JFK-Naked Women Photo Called a Hoax

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - A photo believed to be former President John F. Kennedy on a yacht with several naked women is being called a fake.

Playboy magazine contacted TMZ shortly after it published the black-and-white photo on its site, saying that the photo was actually part of a 1967 story about vacationing on a yacht. The Smoking Gun ran a color version of the photo and called TMZ's mistake "a colossal screw-up."

Earlier on Monday, TMZ.com published the photo , labeling it "the JFK photo that could have changed history." The site writes that the photo was taken in the mid-1950s when Kennedy was still a senator. It shows two naked women jumping off the boat and two more sunning on a top deck. Kennedy is purportedly seen sunbathing on a deck below that.

TMZ reports that several experts it consulted said the photo appears to be authentic. The Web site said the photo belonged to an East Coast car dealer who passed away 10 years ago. The car dealer had bragged to his friends about the image of JFK with a boatful of naked women.

Plenty of people are wondering how the site could have gotten things so wrong.

"TMZ has made a living on being first with information the mainstream media was not even aware of how to get. And it's been accurate far more often than not. But this case reveals a 'chink' in the armor of the suit of TMZ's success," writes blogger Zennie62 on SFGate.com . "They got so caught up with the idea that the photo was real, they never stopped to consider that it may not be real."