{"id":684771,"date":"2026-05-21T08:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/684771\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T08:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:13:12","slug":"cameron-hoys-amazing-redemption-from-playboy-bunny-scandal-to-c-suite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/684771\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameron Hoy\u2019s amazing redemption from Playboy bunny scandal to c-suite"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 21, 2026 \u2014 2:51pm<\/p>\n

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All the headlines around the leadership change at Ticketek this week have largely focused on the abrupt departure of Brad Banducci<\/a>, who stood down as CEO after just a year in the role.<\/p>\n

But here at CBD we were more interested in who the private equity-backed ticketing giant had picked to replace the former Woolworths boss.<\/p>\n

\"HollyHolly Madison (left), pictured with Hugh Hefner and Anna Nicole Smith in 2004.AP <\/p>\n

Ticketek\u2019s new chief executive Cameron Hoy has spent the past 20-odd years in relative obscurity, working his way up through the ranks at the company until he bagged the job this week, after spending the past three years as the group\u2019s chief operating officer. We can only guess he was enjoying the low profile.<\/p>\n

After all, this is the same Cameron Hoy who this masthead in 2007 reported was \u201cceremoniously dumped\u201d by his then boss Kerry Packer, for whom Hoy was working as a marketing exec at ACP Magazines, following a series of events involving the late former Playboy bunny, Anna Nicole Smith.<\/p>\n

At the time, Hoy, whose taut face could well look even more youthful today than it did back then, denied being dismissed. But raking over reporting from the time makes for tantalising reading, whichever way you cut the parting of ways.<\/p>\n

In 2005, The Age reported that Hoy, described then as a \u201cdebonaire\u201d, had been \u201cAnna Nicoled\u201d while the famous Hollywood personality was on a paid trip to Australia to make an appearance at an Oscars party hosted by the magazine NW at Paddington Town Hall.<\/p>\n

\"CameronCameron Hoy and Anna Nicole Smith.AP<\/p>\n

Hoy was reportedly hosting a table of influential media buyers. After being rebuffed by Jamie Drurie, Smith reportedly turned her attention to Hoy. The pair left the party together and were said to be the talk of the crowd afterward.<\/p>\n

Said one eyewitness: \u201cIt was pretty hot. She was trying to get his shirt off at one stage.\u201d No surprise to read then that the bosses weren\u2019t pleased Hoy had abandoned his media buyers, then responsible for directing the media industry\u2019s rivers of gold, to run off with one of the most famous pin-up girls of the early oughties.<\/p>\n

Two years later, the Herald wrote: \u201c[Hoy] was not the first Australian at the NW party to brush lips with the former Playboy playmate.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Hoy denied he drank Cristal champagne at the restaurant and later denied there was anything to the rumours circulating. He also pointed out he had a steady girlfriend.<\/p>\n

What a redemption arc! We reached out to Ticketek to get a sense of what Hoy has learnt in the decades since the high-profile scandal and whether he had anything to say about it some 20 years later. But the company was not in the mood to play along.<\/p>\n

Get the day\u2019s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"JohnJohn Buckley<\/a> is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May 21, 2026 \u2014 2:51pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-684771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}