Paris
The 2004 winner of France’s biggest beauty pageant may lose her crown because she appeared topless in French Playboy. Laetitia Bleger’s reign as Miss France ended last December, but she could now be retroactively stripped of her title and forced to return cash and gifts. Bleger is featured on the cover of Playboy wearing only black panties and covering her breasts with her arm. For a country where topless sunbathing is routine, such a photo is not particularly risqué, but the head of the Miss France Committee pronounced herself appalled. “Miss France winners have a status to uphold, and they know it,” said Genevieve de Fontenay. Miss France winners are barred from “engaging in licentious behavior” for five years after their year-long tenure.
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