For the past seven months, her life has been a nonstop frenzy. All summer and fall, reporters hounded Heidi for her story—they wanted names, places, girls, anything linked to Heidi. Helicopters circled her house, desperate for a glimpse of the Hollywood madam—the year-old girl who provided L. But she is. Better than famous—Heidi is infamous. In a town that measures worth by how much power one wields, Heidi is a force. You look at any picture of a politician with some girls around him and at least three of them will be mine ….
Today, marching through her house, Heidi does look a bit fierce. She is dressed in black—black leggings, black boots, black anorak jacket—and she looks like an animated stick figure. She is pretty, though painfully thin—her face has so little flesh it appears almost skeletal. Heidi smiles at her own half joke. She hands the condom to a blond model named Rob, who is standing in her kitchen naked except for a pair of plaid flannel boxer shorts.
He looks confused—this is, after all, Madam Heidi talking—and fingers the condom. Heidi wanted to show that anyone could wear her stuff, so she invited an assortment of body types.
Two linebacker-size black guys are trying on XXL boxers and a something guy named Paul Fegen, otherwise known as Fig, is doing card tricks. As it turns out, Heidi had a crush on Fig when she was still in her teens. Nearly everyone here today has a similar connect-the-dots history with Heidi. Casa Heidi still has the feel of a sorority. The periphery of the house is enclosed by French doors that look out on a spectacular view of L. I need a miracle. But, today, the specter of the last few months and the fact that she is facing up to 11 years in jail are overshadowed by the demands of sleepwear.
The last time Heidi tried to promote her line was with a photo shoot for a London newspaper and the experience was a disaster. Today, she is the calmer. Tacked up are an engraved invitation to a Clinton inaugural ball, a sticker from the Mustang Ranch in Nevada, where prostitution was legal, and some snapshots of happier times.
