Legs Wide Shut says Miss France organizers

Euros are quite funny if you happened to be an alien who could leave when done watching.





Miss France in upheaval over bikinis, nudity

15:30 AEST Sat May 8 2010
By ninemsn staff



The long-time overseer of Miss France has accused Silvio Berlusconi’s media company of turning the beauty pageant into bawdy trash.


Genevieve de Fontenay, 77, has now demanded that each of the 37 regional committees for the long-running contest either side with her or the Italian prime minister’s company, Endemol France.

"Those (girls) who like opening their legs will be with Endemol and those with a bit of class will stay by my side," Mrs de Fontenay, who plans to start a rival pageant, reportedly told the UK Telegraph newspaper.

Mrs de Fontenay is a familiar face to the millions of Miss France viewers who tune in each year to the final of the contest, which is still seen as old-fashioned family entertainment.

Her husband set up the contest in 1954 and she took over when he died in 1981.

Endemol, the French arm of Mr Berlusconi’s media group Mediaset, bought the rights to the Miss France label in 2002, promising not to lower the decorous tone that Mrs de Fontenay has maintained within the pageant over the years.

It also paid her to oversee the pageant until the end of this year.

But Endemol has also ramped up the sex appeal of Miss France, instructing contestants to wear their hair down, rather than in a bun, and dress in bikinis instead of swimsuits for the final.

Matters came to a head when a French magazine published nude photos of Miss France contestant Kelly Bochenko, breaking Mrs de Fontenay’s rule that contestants never take their clothes off in public. Bochenko was then rewarded by Endemol with a spot on its reality TV show, Celebrity Farm.

Mrs de Fontenay vented her fury at Endemol executives, telling them they had "adulterated" the spirit of Miss France and then announced she was starting a rival pageant in December with stricter moral and dress codes.

Endemol responded by saying it plans sue the Miss France matriarch for unfair competition.

Regional committees and former Miss France laureates have been divided in their support for either Mrs de Fontenay or Endemol.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
sex appeal