The Full Monty

Whether shopping, bicycling, hula-hooping, or demonstrating for PETA, people in Brattleboro, Vt., have witnessed a rash of nakedness, the Wall Street Journal reports. Public nudity is generally legal in Vermont, but a spontaneous act of nakedness by three 20-year-olds two summers ago sparked a trend that made many residents uncomfortable and prompted passage of a ban. More »

Penises are in the Hollywood spotlight these days, with both Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the new Harold & Kumar offering full-frontal male nudity. They’re guaranteed to get a nervous laugh because there’s still an uncomfortable shock to seeing one on the big screen, writes Laura Hodes in the Chicago Tribune . "It is almost a permanent adolescent reaction that is built into American movies,” says one film prof. More »

A German staging of Verdi’s “A Masked Ball” leaves Uncle Sam wearing little but a mask, Der Spiegel reports. In a rebuke of US capitalism, the production parades naked retirees on a set of the World Trade Center's ruins, and offers a female singer with a Hitler mustache saluting the audience, the Daily Telegraph reports. "One has to introduce new elements" into Verdi's all-too-well-known opera, director Johann Kresnik says. More »

The man who famously shot his hunting partner may have another leisure-sport scandal on his hands—this time involving the image of a naked woman. Bloggers are obsessively analyzing a close-up photo released by the White House of Dick Cheney fly fishing, because of racy image that appears to be reflected in his sunglasses, McClatchy reports. More »

Sarkozy isn't the only one who gets to see his wife in the buff: a collector paid $91,000 for a photograph of a naked Carla Bruni at Christie's today. The auction house expected Michel Comte's 1993 portrait of the French first lady to sell for no more than $4,000, AFP reports. Brigitte Bardot, however, was the auction's big winner: Richard Avedon's photograph of the French star fetched $181,000. More »

Lindsay Lohan wants to bare the full monty in an upcoming flick where she's making a paltry $40,000 to play a nymphomaniac waitress. The sex scene only required a topless shot but she asked for the direction change so she could prove she was a "mature actress," the Sun reports.  More »

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe will strip down for American audiences on Broadway in a challenging dramatic role that has already wowed Brits. In a major departure from his famous boy wizard role, the 18-year-old stars in the dark psychosexual drama Equus as a troubled adolescent accused of blinding horses. The part calls for a 10-minute nude scene. The play is scheduled to start a 22-week Broadway on September 5, Variety reports. More »

Pamela Anderson's birthday present to Hugh Hefner might have killed your average 82-year-old: The bottle blonde double-D surprised the "stunned" Playboy founder in his hotel room Saturday night with a private, naked lap dance, the Las-Vegas Review-Journal reports. More »

A Philippines edition of dependably naughty Playboy magazine launches Thursday, but fans looking for flesh can forget it, Reuters reports. Instead of aiming at lads, the mag targets mature dads, and religious considerations mean full-frontal nudity is a no-no. It’ll burst instead with well-written articles on “everything under the sun of interest to men,” the editor says. More »

A nude painting of Venus on display in London's National Gallery for 45 years—one of the gallery's most popular works—turns out to have been once owned by Adolf Hitler. The whimsical Cupid Complaining to Venus, by German master Lucas Cranach, was given to Hitler by a prominent Nazi and hung in his apartment in Munich, the Guardian reports. More »

A black-and-white photograph of Carla Bruni will go up for sale at an auction next month, Reuters reports. Christie’s expects the portrait of Nicolas Sarkozy's bride to attract a final bid of $3,000 to $4,000, and the auction house's announcement of the sale on the eve of a state visit to the UK isn't sitting well with the subject, the Daily Mail reports. More »

Celebrity photographer Bert Stern has proved that he still prefers his blonds nude, snapping revealing pictures of Lindsay Lohan for New York magazine in a recreation of his famous 1962 Marilyn Monroe photo shoot. In the original, Monroe posed with only a few scarves and a glass of champagne. Blond wig notwithstanding, Lohan appears as bare as Monroe, AP reports. More »

The city of Virginia Beach will not pursue obscenity charges brought against an Abercrombie & Fitch store manager because of posters depicting scantily clad models. One offending poster—used all over the country—showed three shirtless men, one with his jeans pulled well below his waist. A city lawyer said it would be difficult to prove the material was obscene, reports the Virginian-Pilot . More »

Turns out the auguste Bibliothèque Nationale has one of the world's biggest official collections of pornographic books and prints, and today it's going on view—to those over 16—for the first time in 170 years. The erotic works, which have been hidden away in a section called l'enfer , or Hell, include works by respected authors like Voltaire and Apollinaire alongside pulp fiction and graphic depictions of sex. More »

Kyla Ebbert's outfits just keeping getting skimpier. The 23-year-old California woman who nearly got booted from a Southwest Airlines flight because she wore clothes deemed too revealing has now posed for Playboy in the nude. "They're very tastefully done," she said of the photos. Southwest holds no grudges. "We wish her all the best," said a spokesman. More »

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe will hit the Great White Way when Equus opens in New York next year. Radcliffe appeared in the 8-week London run of Peter Schaffer's play this year, garnering attention for showing his wand and quaffles in a nude scene. "I'm obviously nervous but I'm very very excited," said Radcliffe. More »

The federal government today begins testing a device that could replace metal detectors and pat-downs at airports around the country, the AP reports. The scanners produce full-body images of passengers, sans clothing. Privacy advocates are feeling sheepish. “These are virtual strip searches,” one said. “If Playboy published them, there would be politicians out there saying they're pornographic.” More »

Disney’s squeaky-clean billion-dollar High School Musical franchise has been staggered by an amateur nude photo of star Vanessa Hudgens making the rounds on the internet. So far The Mouse is backing Hudgens, but the shot has been ripped by parents. Hudgens is negotiating for the third Musical installment, but some blogs report Disney is now considering Adrienne Ballon of The Cheetah Girls . More »

One of rock music’s most famous cover subjects is a little leery of his past. Spencer Elden was 3 months old when he appeared naked as a money-grubbing underwater baby on Nirvana’s Nevermind; now he says the photo, on an album that sold tens of millions of copies, may make him “the world’s biggest porn star,” MTV News reports. More »

Hundreds of naked people bared all on a Swiss glacier to protest global warming yesterday. The arresting demonstration was photographed by New York artist Spencer Tunick, known for his photos of nude gatherings, as temperatures hovered around 50 degrees. More »