Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site fortune.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!fortune!grw From: grw@fortune.UUCP (Glenn Wichman) Newsgroups: net.misc Subject: Re: Here she is...Miss ex-America Message-ID: <3868@fortune.UUCP> Date: Thu, 26-Jul-84 12:42:06 EDT Article-I.D.: fortune.3868 Posted: Thu Jul 26 12:42:06 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jul-84 20:33:44 EDT References: <871@pucc-h> Organization: Fortune Systems, Redwood City, CA Lines: 52 bip. Well, here we have a human interest story where just about everybody screwed up. If you don't mind my waxing judgemental for a moment, here I go: Vanessa Williams: Probably a mistake 2 1/2 years ago to have posed for those shots. Not that I have anything against people posing nude, but clearly it was not for her. Instead of avoiding the problem, she should have contacted the guy who took the pictures and made sure she had the negatives & rights to them. Overall, she comes out the best of the lot. Hugh Hefner: Well, Hugh showed some class by refusing to print the pictures in Playboy, but if he really wanted to be charitable to Vanessa, he should at least have warned her that there was someone out hawking nude photos of her. If he really wanted to be nice, he could have bought the rights to the pictures and then just sat on them. He could afford to take the loss. He certainly could have figured that if he didn't buy them they'd only be sold to a sleazier publication. The Miss America Pageant: These guys really burn me up. They acted in an unsensitive and unforgiving manner, and were considerably more judgemental even than I am being now. To make the announcement to the press & to Vanessa's lawyer, but not tell Vanessa herself, is totally lacking in class. Furthermore, they had told Vanessa that nothing would happen to her, and not to worry, then two days later pulled the plug. They certainly didn't come off as people making a stand for morality. The Photographer: (I forget his name). Well, this guy's a sleaze, and furthermore, he's a sleaze-in-hiding. This is the guy who talked her into doing the photos in the first place, and apparently promised they'd never be published. He probably got himself a tidy sum from Penthouse, and Vanessa didn't even get a modeling fee. I'm sure he knew what this would do to her carreer. The only thing I can say in his favor (and it's not much) is that he waited until Vanessa was almost done being Miss America. Bob Guccione: My award for second-biggest sleaze. He took advantage of this opportunity to the hilt, and he's making a BUNDLE, and still manages to claim that it was his "duty to his readers" to print those pictures. Well, I didn't expect any better from him at least. The buying public: The award for all-around-biggest-sleaze is a two million way tie for all of the people who went out and bought this month's Penthouse just to get in on the sensationalism and to make Bob Guccione richer. Absolutely no class. -Glenn