Enron's women offered full disclosure

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Boss of shamed Andersen quits

The company and their savings may have gone up in smoke. But for the ladies if not the gentlemen of the scandal-shrouded Enron corporation, consolation of a kind beckons – an appearance on the pages of Playboy magazine.

Hugh Hefner's venerable organ is planning a a future "Women of Enron" issue, in which the company's comeliest female employees will be invited to bare a good deal more than most of their male colleagues have revealed to the host of congressional committees investigating America's biggest business failure.

Interested employees, both past and present, are being asked to send photos of themselves in bikinis to the magazine. "This is an opportunity for them to do something fun in the midst of the turmoil in their lives," Elizabeth Norris, a Playboy spokeswoman said.

It would not be the first time Playboy has provided a remunerative outlet for protagonists of American scandals – among them Paula Jones, who filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Bill Clinton, and Jessica Hahn, whose charms lured the televangelist Jim Bakker to disgrace in 1987.

This time however, if Ms Norris is to be believed, scandal has nothing to do with it. These were not women of scandal, she insisted, "these are women who are out of a job. We are offering what you could interpret as a part-time job, or what might turn into a new career."

Deborah DeFforge, of the Severed Enron Employees Coalition, said: "It's kind of a highlight. We've had so much depressing and stressful news, and now this. It's kind of cute."