Playboy bunny embroiled in local custody battle

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Rene Sloan, left, grew up in Warren County and is better known around these parts as Tammy Prater. Sloan is pictured with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and lives at the Playboy Mansion.

A Playboy bunny is in a three-way battle for custody of her daughter after the Hugh Hefner girlfriend says her teen-age daughter had help running away from their Los Angeles home by her father, who lives in McMinnville.

“She’s in love with a little boy here in Warren County and that’s what this is all about,” said attorney Lisa Zavogiannis, referring to the 15-year-old daughter of Playboy bunny Rene Sloan. “What they are going to bring up is about my client staying at the Playboy Mansion.”

Sloan grew up in Warren County in the Centertown area and is better known around these parts as Tammy Prater.

The child custody battle began when Sloan, who left for Hollywood when she was 16 to follow her dream to become an actress, came to McMinnville in hopes of convincing the court to send her daughter back home with her to California.

Sloan, who can often be seen in Playboy magazine pictured in her duties as a Playboy girlfriend, has appeared in several movies, doing stunts in “Rush Hour 2” and “The Matrix,” and she had a starring role in the little-known movie “Nutbag” in 2000. She has also started a clothing line of “thrasher-type” apparel along with continuing her duties at the Playboy Mansion.

While believing she had custody of her daughter, Sloan was surprised during her recent court appearance to find out the girl is technically in the custody of her grandparents (Sloan’s mother) given paperwork dating back to 1994.

“What a mess,” said General Sessions Court Judge Larry Ross of the custody matter, ruling in the favor of the grandparents pending what could be a three-way custody battle between Sloan, her mother, and the girl’s natural father.

Sloan had hoped she would be able to take her daughter back to California. The girl left one evening by taking a plane flight by herself to return to McMinnville.

Sloan maintains the girl’s father, Mitchell Robinson, sent her a credit card number so the girl could leave in the middle of the night to come back to McMinnville. Sloan believes the action constitutes custodial interference.

“She was a runaway by help of her father,” Zavogiannis maintained, bringing protests from Robinson’s attorney Rick Stacey, who said his client did nothing wrong.

With the child staying in Warren County, where she has attended school the last two school years, it is expected a full-blown custody battle will begin with all three potential custodians filing for complete or at least, joint custody.

Sloan is expected to point out that in addition to being the child’s natural mother, she also had her in her possession for much of the child’s life, though letting the girl stay at her grandparents’ home for various lengths of time. Sloan expects the other sides to bring up her affiliation with Playboy and the Los Angeles lifestyle as reasons the child should stay here. A date for the custody hearing has not been set.