JOHANNESBURG - MORE than 100 international beauties were primping and preening in the final anxious moments before the Miss World pageant on Saturday, hosted by South Africa for an expected one billion-strong TV audience.

South African and Jamaican designers have created racks of dresses for the women, aged 17 to 25, who have spent a gruelling month in galas, rehearsals and even a safari on the tip of the African continent.

LOS ANGELES - A NUDE model resembling the Virgin Mary on the cover of the Mexican edition of Playboy magazine, published only days before a major Mexican festival dedicated to the mother of Jesus, prompted the company's US headquarters on Friday to apologise.

The magazine, which hit newsstands on Dec 1 as ceremonies began leading to Friday's pilgrimage to the Mexico City shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, showed a model wearing nothing but a white cloth over her head and breasts.

LOS ANGELES - A PUBLICIST says Tara Reid has checked herself into rehab.

Jack Ketsoyan said on Friday that the 'American Pie' star went to the Promises Treatment Center. He did not specify what she was being treated for or when she entered the facility.