• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, May 18, 2016

The trials and travails of Playboy’s reinvention as a nudity-free publication, interesting though they may be, are about to take a back seat to a real trial.

Hugh Hefner, the iconic founder of the men’s lifestyle publication, was named as a co-defendant alongside Bill Cosby in a civil lawsuit against the latter, following allegations that Hefner helped Cosby drug and sexually assault a young woman in 2008.

The lawsuit was brought against Cosby and Hefner by Chloe Goins, a 26-year-old model and dancer, who claims that Cosby slipped drugs into her drink and then assaulted her while she was unconscious at a “Midsummer Night’s Party” hosted by Hefner at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in August 2008, when she was 18 years old.

Goins previously sought criminal charges against Cosby, but the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office declined to bring charges, on the grounds that Cosby had an alibi and the statute of limitations had passed. After the DA declined the case, Goins took her case to the public by recording a rap lashing out at Cosby and vowing further action.

In the civil lawsuit filed this week, Goins asserts that Hefner was a knowing accomplice to Cosby’s sexual assault against her, plying her with alcohol and telling her to go “lie down” in a bedroom, to which she was escorted by Cosby.

According to the complaint, Hefner “both knowingly and willfully agreed and conspired to host parties, invite minors or young adults under the age of 21 years (and) provide them with alcohol and foreign substances.”

Further, it alleges that Hefner knew, or should have been aware, that Cosby “over the years had a propensity for intoxicating and or drugging young women and taking advantage of them sexually against their will or while they were unconscious.”

This isn’t the first accusation against Cosby involving the Playboy Mansion. Another alleged victim, Judy Huth, claims Cosby assaulted her there in 1974.

The civil lawsuit comes amid Playboy’s ongoing effort to reposition itself as a “safe for work” lifestyle brand. In March, The Wall Street Journal reported that execs were considering putting the company up for sale with an asking price up to $500 million, due in large part to its strong licensing business.

Playboy Enterprises had revenues of $38 million from its media business and $55 million from its licensing business in 2015.

Separately, Cooper Hefner, Hugh Hefner’s son, has harshly criticized the decision to drop nudity from the magazine and also blasted the company’s current management for trying to sell the Playboy Mansion. The sale would include a special condition that Hefner senior be allowed to live there for the rest of his life.