Playboy's 'Women of Enron' Issue Out
Wed Jun 26, 3:43 PM ET
By KRISTEN HAYS, Associated Press Writer
HOUSTON (AP) - Playboy's "Women of Enron" reveal much
more than shady accounting in a 10-page pictorial that
hits newsstands Friday.
Ten past and present Enron women
shed their threads for the
Chicago-based adult magazine's
August issue, though some showed
more of the naked truth than others.
"I was always the one who broke the
rules," said Shari Daughtery, a
graduate of Fort Bend Baptist
Academy in suburban Houston who
still works as an information
technology administrator at Enron's
50-story downtown headquarters.
"My mom always said as long as
everything is covered, it's fine," said
the 22-year-old Daughtery, who has
modeled before. She didn't follow
that advice when she posed wearing
only shoes and a belly chain atop
Enron's parking garage, with its two
glass towers in the background.
Daughtery was among 300 women who answered
Playboy's March invitation to pose. She joined three
others Tuesday to discuss their experiences.
They said they posed for the fun of it and to earn some
money - though none of them would say how much the
magazine paid them.
"It's privileged information, but it was substantial," said
Janine Howard, 39, who was laid off from her job selling
energy for defunct Enron Energy Services. "They were
very, very generous."
Daughtery and Taria Reed, a 31-year-old database
coordinator, survived December's layoffs that left more
than 5,000 employees jobless when Enron filed the
largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history.
The former No. 7 company on the Fortune 500 imploded
last year in a storm of hidden debt and inflated profits.
Employees and retirees saw 401(k) accounts loaded with
Enron stock evaporate when shares became worthless
after trading at an all-time high of near $90 in August
2000.
None of the four models who spoke Tuesday said they
suffered the kind of financial losses that devastated
others who depended on stock for retirement or their
children's college funds.
Reed said she sold her Enron stock before shares began
tumbling exponentially last fall because she needed the money. Daughtery said
she made sure her 401(k) was diversified so her losses were minimal, and
Howard had shut down her portfolio.
Courtnie Parker, 27, who was laid off as an Enron recruiter last December, said
she'd only worked there a year, so her losses were small.
Parker was the only model to avoid frontal nudity in the pictorial because she
didn't want to offend her grandparents.
The women voiced no bitterness toward the company or its executives, though
Howard said Kenneth Lay, former chairman and chief executive, should have
known his company was in jeopardy.
"He needs a heart," she said. "Get awake and find out what's happening in your
company. We knocked the market out."
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