If those coveted 20-something readers can't identify with Hugh Hefner, maybe they will with "The Simpsons." Like nearly everything printed on paper these days, Playboy magazine has been facing tough times. Advertising pages have dropped 31 percent over the last year, newsstand sales have dried up by 25 percent, and its circulation has dipped to 2.4 million, according to publishing insider Media Industry Newsletter. Can a blue-haired mother of three deliver the iconic gentleman's book to a new generation ...

Usually, when a president wins the Nobel Peace Prize, it is uniformly seen as a positive development for America and for the world. WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Usually, when a president wins the Nobel Peace Prize, it is uniformly seen as a positive development for America and for the world. Both opponents and allies tend to celebrate the fact that an American president actually got recognized by a bunch of Norwegians for something he achieved. But with Barack Obama, who surprisingly ...

The visit of the NBA to London on Monday, in the form of a preseason friendly between the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz, could be seen as an important step in the global growth of the American sports franchise. Not only did the action on the court deliver in almost script-perfect fashion -- with British-national Luol Deng top-scoring on the night and a buzzer-beating basket from rookie James Johnson sealing a 102-101 win for Chicago -- but crucially, for ...

Al Capone's legend of bootlegging, gangland slayings and tax evasion lives on more than 60 years after the Chicago gangster's death. Now comes a footnote that is a sign of the times: foreclosure. A Wisconsin lodge that may have been one of Capone's old hideouts goes on the auction block this week with a starting bid of $2.6 million. The two-story stone lodge, tucked away on 407 acres in Couderay, Wisconsin, was owned by the Capone family in the ...

It's only been a dozen years, but the landscape of television is very different from what it was when "Ally McBeal" was in its heyday. When the hit show debuted in 1997, the world of reality television consisted mostly of MTV's "The Real World" and Fox's "Cops." Sitcoms and dramas were still king. It was in that environment that the quirky "McBeal," about a 20-something single attorney and the eccentric law firm where she worked, exploded onto the scene -- ...

The NBA is hoping to stage a regular-season game in London in the next two years before the British capital hosts the 2012 Olympics. David Stern, commissioner of the world's premier basketball league, revealed that it might even be possible to hold the match at London's O2 Arena next year. "Who knows We have not set the schedule yet for 2010, so we'll see," Stern told the UK Press Association ahead of Tuesday night's preseason exhibition at the venue, in ...

Two senior rebel leaders in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta region accepted a government offer of amnesty to militants who disarm. (CNN) -- Whenever President Obama has traveled overseas and offered pointed and direct assessments of the United States, some of them critical, Republicans have ripped him for criticizing America, saying a president should always defend the United States. So I want to hear the explanation by these so-called patriots of their giddy behavior over the United States losing the 2016 Olympic ...

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee announced Friday. It is the first time South America will host an Olympics event. The city has budgeted $14.4 billion to the effort, the largest amount of any of the four finalists, according to IOC figures. The final vote was down to Rio and Madrid, Spain. In earlier voting, Chicago, Illinois, and then Tokyo, Japan, were eliminated from contention. After the cities made their presentations ...

The videotaped beating death of an honors student in Chicago, Illinois, is "chilling" and one of the most shocking things "you can ever see," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday. At his daily news briefing in Washington, Gibbs said President Obama was concerned about the killing and the issue of violence in his former hometown. He said Obama discussed the matter earlier Wednesday in the Oval Office. "This is not just a Chicago-specific problem," Gibbs said. "Obviously, youth crime ...

Chicago police asked the public for help Tuesday in finding three more people believed connected to last week's videotaped fatal beating of 16-year-old Derrion Albert. "We need the public's help, your help," Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis told reporters. With four teens already arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the killing, "we are continuing to look for three additional people in connection with Derrion's murder," Weis said. Weis said he has asked the U.S. Secret Service to try to ...