NBC presented its new fall drama The Playboy Club to the Television Critics Association with a controversial reaction. The producers found themselves found themselves defending the show, but it was star Amber Heard who best articulated the empowering position of playing a bunny of Hugh Hefner’s ‘60s clubs. She plays Maureen, an ambitious up and coming bunny who will show the viewers what the clubs offered women of 1961. Heard learned from former bunnies themselves.

“There are entrepreneurs,” Heard said. “They’ve talked to us about their experience. I’ve yet to meet an ex-bunny who’s disgruntled about their experience. I haven’t talked to them. On the other hand, I’ve talked to many who look back fondly on those experiences, are thankful for the money [they were able to earn.]”

The show will also deal with an African-American bunny and a closeted bunny, because those were the issues of the era. “The backdrop of the ‘60s and the club is going to be important to our story because everything was about to happen,” Heard continued. “This was right before the bubble burst. It’s pre Stonewall in relation to there being out lesbians, pre-women’s lib, pre civil rights, right on the cusp of where everything started to blow over. That’s going to lend itself well to our piece.”

The Playboy Club on NBC is a one-hour drama from Academy Award-winning

executive producer Brian Grazer, about the world of the Chicago Playboy Club.

It’s set in the ’60s, and explores the lives of a group of working-class Bunnies, each of whom has some kind of secret that will be revealed as the show unfolds.

The show is based on some of those stories from a book called The Bunny Years by Kathryn Leigh Scott. Some famous women who were once bunnies, including Gloria Steinem, Barbara Walters, Lauren Hutton, Deborah Harry, Susan Sullivan, Sherilyn Fenn, even NBC’s own Barbara Bosson, the star of “Hill Street Blues,” was a Bunny, as well as Federal Judge Kimba Wood, and Dr. Polly Matzinger, a world-renowned immunologist.

The series will take a look into the Mob and the backroom politics of the Mayor Daley era, plus we’ve incorporated musical performances into the club, several of which will be from Tony- winning actress Laura Benanti who plays the mother Bunny Carol-Lynne.

Jonathan Levine has directed two feature films (The Wackness and next month’s 50/50) since seeing his 2006 directorial debut, the indie horror pic All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, infamously go from a Weinstein Co. pick-up to a Weinstein Co. cast-off sold to Senator Entertainment, who then went out of business themselves. So what’s the latest status of the Amber Heard starrer (which also features Anson Mount, Whitney Able, and Twilight’s Michael Welch)?

“Is it ever going to be shown in the U.S.? Yes, I imagine it will be,” Levine told Movies.com. “I’m friends with the guys who financed the movie, and the movie’s in some bizarre, crazy … like, this hedge fund owns it as part of their defaulted assets, and they don’t care. It’s just a line on a spreadsheet to them, and we’re trying to get it back.”

Two new pieces of key art for The Playboy Club have been released. The show centers on the Bunnies and patrons of the original Playboy Club in 1960′s Chicago and premieres September 19, 2011.

Amber is featured in the September issues of InStyle and Playboy, the latter we’ve mentioned a lot recently. The InStyle spread is brand new and a stunning make-up piece! View the images in the gallery. Scans are courtesy of her official website and can hopefully be replaced with our versions as soon as possible.

Two new promotional photographs of Amber in her bunny costume for The Playboy Club have been revealed. Check them out in the gallery!

Also recently unveiled in a video promo which focuses on Maureen. I can’t stress enough how beautiful she looks and the character looks fantastic! Very excited for the series. (Caps to come soon.)

Entertainment Weekly‘s August 19 issue has previewed the first still from The Rum Diary. The image showcases Amber Heard’s Chenault (looking gorgeous!) and Johnny Depp’s Paul Kemp.

Paul Kemp is a freelance journalist who finds himself at a critical turning point in his life while writing for a run-down newspaper in the Caribbean. Paul is challenged on many levels as he tries to carve out a more secure niche for himself amidst a group of lost souls all bent on self-destruction

The film releases on October 28, 2011.