Risqué Pics Won't Dethrone Miss France

Pageant winner barred from international competition under deal
By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 28, 2007 3:25 PM CST
Risqué Pics Won't Dethrone Miss France
Miss France 2008 Valerie Begue, left, of the Reunion islands, whose crown has been threatened since publication of suggestive photographs in a magazine, holds a press conference in Paris, Friday Dec. 28, 2007 with Genevieve de Fontenay president of Committee Miss France, right. Fontenay agreed for...   (Associated Press)

Miss France will keep her crown despite the publication of racy pictures featuring the 22-year-old student, AFP reports. Photographs of Valerie Begue licking yogurt off a wall and straddling a cross in a bikini had Genevieve de Fontenay, the pageant's sharp-tongued patron, threatening to strip Begue of her title; Begue won't be allowed to compete internationally as Miss France.

“I wouldn’t want to be seen touring the provinces with a girl like that,” de Fontenay told a French radio station. But, after an outburst of support on Begue's Indian Ocean island home of Reunion, de Fontenay agreed to leave it at that. "I am happy to keep my title and … thank all those who helped me," Begue said. (More Miss France stories.)

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