Job Cost Beauty Her Crown

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Miss Canadian International has been dethroned after she posed as a waitress in a photograph for an American chain restaurant that a pageant official calls "sexist."

Organizers of the contest, the largest in Canada, say Gabriella Petivoky breached her contract when she allowed her image to be associated with a Hooters restaurant in Surrey and accepted a waitressing job there.

"We want a young lady people can look up to and be proud of," said Michelle Jacobson, president of Models Club Canada International, which organized the March pageant.

"When you walk into Hooters, you see the sign `Caution, blondes thinking.' If that's not degrading to women, I don't know what is. The restaurant is sexist," Jacobson said.

Petivoky, a 20-year-old model, began doing promotional work for Hooters in August. Jacobson warned her to keep a low profile because of the controversy associated with the American chain, which says it hires women based on their "cheerleader, girl-next-door good looks" and outfits them in high-cut shorts and tank tops with Hooters emblazoned on their chest.

Petivoky says she never advertised her beauty-queen title in the photos or even told anyone in the restaurant about winning the pageant.

"They're trying to run my life," she said.