And Here, the Tail Ends (the Ears and Bow Ties Too)

--And then there were nine. As in nine bunnies. On Saturday night, the last Playboy Club in the country closed its doors, and the last nine bunnies surrendered their bow ties in Lansing, Mich. “They may allow us to keep our ears,” bunny Rochelle--last name withheld to the end, as per club rules--said at a farewell party the night before. But Saturday night virtually all of the club’s trappings--including framed photographs of Hugh Hefner and glass panels etched with the bow-tied bunny logo--went on the auction block in a $50-a-plate benefit for cystic fibrosis research. “I want to grab a cottontail,” said Bill McDonald, a patron. The custom-fit bunny uniforms, however, will remain the property of Playboy Enterprises, said spokeswoman Terri Tomcsin. The end of the once-thriving enterprise came on the heels of an announcement that founder Hefner, 62, will marry Miss January 1988, Kimberley Conrad, 24.

--Actor Bruce Willis and his wife, actress Demi Moore, are just like you and me--sort of. When they’re home, they may dine at Spago and shop at Giorgio. But could you ever guess where they shop when they’re in Paducah, Ky.? Try Wal-Mart. Willis and Moore are in Paducah shooting the film “In Country,” and they’ve been spotted browsing and buying at some less-upscale establishments. “I think it is to the credit of the people of Paducah that they didn’t harass them or bother them in any way,” said Cliff Brumley, assistant manager of Wal-Mart. During one of their shopping outings, the couple bought bowling balls and shoes at Cardinal Lanes--with their nicknames, “Duke” and “Bunny,” inscribed on the balls.

--Former Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, never one to pull any punches, is throwing a few jabs in his upcoming autobiography. The arch-conservative who lost the 1964 presidential race to Lyndon B. Johnson calls President Reagan a friend of conservative causes but faults him over the Iranian arms sales. And as to the diversion of arms sale profits to the Nicaraguan Contras, Goldwater writes: “He (Reagan) had to know. The White House explanation makes him out to be either a liar or an incompetent.” (Independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh announced last week that his investigation had produced no evidence that Reagan or Vice President George Bush knew of the diversion of funds.) The book comes out next month.