TMZ Falls For JFK Photo Hoax

Photo that "could have changed history" actually from a Playboy shoot

In a colossal screw-up, the gossip web site TMZ published a photo purporting to show John F. Kennedy frolicking on a yacht with a harem of naked women--except that the image actually appeared as part of a November 1967 Playboy photo spread, The Smoking Gun has learned. The TMZ hoax was billed as an "exclusive" featuring a photo that "could have altered world events" had it surfaced prior to JFK's presidential campaign. "It could have torpedoed his run, and changed world history," the site added. In reality, the photo appeared in a story about Playboy's "Charter Yacht Party: How to Have a Ball on the Briny with an Able-Bodied Complement of Ship's Belles."

Playboy photo spread after the cut

Jacked from The Smoking Gun