[MouseMan]

Playboy story pokes fun at Disney's Celebration

Monday, July 21, 2003

Associated Press


CELEBRATION — This Disney-planned community is used to getting knocked for what some see as its fastidious rules on details such as what color curtains homeowners can use. But a story in the latest edition of Playboy that pokes fun at the central Florida area has rankled some residents.

The fictional piece, "Jubilation," in the August issue of the men's magazine turns Walt Disney Co. into "Contash Corp.," Mickey Mouse into "Gulpy Gator" and creates an alligator so large that it leaps into a boat on the imaginary "Lake Allagash" and devours a 3-year-old boy. Later, a hurricane all but destroys Jubilation.

The article by University of Southern California Professor T. Coraghessan Boyle takes potshots at the usual Celebration targets: mandatory neutral-color curtains facing the street, parking restrictions and high home prices.

Celebration resident Mike Turner, 66, is sure Boyle is off base.

"To me there's nothing wrong with saying you can't paint your house with polka dots and you can't have an old jalopy automobile on your front lawn and take the engine out and leave it there," Turner said. "The restrictions are not that bad. Nobody's ever told me what color curtains I can have."

Andrea Finger, a spokeswoman with Disney development arm Celebration Co., took the satire in stride. Celebration has been profiled since its creation — negatively and positively — in publications such as Car & Driver, London's The Independent and The New York Times magazine.

"Nothing surprises us anymore," Finger said.

It's unclear whether Boyle has set foot in Celebration. An assistant to Boyle's New York agent said he often reads up on a topic and then concocts his own fictional "reality" from the facts.

Perhaps few in Celebration have read Boyle's story because no stores in town carry Playboy. The only place that sells magazines, Gooding's supermarket, offers a wide variety of publications, but nothing racy.



Information from: The Orlando Sentinel, http://www.orlandosentinel.com

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[MickeysGirl]

Sounds like a repeat of the Onions article a few weeks ago to me!

[MouseMan]

Probably very close to it.