LITTLE ROCK — Hugh Hefner is celebrating the new year as a married man once again. The 86-year-old Playboy magazine founder exchanged vows with his “runaway bride,” Crystal Harris, at a private Playboy Mansion ceremony on New Year’s Eve. Harris, a 26-year-old “Playmate of the Month” in 2009, broke off a previous engagement to Hefner just before they were to be married in 2011. Playboy said on Tuesday that the couple celebrated at a New Year’s Eve party at the Los Angeles mansion with guests that included comic Jon Lovitz, Gene Simmons of KISS and baseball star Evan Longoria. The bride wore a strapless gown in soft pink, Hefner a black tux. This is Hefner’s third marriage. His previous wives were Mildred Williams, married from 1949-59, and former centerfold Kimberly Conrad, married from 1989-2010. Hefner filed for divorce from Conrad in 2009; however, the couple separated in 1998.

Actor Fred Willard has completed a diversion program for his arrest this summer for a suspectedlewd act at a Hollywood adult theater. Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office, said Monday that the 72-year-old comic actor completed the program in September and as a result no longer faces charges stemming from the July 18 incident. Willard was arrested after uniformed vice officers were conducting a routine investigation of the theater and they said they saw him engaging in a lewd act. He was fired shortly thereafter from his job narrating Market Warriors, which is produced by Boston public television station WGBH. His film credits include Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman. An e-mail message left for Willard’s agent, Mike Eisenstadt, was not immediately returned.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 01/02/2013