The Daily Newds

• The Seventh Annual New Play Festival to be held at the University of Alberta will feature "Nude Works", six plays about the emotional experiences of nakedness.

  In our puritanical society, where the nude form has been curtailed into only appearing on television, the farthest outreaches of the Internet and plastic slip-covered magazines at the convenience store, it’s refreshing to see some attention finally paid to situations where people have no clothes on.

• Naked bungee jumpers are needed to benefit the British Columbia Schizophrenia Society.
• The Fleischmann Model Train company builds sets that include nudist beaches.
• The Bluefly fashion e-commerce website is launching a new ad campaign featuring naked women in everyday situations.

  Bluefly realizes that fashion plays a key role in self-expression. The clothing we choose to wear often defines who we are, or who we aspire to be. Bluefly celebrates the importance of individuality and recognizes that these personal choices affect how people feel about themselves and how others perceive them. Without that crucial form of expression, people are simply naked.

• Courtney Cox has refused a body double in a nude scene for the TV series "Dirt".

  She said: "I'm not a little girl anymore - I'm a woman. I was nervous at first about exposing myself. It was like, 'You know what? I'm going to be who I am.' That was a big change."

• "Naked Rambler" Stephen Gough is challenging Scotland's judges, claiming that his basic human rights have been violated because of a technicality regarding the contempt charges that landed him behind bars.

  Before the appeal yesterday, his advocate Chris Shead told the five male judges: "He has a sincerely held view that going naked should not offend members of the community and that includes appearing in court. "He does not regard it as contempt because he does not see it as an affront to the dignity of the court or a challenge to the authority of the court."

• A model who posed for nude photographs objected to having one of the images on exhibit because her mouth is visible and that compromises her anonymity. California State cancelled the exhibit, but photographer Laurina Alejandro has found a new venue for her artistic nudes.

  Alejandro's exhibit, titled "Uncovered," is not as racy as the controversy might suggest. The photographs are taken at close range and encompass different shadowing techniques. Most of the pictures show bare breasts; one shows naked buttocks. "I wanted to show that nudity is not dirty and that it can be beautiful in the right light," Alejandro said.

• Muslims are upset over a Canadian school's decision to include the nude as part of visual arts studies.

  “We believe the body is to be covered in a certain way, according to certain principles and, by extension, to draw a model who has shed all the clothes is completely against what the faith would permit. It’s very simple.”

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