On this, the final day of our Benji series, I finally am posting something I kept saying I was gonna do way back during "For The Love of Benji!" Did you know that our dear, sweet, innocent friend Benji once posed NUDE in Playgirl Magazine?! It's always sad when these kinds of photos leak out and tarnish a celebrity's career!

Around the time of Benji's starring role in "Oh, Heavenly Dog!," The film's stars Chevy Chase and Jane Seymour appeared on the August 1980 cover of Playgirl Magazine. But did either of them bare all? No! Instead the cover teases a SPECIAL MYSTERY CELEBRITY CENTERFOLD, which turned out to be Benji! I bet there were a lot of disappointed women out there. Can you image if Playboy ever had done something that misleading?

If you know anything about the squeaky clean family-focused Benji director Joe Camp, you're probably surprised that he allowed this to happen. On the official Benji website, Camp explains his thinking behind the centerfold:

Benji is the only canine actor to ever appear as a centerfold in Playgirl Magazine. When asked if such an appearance isn't a break from his usual family-friendly philosophy, Joe says, "The way we looked at it was that in addition to being ridiculously funny, Benji's centerfold meant one less naked man on the magazine racks... because, you see, the dog playing Benji at that time was actually a girl." Would he do it again? "No."

Since the photo actually shows the female Benjean, she also has the distinction of being one of the only naked females of ever appear in Playgirl. We've included the image below...but beware that some may find it NSFW! :-O If you're not too scandalized you can even find this exact issue on Amazon for just $20...collector's item?

--eliz