Thursday, Nov 15, 2007    Text size: 

USC Media Relation's John Zollinger told XBIZ that Playboy founder Hugh Hefner donated $2 million to the USC School of Cinematic Arts to fund a central exhibition space and an archival repository, both of which will bear the adult entertainment legend's name.

“I’ve always believed that following one’s dreams is very important,” Hefner said. “I’m proud to support the USC School of Cinematic Arts, which offers dialogue and personal interaction between scholars, educators, industry veterans and the students who are pursuing their dreams to become the storytellers of the future.”

His donated funds for the repository will help house decades of student films, production-related records and other historic resources in the school's new headquarters complex.

Long a patron of film, film preservation and documentary productions, Hefner has donated millions of dollars to preserve films and fund cinema schools over the years.

The $2 million donation represents the latest move made over the past 15 years by Hefner to aid the school. Hefner gave $100,000 in 1992 to create the Critical Studies course Censorship in Cinema. In 1995, he provided $1.5 million in endowment for the Hugh M. Hefner Chair for the Study of American Film.

Since 1993 Hefner also has donated nearly $2 million to UCLA to preserve more than two dozen films, including "The Big Sleep," "Murder at the Vanities" and "Too Much Harmony."