You may not be able to live on your looks, but in Siberia, it'll help get you out of jail a bit earlier. BBC has this absolutely hilarious (and sad) report about damsels in distress (and in prison) improvising a beauty contest. It's not clear whether the winner gets a tiara, but she may get out of jail a bit quicker:
*
The annual pageant is a welcome diversion from the strictly regimented routine and the monotony of life inside the jail. *
*But where "active participation in the social life of the camp" can help women win early parole, the "Miss Spring" contest has become an important way for the female inmates to demonstrate good behaviour. *
*"We wanted to find ways to occupy convicts' free time," says Natalya Baulina, the prison's administrative head. *
*"When I first introduced the idea to the women, they were in utter shock. The only pageant they knew was Miss Universe - women parading in barely visible swimsuits before male judges." *
*The prison decided to invent its own rules with three categories - "Greek Goddesses", "Flower Gowns", and "Imaginary Uniforms", which lets inmates design their ideal prison uniforms of the future. *
Design their own uniforms? This is Russia, where the movie Pretty Woman has a cult status, so I can only imagine prisoners in high pleather boots and tube tops. Anyhow, I think this could be the start of a hit reality show. Sort of a "Cops" meets "Project Runway."
Check out the administrative head as well; why does she remind me of the prison warden in that episode of Charlie's Angels go to prison? Or maybe I'm confusing her with some other prison chick flick?
