A former Playboy Bunny says E!'s 'Girls Next Door' show was 'very offensive' to the iconic cocktail waitresses: 'We earned those ears'

• A former Playboy bunny said E!'s "Girls Next Door" show "detracted" from the image of the Bunnies.
• "They did not earn those ears," ex-Bunny PJ Masten told Insider in a recent interview.

A former Playboy Bunny said E!'s reality show "The Girls Next Door" "detracted" from the image of the iconic cocktail waitresses.

PJ Masten worked at Playboy from 1972 to 1982, first as a Bunny, then as a Bunny mother (a manager at the Playboy clubs who was responsible for making sure the Bunny waitresses were well-trained and properly attired, among other tasks).

She told Insider in a recent interview that the antics of "The Girls Next Door" stars Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson, and Bridget Marquardt had a negative effect on the image of the Bunnies.

"They did not earn those ears," Masten said of Madison, Wilkinson, and Marquardt, who lived with Hugh Hefner at the Playboy mansion in Los Angeles as his girlfriends in the early 2000s. "Their behavior detracted from the Playboy Bunny image."

According to Masten, Playboy Bunnies — women who worked as cocktail waitresses in the company's members-only clubs nationwide — had to undergo rigorous training for the position, including memorizing a specific "call-in sequence" for "over 60" types of cocktails, and perfecting the "Bunny dip," a maneuver in which a Bunny leans back while bending her knees in order to "elegantly" serve drinks while keeping her costume in place.

"We had to train for two whole weeks: how to serve backwards on three-inch heels, [learning] all of the cocktails, the different size glasses and the different types of alcohol that had to be served a certain way," Masten said.

"We deserve to wear those costumes," she added. "Only if you were a Bunny do you deserve to wear those costumes."

Masten was referencing the fact that Madison, Wilkinson, and Marquardt frequently dressed in the iconic Bunny costume — complete with ears and a fluffy tail — on "The Girls Next Door," despite never having worked as actual Bunnies at a Playboy club.

The reality show aired on E! from 2005 to 2009, and followed the three women as they navigated their relationships with Hefner and each other while living together in the Playboy mansion.

According to Masten, Hefner's girlfriends didn't properly clarify their positions in the mansion and within the Playboy hierarchy as a whole. She called Madison "a paid girlfriend" who got a weekly allowance from Hefner, and said Madison wasn't a Bunny proper.

"It really is very offensive to the thousands and thousands of former Bunnies that are out there. We earned those ears," Masten told Insider of the use of Bunny costumes on "The Girls Next Door."

Masten is featured on the new docuseries "Secrets of Playboy," currently airing weekly on A&E. You can watch the trailer below.