October 09, 2007
'Naked Lunch' may be banned in Maine
GREENVILLE, Maine - "Naked Lunch" just doesn't sound appetizing to some people. A sandwich called the Skinny Dip, featuring sliced prime rib in a baguette roll, has been offered free of charge anyone willing to plunge naked from The Black Frog Restaurant's dock into a lake.
Since the free sandwich offer was introduced three years ago, owner Leigh Turner has found plenty of takers. "We've had two or three a week," he said.
But now the promotion is running into trouble: A patron apparently suggested to selectmen that the activity be banned.
The naked lunch issue surfaced this week when Town Manager John Simko presented the Black Frog's application to renew its liquor license. Simko said he had been approached about the nudity and suggested that Police Chief Scott MacMaster speak to the owner.
Turner did not attend the selectmen's meeting, but said he would remove the free lunch offer if asked to do so.
The skinny dip was typically done at night, no frontal nudity was exposed to customers and a towel was readily available, Turner said. "Most everybody applauded" after the plunge, Turner said.
Posted by ronnie at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2007
Nepal to keep nudes off Everest
KATHMANDU (AFP) - Mountaineering authorities in Nepal say they are fed up with nudity on Mount Everest and are taking measures to put an end to "disrepectful" stunts on the world's highest peak.
"People taking their clothes off and so on -- these kind of things we are tring to stop," said Ang Tsering Sherpa, the head of Nepal's official mountaineering body which issues climbing permits.
Last year a local climber sparked outrage after he claimed the world's highest display of nudity when he stripped and stood naked for several minutes on the 8,848-metre (29,198-foot) summit.
And earlier this year, a Dutchman attempted to set a bizarre record by being the first to scale the peak while wearing only shorts.
The joke among many Nepali mountaineers now is that the only record left to be set on the mountain is giving birth at the summit.
"It's disrepectful -- the mountains are sacred, they are part of our religion," the Nepal Mountaineering Association president told AFP.
"So if people want to set a world record, they have to inform us first."
Posted by ronnie at 07:06 AM | Comments (0)
September 04, 2007
Cops: Nude driver's conduct distracting
ANGOLA, Ind. - A naked man driving along the Indiana Toll Road was arrested and charged because his lewd conduct distracted other motorists, police said.
The 37-year-old Chicago man was traveling east to Ohio to visit his mother, police said. He was nude and had petroleum jelly on his hands when a state trooper pulled him over about 10 miles from the Ohio line Wednesday, police said.
The man, who told police he was comfortable driving in the nude, was charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure, punishable by up to a year in jail.
The trooper, Al Martinez, a four-year veteran of the Indiana State Police, said he walked up to the passenger side of the SUV and saw that the man had dropped a T-shirt across his midsection. Other motorists had called police about the driver, with several calls from truckers who could see into the front seat of the SUV.
Martinez made the man put his clothes back on before handcuffing him and putting him in the back of the squad car.
The man was released Thursday from the Steuben County Jail on $1,000 bond.
Posted by ronnie at 05:53 PM | Comments (0)
July 02, 2007
Nude customer a hair-raising experience
SALEM, N.H. - The stylists wear scanty outfits, but a Salem man has found out that customers have to stay covered up. Kevin Bean, 48, was charged with indecent exposure and lewdness after allegedly stripping naked in the Lather & Lace hair salon in Salem this week.
Police say when Bean came out of a bathroom in his underwear, a female employee told him to get dressed and turned her back to him. When she looked back, she reported Bean was naked. Employees kicked him out, locked him outside and called police.
Posted by ronnie at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)
June 28, 2007
Nude bather arrested at Rome's Spanish Steps
ROME (Reuters) - A 22-year-old American man was arrested on Sunday after an early morning naked bath in the historic Barcaccia fountain at the foot of Rome's Spanish Steps, an Italian news agency reported.
The man stripped and bathed in the 17th century Baroque fountain in front of a crowd of tourists, before being led away by police, AGI news agency said.
He faces charges of committing an obscene act, it said.
The incident comes less than two weeks after a drunken man was arrested for driving his car down the steps that spiral down to the fountain, one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions.
Posted by ronnie at 03:20 PM | Comments (0)
May 07, 2007
Thousands strip for photo shoot
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A record 18,000 people took off their clothes to pose for U.S. photographic artist Spencer Tunick Sunday in Mexico City's Zocalo square, the heart of the ancient Aztec empire.
Tunick, who has raised eyebrows by staging mass nude photo shoots in cities from Dusseldorf, Germany, to Caracas, smashed his previous record of 7,000 volunteers set in 2003 in Barcelona, Spain.
Directing with a megaphone, Tunick shot a series of pictures with his Mexican models simultaneously raising their arms, then lying on their backs in the square as well as another scene on a side street with volunteers arranged in the shape of an arrow.
Hundreds of police kept nosy onlookers away during the nippy early-morning shoot, and a no-fly zone was declared above the plaza.
One of the world's biggest and most imposing squares, the Zocalo is framed by a cathedral, city hall and the National Palace official seat of government, which is adorned with murals by Diego Rivera.
A ruined temple next to it was once the center of the Aztec civilization and was used for worship and human sacrifice. Spanish conquistadors used bricks from the temple to help build their own capital.
Some participants said the massive turnout showed that Mexicans, at least in the capital, were becoming less prudish.
Mexicans are not used to showing skin. Most men wear shorts only while on vacation, and women tend not to put on miniskirts because of unwanted whistles and stares.
"This event proves that really we're not such a conservative society anymore. We're freeing ourselves of taboos," said Fabiola Herrera, a 30-year-old university professor who volunteered to strip, along with her boyfriend.
The capital of the world's second-biggest Catholic nation, where tough-guy masculinity and family loyalty are held dear, has recently challenged some important traditions.
Last month, Mexico City legislators legalized abortion in defiance of criticism from church officials.
Also, gay couples are getting hitched in civil ceremonies thanks to recently passed laws in the capital, and lawmakers plan to debate whether to legalize euthanasia.
Not all Mexicans were impressed by the spectacle staged by Tunick, who was refused permission to hold his nude photo at the famed Teotihuacan pyramids outside the capital.
"They're losing dignity as men and women," said 63-year-old Armando Pineda, leaning against the cathedral and watching the now-dressed models leave the plaza. "It's an offense against the church."
The Mexico City metropolitan area is home to some 18 million people.
Posted by ronnie at 08:39 AM | Comments (0)
April 30, 2007
Photographer plans Mexico nude shoot
MEXICO CITY - American photographer Spencer Tunick said Sunday he was hoping to draw his largest crowd of nude people for a shoot next month in Mexico City's enormous Zocalo plaza.
Tunick, famous for photographing crowds of nude people around the world, said the May 6 shoot could be bigger than one he did in 2003 with 7,000 volunteer models in Barcelona, Spain.
"This could be my largest work ever," Tunick told a news conference. "We're really hoping that all eyes will be on Mexico City on May 6 because this could be ... bigger than Barcelona."
The historic Zocalo plaza measures about 21,000 square yards — the size of about five football fields — and can fit up to 85,000 people standing.
Tunick said last month that 3,700 participants had registered for the shoot. On Sunday, he said more were signing up but declined to give a figure.
The Brooklyn, N.Y. artist said he had all the necessary permits and the surrounding streets would be closed to traffic for the morning shoot.
"I'm very honored and pleased to announce that my art installation would be at one of the nicest and oldest places in the world, a place of great architecture uniformity," Tunick said.
The square, in one form or another, has been at the heart of Mexico City since it was founded by the Aztecs in 1325. When the Spanish conquered the city in 1521, they demolished the Aztec temples and palaces around the plaza and gave it much of its present form.
Earlier this month, Tunick said he wanted to do the shoot at the pre-Aztec ruins of Teotihuacan, north of the capital, but that he was also considering other locations.
Tunick said the concept of the plaza shoot would be to re-create or pay tribute to the lakes that once covered much of the Mexico valley.
"For some mysterious reason, a wonderful reason, the Mexican citizens are signing up in large numbers," he said. "The waves and the nature of the place will have the purest, natural thing in the world, which is the human body."
Posted by ronnie at 07:33 AM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2007
Skydiver arrested for mooning Fla. cop
DELAND, Fla. - A visiting Norwegian skydiver was arrested after exposing his buttocks to an officer, police said. Vegard Svarstad, 24, of Norway, was blocking traffic at an intersection early Saturday morning, according to an arrest report.
When DeLand police Lt. David Heinig stopped at the intersection, he told Svarstad to continue across the street, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.
Instead, the man started to dance around, pulled down his pants and mooned the officer, Heinig said.
Svarstad was charged with disorderly intoxication and taken to the Volusia County Branch Jail on a $250 bond. At a first-appearance hearing later Saturday, Svarstad said he was preparing to return to Norway.
Prosecutors decided that his night in jail was sufficient punishment, a State Attorney's spokeswoman said. They dropped the charge and released him.
Posted by ronnie at 06:36 PM | Comments (0)
November 29, 2006
Canadian town poses nude in pothole protest
OTTAWA (Reuters) - People in a small town in Western Canada are so fed up with the rotten state of their main road that they came up with an unusual form of protest -- a calendar that shows them posing nude in the potholes.
One inhabitant of Leader, Saskatchewan, is shown sitting in a canoe that is perched in a pothole. Another has his dignity preserved by a well-placed camera while a third man covers up with a strategic hubcap.
"The initial impression when people open the calendar for the first time is 'Oh my God!' It's pretty dramatic," said Wayne Elhard, the local member of the provincial legislature.
Leader, a town of just 1,000 in a largely farming area of southwest Saskatchewan, says it can't afford to fix all its roads.
"The potholes are not small, one-foot (30 cm) diameter potholes. They are many feet across and sometimes they're as deep as a foot deep and sometimes they will stretch for yards (meters)," Elhard told CBC television on Wednesday.
He said that, over the summer, local authorities had covered the worst stretch of the main road with gravel to improve safety.
"It's been a constant problem. We've raised it with the (provincial) government every opportunity we had ... all to no avail, frankly," he said.
Posted by ronnie at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)
November 02, 2006
'Naked ambition' revealed in race for Canada's Liberal leadership
OTTAWA (AFP) - The race to succeed former prime minister Paul Martin as head of Canada's once mighty Liberal Party, now in opposition, has exposed a trend in Canadian politics with candidates appearing in the buff to woo voters.
Bob Rae, 58, a former Ontario premier and ahead in the leadership contest, swam naked with comedian Rick Mercer in a cold lake for a political comedy show broadcast on CBC last month.
His bare bottom has since been viewed by hundreds of pundits on website youtube.com who mostly lauded the 1969 Rhodes Scholar's pluck.
Not to be outdone, Scott Brison, 39, a former Conservative member of Parliament who joined the Liberals in 2004 and became the youngest minister in Paul Martin's cabinet, posed nude for a calendar to be released next week.
Brison managed to secure a mere 3.5 percent of delegate support ahead of a Liberal leadership convention to be held at the end of November, compared to Rae's 20 percent support.
Both men are looking to catch up to frontrunner Michael Ignatieff, a former Harvard professor who has never exposed himself in public and maintains about 30 percent delegate support.
But a local theatre group hopes Brison's smile will help sell a lot of calendars, which depict men dusting, knitting and changing diapers, to raise money for prostate and ovarian cancer research.
Brison, who exercises daily, was photographed raiding a fridge.
"It's naked ambition for a good cause," Brison told the Globe and Mail newspaper this week, noting his father and uncle died of prostate cancer.
"I think I was less exposed than Bob Rae was on Rick Mercer," he said of his skinny-dipping fellow Liberal leadership hopeful.
The openly gay politician also quipped to the Halifax Chronicle Herald: "I'm just trying to be a good member (of Parliament). I understand I'm not the only politician in the calendar, but they're up for some stiff competition."
Indeed, the mayor of Wolfville, Nova Scotia and a town councilor also appear nude in the calendar.
The tradition harkens back to former prime minister Kim Campbell who once appeared in a controversial bare-shouldered portrait behind a barrister's robe.
Of course, her Conservative government lasted only five months before losing a general election in November 1993 to the Liberals, who went on to rule for 12 years until their own defeat in a January general election.
Although most Liberal leaders in Canada's history have gone on to become prime minister, the party is now in opposition.
Alex Swann, spokesman for Rae, told AFP: "Anything that exposes Bob as a leader and his true personality is good for his campaign. There was a lot in there for people."
Rick Mercer interviewed Rae during the show, which boasts one million viewers weekly, too.
"There is something to be said about an unfiltered, straight forward interview about you as a person instead of a discussion about public policy," Swann said.
"One woman emailed to say: 'Your answer about why you want to become prime minister is why I'm going to support you (Rae),'" Swann said, quite serious.
Last week, Canadians also discovered that an anonymous Supreme Court Justice has frolicked naked in public.
Speaking to a Toronto law school audience after a cruise ship operator alluded to the fact in a travel article in an April issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, Judge Marshall Rothstein read a tongue-in-cheek memo from Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin, circulated to her colleagues on May 12 titled "Nude Cruising."
The memo said: "I made inquiries into the identity of the judge, but was rebuffed on a claim of journalistic privilege ... All this is to say, that our secret is safe."
According to reports, Judge Rothstein assured his audience that, having been appointed in March, he could not be the culprit.
Posted by ronnie at 07:24 PM | Comments (0)
August 20, 2006
Nepali women strip and plough to appease rain gods
KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Dozens of Nepali women stripped naked and ploughed their fields in west Nepal, hoping to appease the gods and get some much needed rain, a newspaper report said on Sunday.
About 50 women in two villages in Kapilvastu district, 190 km (120 miles) west of Kathmandu, resorted to the desperate move at night on Friday as days of prayers and Hindu ceremonies failed to bring rains for the parched paddy crop, it said.
"This is our last weapon, we used it, and there was light rainfall," Nepali daily Rajdhani quoted one of the women as saying.
Although there is no clear religious basis for the practice, some locals believe such a move could appease the rain gods.
Officials said there was insufficient rain during the June-September monsoon season this year and vast stretches of land along the southern plains, Nepal's bread basket, were parched.
Posted by ronnie at 05:46 PM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2006
Nude man attacks Mo. police officer
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - A naked man attacked a Cape Girardeau police officer and tried go to grab his gun before officers used a stun gun to subdue him.
The incident happened Sunday afternoon as police responded to a call of an attempted break-in at a trailer park, police spokesman Jason Selzer said. At the scene, police spotted the naked man walking.
As an officer was getting out of his car, the 52-year-old man walked toward the squad car and grabbed the officer, slamming him into the side of the vehicle.
The officer fired his stun gun, but the assailant kept attacking, grabbing at the officer's neck. When the two fell to the ground, the man attempted to grab the officer's handgun, Selzer said.
The officer struck the man's face with his forearm and was able to put the suspect's arms behind his back. A second officer arrived, fired his stun gun at the suspect and handcuffed him, Selzer said.
The man was suspected of being under the influence of drugs, and was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
Charges have not been filed. The officer was not seriously hurt.
Posted by ronnie at 09:43 AM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2006
S.C. bakery Bible study featured 'buns'
BLUFFTON, S.C. - Customers in a bakery for a Bible study saw a different kind of buns Wednesday morning. A drunken teen came into the Atlanta Bread Co. shortly after it opened, used the bathroom in a storage closet, then walked out of the bakery naked, Bluffton Police Department spokesman Mike Creason said.
"He was sitting on the curb with no clothes on when the police showed up," Creason said.
Julius Daukus, 17, of Columbia, was charged with indecent exposure, police said.
The teen had apparently been drinking while visiting some friends at a nearby home and wandered off, Creason said.
Daukus was confused when police arrived. "He was calm, just sitting on the curb," Creason said. "He didn't know where he was."
Employees at the store said the Bible study regulars just shook their heads at what happened.
Posted by ronnie at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)
August 09, 2006
Naked US tourist amok in Swiss town may have been high on mushrooms
GENEVA (AFP) - An American tourist who ran naked through a peaceful Swiss town, vandalized a church and escaped from police clutches by jumping into a lake could have been on hallucinogenic mushrooms, a local magistrate said.
The 34 year-old from Massachusetts, who has since been allowed to return home, ran amok in the western town of Morges, by Lake Geneva, two weeks ago,
He started babbling incoherently in the hotel lobby, stripped and ran naked along the quayside, broke a stained glass window in the nearby protestant temple with a stool and set a precious 1898 bible alight, police in Morges said.
After being seized and handcuffed by police, he made a leap for freedom into the lake and bit two people who tried to help him while he was hanging on to a boat.
Having recovered his senses, he later appeared before investigating magistrate Gilles Riva and "coherently" explained that he had eaten 'magic mushrooms' that he had bought in the Netherlands during a trip through Europe.
"He said he had lots of regrets and said sorry at least fifty times," Riva told the Swiss news agency ATS. Riva said the mushroom theory was "possible".
The tourist, who also offered 250 dollars for each of the people he bit, was not named.
Posted by ronnie at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2006
Lady Godiva rides naked once again
LONDON (AFP) - Lady Godiva rode naked on a white horse through the streets of a city centre, according to legend, and the eye-popping sight was repeated -- three times -- by a striking young woman.
Phoebe Thomas stripped off and saddled up in the university city of Oxford under the close scrutiny of a film crew shooting a modern movie re-telling of the old tale, making her do it three times, just to be sure they got it right on Monday.
Legend has it that Lady Godiva rode a horse naked through the streets of Coventry nearly 1,000 years ago to persuade her husband, Leofric, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes.
Only the lady's long hair covered her modesty, but Thomas's locks provided scant protection against the nippy air at 4:30 am, as 100 extras looked on.
However, thanks to advances in fabric technology and the magic of the movies, she was able to get away with slipping into a flesh-coloured thong and tights.
The shoot was for the climactic scene of a romantic, as yet still unnamed comedy dreamed up by 20-year-old Vicky Jewson, which nods to recent British successes in the genre like "Notting Hill" and "Bridget Jones's Diary".
"Lady Godiva was a great tale to adapt, it's the story of one woman's triumph over adversity," said Jewson, who has secured 1.4 million pounds (2.5 million dollars, two million euros) worth of backing.
She said she was relieved to get the shoot in the bag within three takes.
"Without this scene, we wouldn't have a film. It simply couldn't be filmed anywhere else, as there is no 'body double' for the 'dreaming spires' of Oxford.
"So I had no choice but to get everyone up long before dawn, stop the traffic every few minutes and do it in as few takes as possible.
"All credit to the cast, crew and extras who made this happen quickly and with so little fuss."
Posted by ronnie at 09:23 PM | Comments (0)
June 27, 2006
P and O Australia to crack down on nudity, public sex
SYDNEY (AFP) - Passengers on P and O Cruises who engage in "excessive behaviour" will be removed from the ship, the company's Australian branch said, after it emerged that nudity, streaking and sex in public were common on one luxury liner.
The announcement comes as coroners investigate the death of an Australian woman, who died from an overdose of the date rape drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate less than 24 hours after boarding P and O's Pacific Sky ship in September 2002.
A former night manager on the liner told the inquest on Monday that as many as 20 people would be seen running around the ship naked every night.
Asked if nudity, streaking and sex in public were common during her more than 10 years working on board cruise ships, manager Kathleen Ann Taylor said: "All the time".
P and O Cruises Australia said that from now on, unruly passengers would be disembarked at the next port of call and would not be refunded their fare.
"We accept that in the past the conduct of a small minority of our passengers and crew has clearly been unacceptable and our response on occasion has been inadequate," the company said in a statement.
"This does not represent our company's values and therefore, with immediate effect, we have introduced a policy to take strict action against excessive behaviour."
P and O has already strengthened its safety and security procedures following the death of Dianne Brimble in 2002.
Brimble, who was on the holiday cruise with her young daughter, was found slumped naked on the floor of a cabin after just one night on board.
The coroner's court has heard the usually reserved woman was seen dancing with a group of men in the ship's disco just hours before she died.
Digital photos retrieved from a camera showed Brimble later having sex with one of the men in the cabin in which her body was found.
A string of passengers have testified about the drunken antics of the group of eight men on the cruise -- who allegedly offered at least one woman a suspicious pink liquid to drink and sexually propositioned other females on board.
P and O's beefed up security measures include increasing the number of security personnel on board, closing bars between 4:00 am and 10:00 am and installing 24-hour surveillance cameras onboard ships.
The company will also used drug sniffer dogs at the start of all cruises and has revised its policy in relation to the provision of alcohol.
Posted by ronnie at 07:36 PM | Comments (0)
June 11, 2006
Woman cited for exposing herself in store
CEDAR CITY, Utah - A 28-year-old woman has been cited for lewdness for exposing herself inside a store. The woman was riding a motorized cart inside Lin's Market Place on Thursday with her pants around her ankles and not wearing underwear
Customers didn't notice the woman until she would stand up from the cart and bend over to look at items on the shelf, exposing her buttocks.
The woman told police she arrived in Cedar City with a circus but was left behind.
Posted by ronnie at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2006
Nude cyclists peel off around Spanish cities
MADRID (Reuters) - Hundreds of nude cyclists pedalled around Spanish cities on Saturday to protest against car-clogged streets and demand greater respect for pollution-free transport.
With slogans like "one car less" and "bio methanol" painted on their backs, the naked cyclists staged Spain's third annual Ciclonudista or "Nudecycle" in Madrid, Barcelona and Pamplona.
The protest was part of world-wide naked bike riding events on Saturday across Europe, North America and South America.
"We feel naked when up against traffic because people don't see the bicycle as just another means of transport," said Madrid cyclist Ramon Linaza, wearing only a cycle helmet and shoes.
Towing cardboard cars with gaping jaws, protesters said the rapid rise of automobile ownership in Spain was turning city streets into ever more hostile and dangerous cycling territory.
Organisers said the bicycle was a healthy and efficient form of urban transport that is largely ignored by Spanish drivers and city planners.
Central Madrid has few bike paths and cyclists are a rarity on its streets. Barcelona has the most bike paths of any Spanish city, according to cycling activists.
Per capita car ownership has rocketed in Spain after a decade of strong economic growth.
Posted by ronnie at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
May 23, 2006
Dutch policewomen complain about new 'see-through' uniform
THE HAGUE (AFP) - The Dutch police union has received dozens of official complaints from policewomen about their new uniform blouse which they say is see-through.
The officers feel "uneasy" and "closely watched" while wearing the new garment, police union chairman Hans van Duijn told Monday's edition of the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper.
"Even a white bra shows through the fabric," he explained.
The police union has already received 20 official complaints although distribution of the new uniform has only just started.
Van Duijn suggested that police start issuing official undershirts to tackle the see-through problem.
This is not the first time the new blouse has sparked complaints. Earlier gold buttons on the breast pockets were replaced by more subdued white buttons because female officers complained the flashy gold drew too much attention to their chest.
Posted by ronnie at 09:05 AM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2006
'Naked Rambler' Strips Aboard Aircraft
LONDON - Britain's "naked rambler," who has had numerous brushes with the law for nudity on land, was arrested Thursday after shedding his clothes aboard an aircraft.
Stephen Gough, 47, was on his way to Edinburgh for a hearing at the Appeal Court, where he was challenging four contempt of court citations for nudity in Scotland.
Police arrested the former marine at Edinburgh Airport.
At the Appeal Court, three justices decided that Gough's case merited a full hearing, on a date to be set. Lord Johnston urged Gough's lawyers to persuade their client that he was "doing himself no good" by continuing to go naked.
Gough has completed two naked walks the length of Britain, with interruptions for arrests and court appearances, in 2004 and 2007.
"There is no law saying 'Thou shalt not go naked,'" Gough said at one of his court appearances in 2004. "All I am doing is dressing how I want to dress and believing what I want to believe."
Posted by ronnie at 08:14 AM | Comments (0)
April 01, 2006
Exposed! Bare flesh in spotlight at Indian fashion shows
MUMBAI, India (AFP) - With a slip of a zip, models strutting the catwalk at Mumbai fashion week unveiled more than new clothes for next winter, creating a stir in traditionally conservative India.
Carol Gracias was the first to inadvertently show a bit of skin at Lakme Fashion Week in India's financial capital when her bustier slipped, exposing her breasts and unleashing a flesh frenzy in the media.
Two days later another model, Gauhar Khan, exposed a hint of bare bottom after a zip broke on a black skirt designed by Lascelles Symmons, creating fresh waves of excitement.
While the two models had little in the way of coverage, the same could not be said for their catwalk mishaps.
The flashes of nudity earned pages of ink in the nation's print media, with analysis pieces on the state of the models' undress and the quality of the nation's fastenings.
Newspaper photographs blocked the sight of Gracias's breasts -- who reportedly broke down in tears later on -- and television networks obliged with fuzzy pictures.
Although the occasional flash of unintentional nudity is common at fashion shows, papers questioned whether designers had conspired to create a stir for the low-key style festival ahead of a rival event in New Delhi next week.
"I have been receiving more calls and answering more questions after my show this time, but don't you think it would be an extremely cheap publicity stunt to pull?" Symmons said, according to the Times of India.
Posted by ronnie at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2006
Mayor Wants Nude Cycle Race Called Off
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - The mayor of a New Zealand town wants a nude cycling race to be called off — because the participants won't be wearing helmets.
John Hurley, mayor of the Tasman District on New Zealand's South Island, said police would look like "fools" if they allowed the race to go ahead for the third straight year, in spite of the objection of local residents.
Police said they had queried the legality of the race and found they can take no action.
"We have taken advice on the legality of their proposed action and have been advised that it falls short of an offense," Sergeant Arthur Clarence said Friday.
About 100 people are expected to take part in the "clothing optional" race Sunday around Golden Bay on the southern tip of New Zealand's South Island. The race aims to promote safe cycling and alternative energy.
Hurley said police should enforce laws which require all cyclists to wear safety helmets.
"They have ridden bikes in the past down the road with no crash helmets, no nothing on and people say that's a double standard," he said.
Posted by ronnie at 08:07 PM | Comments (0)
February 11, 2006
Naked Man Slips Onto U.N. Property
NEW YORK - A naked man ran onto the high-security grounds of the United Nations on Friday while a gate was being opened to allow a car to enter, police said.
The man was running north on First Avenue at 11:07 a.m. when he slipped through the open gate near 42nd Street, said a police spokesman, Detective Kenneth Czartoryski.
The man was stopped by U.N. security guards and held until police arrived. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric evaluation, said Czartoryski.
The man identified himself to police and said he was 32 years old. But because he carried no ID, police could not immediately verify his name.
Posted by ronnie at 08:14 AM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2006
8 Nabbed for No Pants Subway Ride in N.Y.
NEW YORK - From the waist up, they looked like perfectly normal commuters. That wasn't good enough for police.
Eight pranksters who dropped their pants and showed their underwear on the subway on Sunday were taken into custody and issued summonses for disorderly conduct. All were ultimately released, said Improv Everywhere, the group that organized the stunt.
The group said more than 160 riders participated in the fifth annual No Pants Subway Ride before police halted their No. 6 train about 5 p.m.
Charlie Todd, who founded Improv Everywhere in 2001, said it's not his group's intent to offend. He said he wants to create scenes of chaos and joy in public places around New York.
"It was our intent to make people laugh," he said. "We try to give people a great story to tell."
Todd, a teacher and performer, said the police overreacted when they turned a harmless event into something that inconvenienced lots of subway riders. A judge will determine whether those issued summonses will be punished
Posted by ronnie at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)