Playboy founder Hugh Hefner dumped at the altar (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Heartbroken Playboy founder Hugh Hefner said on Tuesday his wedding this weekend was canceled because his 25-year-old fiancee, a Playmate from his magazine, changed her mind.

Hefner, 85, and Crystal Harris were due to tie the knot in front of more than 300 guests at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles on Saturday. It would have been Hefner's third marriage.

"The wedding is off. Crystal has had a change of heart," Hefner wrote on Twitter.

"The breakup is a heart breaker, but better now than after the marriage," he added later.

He also denied a report on celebrity website TMZ.com that the couple had had "a nasty argument" on the phone.

Adding insult to injury, he said Harris took his favorite pet, a cocker spaniel named Charlie, when she moved out of the mansion.

On the other hand, Hefner said he has been consoled by his coterie of old pals and his former wife Kimberley Conrad, and announced he would be hosting a screening of "Runaway Bride."

Hefner proposed to Harris on Christmas Eve, he announced on Twitter at the time. Since then Hefner has been planning the nuptials in between serving as hands-on editor of Playboy and entertaining family and friends at movie screenings and backgammon games.

A two-hour TV special featuring wedding highlights was due to air July 13 on the women's cable channel Lifetime.

Hefner and second wife Conrad, a former Playmate now 48, divorced in 2010 after a lengthy separation. His first marriage to Mildred Williams ended in divorce in 1959. He has two children from each marriage.

Hefner, known around the world by his nickname, Hef, has championed sexual freedom and civil rights, published stories challenging McCarthyism and the Vietnam War, and backed gay causes and the legalization of marijuana.

With a cover featuring a calendar photo of Marilyn Monroe, Hefner put together the first issue of Playboy on the kitchen table in his Chicago apartment in 1953 at a cost of $600. It sold 51,000 copies -- enough to finance a second issue -- and led to a multimillion dollar international corporation, which Hefner recently took private.

Raised in San Diego by British parents, Harris met Hefner at his annual Halloween party in 2008.

She moved in to the mansion after a few weeks and became Playboy's Playmate of the Month in December 2009. She will be on the cover of the magazine's upcoming July issue.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by David Lawder)

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Glastonbury gig for Wombles upsets festival founder (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – The founder of the Glastonbury music festival is unhappy that novelty 1970s act "The Wombles" had been booked to appear at this year's event, the BBC reported on Thursday.

Michael Eavis said booking the band, based on the furry characters who tidied up litter on London's Wimbledon Common in the children's books and TV show of the same name, was "a bit of a mistake."

"I've got about 25 stages and managers and bookers for each of the stages. I can't control every single one of them but I do get cross about that kind of thing," the BBC quoted Eavis as saying.

The Wombles, who had a series of hits during the 1970s such as "Remember you're a Womble," will join the likes of U2, Coldplay, Beyonce and Morrissey at the festival which runs from June 24-26. The band will be performing on the Avalon stage.

"He probably doesn't realize what a fantastic live act the Wombles are," the band's creator Mike Batt told the BBC.

"Uncle Bulgaria (one of the characters) told me he thinks Mr Eavis is probably perfectly aware that festivals like his are so popular because they offer an eclectic mix for everybody."

(Reporting by Michael Holden, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Charles Laufer, Founder of Tiger Beat, Dies

Charles Laufer, founder of Tiger Beat, passed away at the age of 87, according to the New York Times.

Laufer, a pioneer in the teen-targeted magazine industry, started his career as a high school teacher. Upset that his students had nothing entertaining to read, Laufer started publications in 1955 aimed at giving teenage girls information about their favorite celebrities, beginning with Coaster (which turned into Teen).

Before Justin Bieber and Robert Pattinson came The Beach Boys and The Monkees, but the stories are still the same: who's dating who, what stars look for in girls, and where they go shopping. Laufer's style of excessive exclamation points and cluttered photo collages can still be seen on newsstands and internet today.

Laufer and his brother, Ira, started Tiger Beat in 1965 after selling Teen in 1957. The tag line for the magazine pretty much sums up its stories: "Guys in their 20s singing La La songs to 13-year-old girls."

One of the first people to see The Monkee's true potential, Laufer put them on the cover of Tiger Beat in 1965, which helped shoot the band into stardom and really put the magazine on the map.

The Laufer brothers sold Tiger Beat in 1978 for a reported $15 million, with its circulation around 700,000.

But interest in teen scene publications seems to run in the family. Various family members have owned Bop and other teen magazines, and in 2003 Laufer's son Scott bought Tiger Beat, which is Bop's publisher.

Laufer died April 5 in Northridge, Calif. from heart failure, according to his brother.

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