Amber Heard talks 'Playboy Club' costumes, female empowerment in Playboy 20Q interview

The parade of cross-promotion continues for NBC program "The Playboy Club" and Playboy magazine.

The most recent iteration is in the September 2011 issue of the magazine where Amber Heard participates in their "20Q" (short for 20 Questions) section. Heard, the show's main character, plays Maureen, the recently-hired Bunny.

Heard seems to have been well trained by network publicists on dealing with the controversy surrounding the show, echoing the messages of female empowerment executives have been trumpeting.

Here are some highlights of the interview:

• On the Bunny costume: "If it got any tighter, we wouldn't be able to sit upright. I'm ­serious--it's that intense. But it looks great when you're wearing it."
• On staying in shape for the show: "Back in the 1960s it was fine to have curves. Do you know how happy I am that I get to keep some of my curves? For once I don't have to starve myself."
• On the show's message: "What I like about 'The Playboy Club' is that it's about women who were being independent and earning as much as their fathers. It was their chance to live their own life, to do whatever they wanted on their own terms."
• On Gloria Steinem and other detractors of the show: "The feminist movement is often clouded by Gloria Steinem's perspective, but to deny women their sexuality is just as chauvinistic. The women who worked at the Playboy Clubs were using sexuality to their advantage."
• On staying in shape...again: "Every pound for a woman in the real world is seven pounds for an actress. I don't want to play into the perception that all women should look like 14-year-old boys. I don't want to add to that pressure for young girls. But in Hollywood there is a constant pressure to look a certain way."
• On coming out as a bi-sexual: "It didn't really affect anything in my career. I don't think the producers and directors I've worked with care one way or another."

Steinem isn't gonna like this one at all, especially considering her recent call to boycott the show.