.  The fact that he is participating in Dancing with the Stars lets us know that he's probably interested in re-igniting his career.  Although appearing in Playgirl would stir some publicity, it wouldn't be the kind of publicity that would help get him more work in Hollywood, or at least not the kind he's looking for (i.e. the kind of work found south of the San Fernando Valley). 

Female celebrities can appear in Playboy and not torpedoe their career (in fact, it's usually a positive), but the same precedent hasn't been set for male celebrities.  Maybe it's possible for a dude to strip down for Playgirl and thus propel their career, but I highly doubt it.  Furthermore, it gets annoying when gossip publications blatantly invent outlandish stories that make it into national news.  Ziering is a classy guy (check out our interview with him here), and I don't think there's any amount of money that would get him into the pages of Playgirl.  

-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer

(Image Courtesy of CelebrityWar)