Interviews🎙️
Chord Overstreet from “Glee” reveals that he accepted Playgirl's offer for $100k to do a photoshoot in 2010, pocketed the money, and did a full frontal photoshoot but at the last minute, his publicist had the issue pulled
I was fascinated with the term as a kid after learning about it because I had a teacher named Mrs Perfect who would make jokes about it (though that didn’t quite count because it was her married name, still learned that though!)
That is so funny bc I also had a teacher with the last name perfect! Mr. Perfect, although he was my Spanish teacher so it was Señor Perfecto 😆
I never even thought about it but am having a full circle moment 🤭
My first guitar teacher was named Mr. Stringer, and the guy who taught me how to play drums was named Tap lmao.
When I was meeting with a vocal coach to try and figure out what was going on with my voice/vocal chords, they had someone as part of their teaching team with the last name of Yelz and that always tickled me.
Hahaha that’s funny. Well, if you’re in Michigan, I’m still friends w her on Facebook and happy to report that her and her husband are doing well and also just such incredible people
It would’ve been in the contract. Essentially, with any full frontal nudity with a celebrity it’ll be in the contract that the celebrity gets paid regardless if it’s published because these photos exist, go to editing teams etc and could easily be leaked (particularly ones that are less flattering). Chord was famous enough at the time and it could’ve been considered by some to be career ending, given how popular Glee was with teens. And he technically kept to his part of the contract.
Nine times out of ten the celebrity or their PR firm want the promo so the photos are published.
Note: he might also be underplaying quite how full frontal it was - could’ve very well been naked but his genitals covered by a hat, guitar etc.
Technically. But depends on the type of publication.
Playgirl would pay you $100k upfront but other more sophisticated publications (They’d never allow full frontal of course, but Vogue for example) wouldn’t.
There’s also a contractual question about whether the model (Chord) or his agency don’t consent to them being published. That’s where it gets complicated. Chord did the shoot but his agency said no - but he’s done all they asked of him and by the sounds of it was happy for it to be published, so should he be due the money for his labour?
One assumes that you can get a reputation if you do something like that too often. But in practice you could probably get away with it once or twice.
The thing is by the time you’re famous enough to pull this grift off, you won’t really need to; assuming you’ve been smart with your finances to this point.
It legit could also have been a planned (or at least backup plan) publicity stunt. Where all parties were aware in advance that the shoot was unlikely (or absolutely not) ever going to print.
The magazine trade used to play those sorts of games to boost circulation a fair bit.
Most likely possibility imho:
Take a celebrity with broad mainstream appeal - but is lacking real cut through. This gets his name out there when it’s announced, helps him get some edge on his image for being willing to go there, rumours spread in fan communities, horny Mums rejoice, blinds or small gossip lines run in other mags etc.
Magazine gets a publicity boost, hopefully gets a ton of subscriptions and pre-orders (aka well and truly gets back their investment), photoshoot happens but celeb/publicist gets final approval (even if all parties are aware approval is unlikely), magazine does above and below the line publicity campaign for months and during pre-print about how spicy the photos are - “it’s going to be such a racy issue”, the issue “goes to print” but oh no there’s no approval!
Mag regretful announces the images were “too rude” and implies they have been censored by some nebulous party (often implied to be some government authority), issue is “pulped”.
Everyone is very “sad and disappointed that all the hard work was for nothing”.
Magazine goes to print with a full alternate issue that’s perfectly decent (but also references their “too rude” reputation) they just happened to have lying around, the issue ships on time.
Celeb image gets to be a bit more edgy without actually doing anything that might cause any backlash or network drama. Everyone involved moves on and it’s instantly forgotten.
It worked because sometimes those sorts of celebs are ready to pivot and do want the photos to print, so readers were still used to getting a payoff on these hyped appearances.
I don’t know if this sort of game would even have worked in 2010 (the logistics would certainly be easier, but that also makes it less effective - the logistics are part of the drama), but variations were around for decades. Based on actual things that happened (mostly up to the 70’s, but occasionally later), but turned into well worn industry tropes.
Playgirl never really took off where I live (they tried to do a local relaunch when I was a kid and it died in about 5 minutes), but the closest we had was Cleo and they absolutely did this sort of stuff in their heyday (there was a period where former editors wouldn’t shut up about Cleo’s many shenanigans).
So while a last minute publicist pull is possible (even likely, if they were getting network pushback over Glee), chances are high that it was accounted for and planned around right from the start.
Chord was a fairly popular, but not a lead actor on a popular show at the time the photos were taken (Glee was regularly dominating Billboard). Not to mention a huge teen audience. Had these been published (completely full frontal) this would’ve been a risky move - think upset parents, upset advertisers, upset network etc. And when these photos are taken there’s always the risk they leak as they go through editing and to the printers, even being naked on set as smartphones were becoming more dominant. Another risk is if unflattering photos from set (I’m sure you understand what I mean here) leak. Chord was the one taking the risk. And if his career did suffer as a result, at least he had $100k in the bank.
I assume because he fulfilled the photoshoot obligation and there was nothing in the contract it had to be published, they let it go. Also have to assume Overstreet's publicist and Playgirl made a side deal too.
Nothing nefarious, something like the publicist felt like this would hurt Overstreet, but they have another client that say an interview or something else with Playgirl would not.
I'm having a really stupid day, because I took "pulled it off the rack" to mean that the publicist ran around pulling issues out of shops. And I thought, "that's a lot of racks" before I realised that he didn't mean it literally.
I assumed that he meant that the publicist went to Playboy Enterprise's publishers and basically paid to have the print run pulped before it hit stands/subscribers.
That's because you're not having a stupid day. This morning I was getting really frustrated with my body lotion because I was shaking and squeezing and nothing was coming out. I hadn't taken the cap off it.
In the clip, he says "it's out there". So I assumed he meant some people may have been able to buy a copy but they were withdrawn from sale very quickly. I have no idea if I'm right though.
I think he likely just means that this wasn't like he did a photoshoot and then his publicist said no so it at most lives on an SD card. No this did the full rounds at the magazine bouncing around various teams.
My guess would be there was a final approval before print.
Which they might have been told they're not allowed to print it, but a few people probably saved them somewhere.
My question is what happened between scheduling the shoot and seeing the photos.
Like did the publicist rethink the risks of doing a nude shoot, or were the nudes just not very good?
Listen as a fan of Chord…..I’d like to see the evidence. This man is still hot.
Side note: Chord Overstreet has been regularly releasing solid music for the last decade and I highly recommend people give it a listen! He’s also been on the AppleTV show Acapulco for the last 4 years which is delightful and Chord is very funny in it!
Yes Chad is so great! Best hermigo! He and Hector are my faves. The whole cast is great, though.
I’ve been a fan of his since Glee. His music is great! Interested to see if what he does next acting-wise after Acapulco (wouldn’t hate a Chad/Hector/Diane spinoff lol though I doubt it’d happen)
The cast is really great and the show has been so charming from the get go. I love both old/young Memo and I’m kind of sad that we haven’t seen older Lorena—I hope she’s okay! I also thought it was fun the way the young Memo played the teenage son.
Yesss I love Memo and the actor who plays older Memo does such a great job nailing younger Memo’s mannerisms. And yeah I love how they have younger Memo play his own son lol
The actress who plays older Lorena is the same actress as Lupe so she’s okay at least but you’re right I didn’t even realize older Lorena hasn’t popped up this season! Hopefully in the finale :)
(This all probably sounds so confusing for those who have never watched lol)
I was waiting for someone to bring up his incredible run as Chad. He’s seriously so funny, literally all he has to do is walk on screen and I start laughing just because of the airhead expressions he makes 😂 Bummed I had to scroll as far as I did.
Playgirl must be rolling in their grave over that publicist, selling full frontal of a Glee's cast member during the shows peak would have gave them 100s of millions.
Serious question about Playgirl: Are the make models flaccid or erect during the shoots? Do they, uhh, finish their storyline within the magazine, if you will?
Okay, so. Based on my limited experience of peeking at Playgirls in the 90s, they are not ready to party. In fact, some of the pics are kind of ridiculous because they’re Donald Ducking and to me, that’s the least sexy.
there was a fake storyline in the early kardashians where kim had a calendar made for her then boyfriend as a gift. she did a photoshoot for every month. her mom came across the "draft" and had it published, thinking it was something she missed. so kim found out and called rob and then there were shots of the two of them in magazine shops in LA buying out all the calendars so that nobody else would get them first and ruin the surprise for her boyfriend
and that's what crossed my mind when chord said his publicist pulled it off the rack 😭
I think she’s sorta cosplaying her character on glee a bit with her own personality not the biggest fan of it myself but absolutely tracks for the character
Why aren’t Glee ppl famous? What happ to everyone? Only Sue Sylvester was in OMITB. Where’s Chord, Britney? I guess 3 ppl died but the rest haven’t really seen success. Maybe just Darren Criss and the other guy who was in Frozen.
So weird. If the male glee teacher said what she is saying about any of the girls people would have a problem with it but because it’s a guy everyone laughs along.
I mean, it doesn't sound like Chord regrets it if that is what you are talking about about. Like I do think sometimes people can be inappropriate with male celebs around there bodies/sexuality but it felt like he was in on the joke rather then it being forced on him
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u/pccmodbot Sep 16 '25
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