The pay-for-play scandal behind many sexy Maxim, Playboy ‘covers’

Any woman can be a magazine cover girl these days — if she’s willing to pony up the dough.

Juliet Amelia, a 45-year-old licensed massage therapist from Florida, looked like the hottest model around when she suddenly appeared on eight Playboy international editions — including Playboy Sweden, Playboy South Africa and Playboy New Zealand — during a 12-month period from 2018 to 2019.Amelia — who now sells copies of these covers as well as other “uncensored images” on her website — also was splashed on the front page of British men’s magazine FHM in South Africa and Australia during the same period.“Not even Pamela Anderson was on as many covers,” said Johnny Kortis, former editor and publisher of Playboy Slovakia.Kortis claims Amelia would have added Playboy Slovakia to her collection except for the fact that he turned down a $10,000 offer by a photographer. Playboy Slovakia is not for sale, said Kortis, who claims the practice was so rampant when he was running the magazine that he complained to headquarters, saying it was watering down the brand.Playboy, which now only runs content online after dropping its print version last year, said it prohibits models from paying to appear in the magazine founded by Hugh Hefner in 1953.“Playboy Enterprises does not condone the practice of charging models to be in our pages or those of our international editions,” said a Playboy spokeswoman. “This practice is counter to Playboy’s brand standards. We urge any model who has been approached to make us aware of the situation.”Amelia didn’t return requests for comment.