Playboy Hits Back at Jessica Alba  3/4/06

American men's magazine Playboy has fired back at Jessica Alba's claims they implied she had posed naked by placing her on their front cover, insisting many A-list stars have graced the page without appearing nude in the publication.

The Fantastic Four beauty's lawyers sent Playboy a threatening letter last month

(23FEB06) after the mag published an promotional image of a bikini-clad Alba from her 2005 movie Into the Blue on the front of its March (06) issue.

Alba claims the choice of front cover insinuates she appears nude or semi-nude in the magazine.

She said, "Playboy has violated my personal rights and blatantly misled the public, who might think I had given them permission to put me on their cover when I didn't."

However, Playboy insist they placed her on the cover because she won a readers poll as being the "sexiest star of the year" and she is among other stars who grace the cover, but do not pose naked.

Playboy spokeswoman Lauren Malone says, "Many celebrities have appeared on the cover of Playboy, but not nude, including Claudia Schiffer, Paris Hilton, Goldie Hawn, Raquel Welch, Barbra Streisand, Brooke Shields and Donald Trump."