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Thanks to a personal note of apology from Hugh Hefner, the feud between Playboy and unwitting cover girl Jessica Alba has ended without litigation. Alba, you'll recall, was displeased that a promotional photo of her in full Into the Blue wardrobe landed on the magazine's cover, potentially indicating that she appeared nude inside the magazine, a career-resuscitating desperation move that still might be years away from occurring. Reuters quotes from Hefner's "my bad" note owning up to his publication's premature actions:

In his letter to Alba, Hefner apologized for "any distress unintentionally caused by the publication of your photo" on the March cover.

"What was intended as a tribute to your tremendous popularity has been misinterpreted by some as something else for which we are truly sorry since we are among your biggest fans," Hefner said.

We're not all surprised that Hefner was the bigger man and took steps to put this ugly situation behind him, allowing him to return to his crucial day-to-day responsibilities of enslaving half a dozen blondes at his Viagra-fueled sexual detention center.