The line between art and pornography can be fuzzy. And "Miss Venezuela" Mendoza must be thankful for this.

The 22-year-old who was crowned Miss Universe in July almost lost her crown when photos of her modelling naked for a jewellery firm appeared in August.

However, the Miss Universe Organisation ruled that the photos were not pornographic.

In an interview with The New Paper when she was here in September for the Formula One night race, she said she was proud of the nude shots.

“I was very excited and happy, because I never knew my pictures could surface in
Singapore.

“So I was very thankful to the people who got the pictures to the media. I never knew that three years after taking (them), they were going to be all over the world.”

This article was first published in The New Paper on Dec 31, 2008.