But it became quite clear on Wednesday night that one woman in particular can move him to tears with a few kind words: his daughter, Christie.

"I hadn't expected to get so emotional," Hef sniffled after Christie paid loving tribute to him and handed him the Magazine Publishers of America's prestigious Henry Johnson Fisher award.

Hef's waterworks might also have had something to do with the standing O he received from the assembled media bigwigs -- Helen Gurley Brown and Martha Stewart included -- who braved a serious security screening process to pack the ballroom of New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. In addition to the applause, there was even some mild hooting.

"This honor means a great deal to me," Hef said in his short acceptance speech, "coming as it does from my peers."

Touched but not quite so farklempt, seemingly, was Richard M. Smith, Newsweek's chairman and editor in chief, who was also given an award.

"Thanks to all those former colleagues who came out tonight," Smith quipped, "even those who came just to see if I'd be wearing pajamas."

For the record, he wasn't. And neither was Hef.

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Or did he mean "tease"?

"Some people just can't see the forest for the T's."

-- Ray Bradbury, whose "Farenheit 451" was first published in Playboy, on the lack of recognition for all the great fiction the magazine has published over the years.

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Speaking of Playboy T's

Remember Tiffany, the teen pop star who belted out "I Think We're Alone Now" at malls across America back in the '80s?

She's back and, thanks to Playboy, less clothed than Britney. Yep, she's on display in all her glory in the magazine's upcoming issue.

"Admit it -- you had her records and you've been waiting," the magazine's marketers taunt.

Actually, I never had her records (who knew there was more than one?) and would really rather not see either her forest or her T's, thanks very much.

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