FRANCE — It’s not just American pop singers, socialites, movie stars, television idols, and beauty queens serving up celebrity sex scandals these days. Add the freshly crowned Miss France 2008 to the growing list of attractive young women who haven’t bothered to stay clothed or virginal until marriage.Alas for Miss France 2008, also known as 22-year-old Valerie Begue, shortly after she was crowned at the end of the televised contest on December 8th, the trouble began. As is so often the case, a magazine promptly released a series of crucifixion-style erotic swimming pool photos featuring the bikini-clad – and less – Begue. In some images, the young lady can be seen licking yogurt or condensed milk in a salacious fashion.

Unlike within the United States, the national beauty contest is taken very seriously by the French. Like every other contest of its kind, the Miss France pageant has specific rules against contestants posing nude or in provocative positions. So serious was Begue’s transgression that Genevieve de Fontenay, the head of the contest, demanded that the titleholder relinquish her crown and title immediately.

As has become a nearly standard response in such situations, Begue declined, insisting that the photos were not only three years old but published without her permission.

Given that not only members of parliament, but also various politicians, a bishop, and the minister for overseas territories promptly sprung to her defense, contest organizers reluctantly backed off, stating that “We felt that, as she had been elected in front of 9 million television viewers, faced with this public that had never seen the photographs, we couldn’t take the title from her.”

As the bishop of Saint-Denis de La Reunion sees it, although pictures of Begue on a cross are an insult to Christians, it was merely a “youthful error” on her part that should not be held against her now.

Although Begue will remain Miss France 2008, she will not be allowed to compete in the Miss World or Miss Universe contests. In her place will be first runner-up, Miss New Caledonia, who presumably has either never posed for frisky photos or has managed to keep control of those she has.