2010-08-31 02:48:02 -

PAUL REUBENS turned to reclusive philanthropist DORIS DUKE following his 1991 public indecency arrest - because he felt sure he'd find safety and privacy on her sprawling New Jersey estate.
The funnyman moved into a cottage recently vacated by the Philippines

f ormer First Lady Imelda Marcos after Duke, an old friend, agreed to let h im hide out at her home and avoid the media storm after he was caught mas turbating in a Florida porn theatre.
He tells Playboy magazine, "A couple of years earlier I'd gone to Oahu (Hawaii) to write Pee-wee's Playhouse Goes Hawaiian, which never got made and her neighbour Jim Nabors... took me to her house for lunch... She wa s always so nice to me. For no reason.
"So I called her and said, 'I'm in trouble.' She said to come to her ho use in New Jersey. I said, 'Wait, wait, wait. Let me tell you I'm not jus t in trouble - I'm in trouble!' "She was famously guarded about her privacy. I didn't know if people we re following me. I didn't want to throw that onto her, but she said to co me. On the Monday after my arrest on Friday, I woke up at Doris Duke's 2, 700-acre estate in Somerville, New Jersey... It looked like Central Park except bigger, with deer all over the place." But he couldn't run away from the controversy - it was all over the new spapers and on TV.
Reubens reveals he fell out with a lot of friends on TV because they ma de him the punchline to their jokes.
He adds, "I turned on the TV and saw people I mistakenly and naively th ought were my friends making jokes about me... I had already said the all egations weren't true and felt I deserved the benefit of the doubt from t hem.
"Make a joke about me but also just say, 'By the way, he's been a frien d of our show for many years.' I was shocked people would kick me when I was down." Reubens later pleaded no contest to the charges in a bid to avoid a tri al.