Miss World, Shunned in U.K., Expects Record Audience for Poland

Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Miss World, the beauty pageant shunned in Britain where it started five decades ago, expects to attract a record television audience of 2 billion when this year's event culminates in Poland tomorrow.

The final, to take place in Warsaw's Palace of Culture, the city's Stalinist landmark, is a sell out, according to Lukasz Niegowski, a spokesman for the competition's Polish organizers. The 105 contestants have been touring the country the past month in their scanty dresses and bathing wear.

``I'm really happy the competition's in Poland this year, and not somewhere exotic,'' Sylwia Bielanska, a 19-year-old Warsaw student, said in an interview in the capital. ``It will promote our country throughout the world.''

Miss World started in the U.K. in 1951 and is now more popular in Asia and Africa as western European women's rights groups campaigned against it. The competition has found surprising allies in communist-ruled China, which has hosted it for the past three years, and Poland, whose government has made a name in Europe for its Catholic and socially conservative values.

In the northern port city of Gdansk, they were addressed by former Polish President Lech Walesa.

According to a study by the Gdansk Institute for Market Economics, the competition may boost economic growth by as much as 1 percentage point over four years and the state budget will gain additional inflows of about 16 million zloty ($5.1 million).

``It doesn't bother me at all that they're not wearing much, even though I'm a practicing Catholic,'' said Krystyna Poregiak, 73, a former teacher in Warsaw. ``This isn't just a beauty parade. It shows us the girls' intelligence and their grace.''

No Sex Please

Indeed the country, where more than 90 percent of Poles are baptized into the Church and one of the most popular radio stations is named after the Virgin Mary, is appearing to be more liberal than the Miss World organizers.

The Polish company staging the Warsaw event was asked by the Miss World license owner in Britain to make changes to the official poster advertising the competition. The original design showed a picture of a bare-breasted Warsaw siren, a goddess who has been the symbol of the city for centuries.

``The Miss World statute states there should be no sexuality or the concept of sex associated with the competition,'' spokesman Niegowski said. ``That's why all the posters had to be changed to cover up the breast with a ribbon.''

The competition was set up by Eric Morley, a British public relations worker. His widow, Julia Morley, has continued leading the competition since his death in 2000, licensing the Miss World title for 5 million pounds ($9.4 million) each year.

Polish Discount

Poland, a Soviet satellite state until the communist regime was overthrown in 1989 and a member of the European Union only since 2004, was unable to raise that amount. After negotiations, it eventually bought the license for less than half the total sum, daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported on Aug. 28.

``We negotiated the price down to two million pounds,'' said Michal Dworczyk, an adviser to the Polish prime minister, adding that the Miss World license holders ``were up against a wall'' and had little choice, the paper reported.

The record viewing figure expected may be more to do with new markets in Asia. While the British Broadcasting Corp. showed the competition between 1959 and 1979, entertainment channel Challenge, which belongs to NTL Group Ltd., will be the only U.K. station broadcasting Miss World this year.

British women's groups protested against the competition when it was held at London's Olympia exhibition center in 1999, with placards reading ``stop this sexist cattle market.''

``Of course this is humiliating for women,'' Kazimiera Szczuka, a literary critic and gender studies lecturer at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, said in a phone interview. ``Measuring them, weighing them -- it's just offensive.''

Walesa's Backing

Yet it's her fellow Poles that are embracing the event while the contestants are in the country. Walesa, who led the Solidarity movement credited with bringing down the communist system throughout eastern Europe, is among the fans.

``The world is an open place right now,'' according to comments published on the official Miss World Web site. ``All you need to do is fill it -- and if you fill it with your beauty, with values, justice and order, it will be a better place.''

Source: By Katya Andrusz, bloomberg.com