I know it’s cool to hate on Hugh Hefner these days. I know we’re supposed to hate him because he’s old and out of touch and really, all of the stuff with the girlfriends and that sleazy fiancé, that was all very gross. But I can’t hate the man – I was recently watching a documentary about him, and he really is a cultural iconoclast who was relevant for decades, who pushed important issues and who, I believe, was on the right side of history on racial issues, freedom of speech, feminism issues and issues of women’s choice and birth control. Is he out of touch right now? Sure. But he’s 85 years old, and he still manages to be coherent and cognizant enough to make a decent enough point.

So Hef gave another interview to discuss Lindsay Lohan’s Playboy cover. Initial reports suggested that the LL cover wasn’t selling, but Hef claimed over the weekend that it was “breaking records”. Now he’s trying to justify why LL was chosen and how he had to lay down the law:

Hugh Hefner believes Lindsay Lohan’s Marilyn Monroe-themed Playboy pictorial will be a keepsake – but the media mogul admits he initially had doubts about featuring the embattled actress on its cover.

“The concept came from my editors,” Hefner, 85, told PEOPLE during a recent interview at the Playboy Mansion in L.A.

“I had mixed emotions to begin with,” he said. “I could not have anticipated, quite frankly, that it would turn out to be such a sensational newsworthy event, or that the pictorial would turn out so well.”

Oddly enough, the two have never crossed paths – even at the photo shoot. Even so, Hefner, who says Lohan, 25, is “carrying around some serious luggage,” hopes the Playboy opportunity is a step in the right direction.

“Historically, Playboy pictorials are connected to celebrities at various times in their career,” Hefner says. “Sometimes it’s the beginning of their career and sometimes it comes at a particular moment – as with Lindsay – that is intended as a turnaround.”

Using Drew Barrymore as an example of someone whose career skyrocketed after landing the magazine’s cover during a career low, Hefner says his wish is that “this is a born-again beginning for Lindsay. I think there’s a rooting interest for her.”

Part of the success of the shoot probably stems Hef’s direction that Lohan posed fully naked.

During negotiations, “Some of the people around her said, ‘No, no, no, I don’t want her nude,’ ” he says. “And I said, ‘No, this is how it’s going to be. This is how it is.’ “

[From People]

It still mystifies me that LL pretended to have qualms about posing nude. The girl used to flash her vadge like crazy, and she dropped trou for other photoshoots too. And she’s basically a call girl. So what’s the big deal? Was it just her way of demanding more money? Probably.

As for the pictorial being the “turn-around” moment in LL’s career – fat chance. I guess it’s nice that Hef thinks LL still has the capability for “turning it around” though. He’s a nice old codger.

Photos courtesy of WENN.