In a Lithuanian Prison, the Beauty Is Unconfined

NY Times ^ | 11-26-02 | Michael Wines

[Pharmboy]

PANEVEZYS, Lithuania, Nov. 20 — The way Laurinas Sheshkus tells it, the creative types at LNK TV were searching last summer for a gimmick to rise above the airwaves clutter when someone proposed staging a beauty contest in the women's prison in this stolid town.

Associated Press
Participants in the "Miss Captivity" beauty
contest on stage at the women's prison
in Panevezys, Lithuania.

"It was, like, a joke," said Mr. Sheshkus, LNK's creative director. Worse still, it was a joke that had the potential to exploit some of the country's least fortunate young women for the sake of a few ratings points.

In short, it was pluperfect television. And last week, the Miss Captivity Pageant became the runaway hit of the Lithuanian broadcast season. Two of every three television viewers sat glued to their sofas as a raven-haired 21-year-old named Kristina won a tiara that, one can be sure, not every beauty queen covets.

But the curious thing about the Miss Captivity Pageant — aside, of course, from the fact that it took place behind concertina wire — was that by the time it was over, early fears had proved groundless.

What began as a sardonic Mel Brooks shtick, tailor-made for cracks about fatal attraction and stolen hearts, somehow acquired a Ron Howard ending, all string music and deeper meaning.

Prison officials unexpectedly gave the proposal their blessing. Mr. Sheshkus and his cohorts decided that Miss Captivity was not a joke, but a contest meriting top-drawer production standards. And the 39 who entered the pageant of the 360 prisoners, a crop of felonious Eliza Doolittles, metamorphosed into polished and poised competitors that Bert Parks might be proud of.

"We were afraid it would turn into a not very healthy competition," said Nejole Martinkeviciene, the prison's psychologist. "Even out of 39 who filed applications, only 8 were chosen for the final competition. We worried about the aggression."

They needn't have. "It was as if they realized that it was not just beauty that this was about," said Regina Stankuviene, who runs the prison education programs. "All their behavior changed."

One can make too much of that. The inmate contestants were not ingénues, after all, but perpetrators of crimes up to and including murder. And the prison is hardly the Atlantic City convention hall.

Women labor here over antiquated sewing machines, stitching together uniforms for use in other prisons, and they take classes in cooking, needlepoint and other crafts that might lead to a trade outside the walls. In one cramped dormitory, seven women raise their young children.

But if conditions are severe, Panevezys, the only women's prison in Lithuania, does give inmates a chance to run their own lives within its confines.

So last July, when LNK TV approached the prison's affable director, Kestuitis Slanciauskas, his response, he said, was "Why not?"

The contestants ranged in age from 17 to 31. Their crimes, Ms. Stankuviene said, were "all kinds, from the smallest to the gravest," though most were crimes of passion.

None were obligated to disclose a name — some used pseudonyms — or their crimes. "Everybody is so keen on what crimes they committed," Ms. Stankuviene said. "Here we know there are no good crimes, so it doesn't make any difference."

Mr. Sheshkus, of LNK TV, says any thought of playing the pageant for laughs was scotched after a review of the contestants. "The histories weren't all that nice, and we didn't see many positive things for the prison," he said. "So we decided to do something positive."

There followed a crash course: a two-week drill on walking in high heels; reviews by a professional makeup consultant; sessions with a psychologist; fittings with a fashion designer; rehearsals with one of Lithuania's most popular singers.

LNK TV — the acronym stands for Lithuania Independent Channel — took a tawdry prison cinema in the main dormitory, seating about 150, and built a new stage with soft lighting and glittery backdrops. The nation's best-known M.C. was recruited to play the Bert Parks role.

The Nov. 14 contest, broadcast the next day, featured eight finalists in typical pageant situations: performing in songs and skits, wearing skimpy swimsuits, slinky formal attire and, finally, wedding gowns.

Just as in other pageants, when the runners-up and winner were announced, they hugged and cried, and the winner, a 21-year-old who called herself Samantha, said it was the happiest day of her life.

The similarity ends there. In an interview today, the winner said that Samantha was the name of her young daughter, and that her real name was Kristina. She is from the city of Kaunas, and she entered the contest so that her invalid mother, who is unable to travel to the prison, could see her on television.

Kristina said she was serving five years but would not disclose her crime; she said she could be freed next year, three years into her term, for good behavior. The money she won in the contest, 4,000 litas, or about $1,150, she plans to spend on her daughter. It is not payable until her release.

Some people say beauty contests reinforce old stereotypes. Kristina said this one chipped away at them.

"We all make mistakes in our lives," she said. "But not all of us pay for them by staying in prison. Not everybody who gets in prison is a bad person. There are good people among the prisoners, too. And I think the people who organized it, they made an excellent move. They gave us the chance to feel ourselves women. I have so much here to say, but I don't know how to express it all."

[Pharmboy]

It really is a page out of Mel Brooks.

[concentric circles]

You just can't let those Times reporters out of the city, there's no end to the cheesey nonsense they'll find. They do the same thing in New York except, in that case, their editors won't let them write the story and it ends up as so much fodder for laughs over a glass of single malt scotch.

[Consort]

PANEVEZYS

[Pharmboy]

You are correct.

In the print edition, the size of the Lithuanian cheesecake photo was huge.