MILWAUKEE – Bust out the boxers, shake what nature gave you, and you might be the $5,000 winner of Jockey’s UnderWars. The Kenosha-based maker of intimate apparel is sponsoring an online competition for adults to post videos of themselves dancing in their drawers.

Aspiring exhibitionists have until Nov. 15 to upload their videos. The competition will be capped at 32 participants, who will be randomly divided into tournament brackets and will advance based on online votes.

Dancers — alone or in groups — are given plenty of freedom to be creative, as long as men are wearing boxers or briefs and women are wearing panties. Males and females can also wear T-shirts or jackets, as long as their skivvies — of any brand — are partially visible.

“We’re trying to keep it clean,” said Patty McIntosh, the Internet marketing manager for Jockey International Inc., “The bottom line is, we’re just letting people do their thing and have fun.”

Because of copyright concerns, dancers have to choose from one of 16 musical clips on the Jockey Web site. The selections range from a 45-second pulsing tango to a 3 1/2-minute techno blast.

For people who don’t want to compete in the UnderWars tournament but still want to know whether they’re better than their friends at shaking their moneymakers, the site also offers head-to-head challenges for Web surfers to judge.

In the three weeks since the site was launched, there have been about 35 individual matches.

“Those winners don’t get money, but they do get bragging rights,” McIntosh said.

One participant featured in the Web site’s Main Match on Monday was BustAmove, a man wearing sunglasses, a white T-shirt and black briefs with white polka dots. The one-minute video shows him dancing on the roof of a bar, a clip that is at once entertaining and slightly disturbing.

The idea for the Web site evolved from a separate Jockey site launched earlier this year as a way to increase brand awareness among the high school and college set. The site, stopsquirming.com, features a man and woman each demonstrating 15 amusing ways to furtively adjust one’s undergarments in public.

“Both sites are targeted toward a younger demographic,” McIntosh said. “We’ve just introduced ourselves to this audience — now we’re starting to learn a lot about them.”

The early entrants in the UnderWars tournament are seen dancing alone, most in a bedroom or bathroom. But to win the $5,000 prize, Jockey spokesman Mo Moorman speculates the challengers will need more than spiffy dance moves and the looks of a supermodel.

“This is a lighthearted site — sexy’s not going to take it,” he predicted. “You’ll have to have the whole package.”

BERLIN (AFP) – A Bulgarian woman and a Romanian man have the world’s best-looking bottoms, according to the jury of a backside beauty contest sponsored by a lingerie firm, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.

Beyond a 10,000-euro (14,400-dollar) cash prize, Kristina Dimitrova, 19, and 24-year-old Andrei Andrei each won a modelling contract for the company’s next international advertising campaign as well as a year-long insurance policy for their rear ends in case of injury.

Some 15,000 people from 29 countries responded to a call by the European company Triumph to post photos of their backsides on the Internet three months ago.

The site drew more than five million visitors, of whom 130,000 registered to pick their 10 favourite male and female bottoms from each country.

A total of 45 men and women qualified for the final contest in Munich before a seven-member jury including representatives from the fashion and fitness industries.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A volunteer at the Eagle River Nature Center is recovering after being bitten by a brown bear sow. Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials say Sarah Wallmer was bitten on the buttocks on the Crow Pass Trail, about a mile from the nature center.

The attack happened Thursday as Wallmer was traveling to the Rapids camp yurt. She was running with her dog, about 10 minutes ahead of another volunteer.

Officials say she was making noise on the trail to announce her presence, but the blowing wind probably obscured her voice.

The bear charged her, and she dropped her dog’s leash and turned her back to the sow. The bear bit her once.

The bear roared and left, presumably to chase the dog. The dog came back about 10 minutes later with the other volunteer on a four-wheeler.

She was treated at a clinic for four puncture wounds but a release from the state agency says she otherwise “appeared to be in good spirits.”

Rangers and biologist say this was a chance encounter with the sow, who also had a cub with her, and no further action was necessary.

The nature center is about 20 miles northeast of Anchorage.

MADRID (Reuters) – A Spanish photo exhibition due to open this autumn offers a series of unusually cheeky portraits — of the human backside.

Madrid’s Fundacion Canal gallery says the exhibit, which includes the work of renowned photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and Man Ray, shows “the multiple artistic possibilities of the human form as seen from behind”.

Emblematic images of “beautiful round asses” which had long been a cult object in our society would be on view, it said.

“Hidden” will show the work of 60 international photographers and opens on Oct 2.

NORTH LOGAN, Utah – A University of Southern California hockey goalie put on a show, but it had nothing to do with stopping shots. Mickey Meyer rode his stick like a horse, dropped his bulky pants, mooned the crowd and slapped his buttocks during a game against Brigham Young University, police said.

He was ejected and ticketed for lewdness, a misdemeanor, after an officer who was working security at the rink said he witnessed the scene Saturday.

“I had my fill of these refs,” Meyer said on an Internet broadcast of the game, according to The Herald-Journal of Logan.

It will be up to prosecutors whether to pursue a case against him.

“This is a small town,” North Park police Sgt. John Italasano said. “This was a college team playing and hockey’s a wild game. Sometimes things get out of hand.”

Meyer’s antics occurred while play was stopped and referees were trying to sort out penalties in the third period of a consolation game in the ACHA West Regional tournament at Eccles Ice Center.

The junior from Clinton, N.Y., was “riding his hockey stick like a horse and slapping his butt,” North Park Officer Mike Stauffer said in a report.

After pulling down his pants, Meyer slapped his bare bottom several times, Stauffer said.

Rink manager Floyd Naegle was unhappy.

“We don’t treat this as a funny incident,” he said Tuesday. “We’re a family oriented business. It’s a one-time incident and we try to do what we can to protect ourselves.”

The Trojans lost the game against BYU, 6-4. The night before, they’d lost 3-1 to Utah State. USC volunteer hockey coach Mark Wilbur said the incident highlights the frustration that can come with playing tournament consolation rounds early in the morning after a loss far from home.

“All you’re doing is asking for seniors to do stupid stuff,” he said.

If the season’s over, he’d just like to pack up the team gear and go home, he said.

Wilbur said he had no specific policy for dealing with publicly bared bottoms.

“I sure as hell don’t condone it on any level,” Wilbur said.

Prosecutor Scott Wyatt laughed when told about the incident Tuesday at the state Capitol, where he is a member of the Utah House. He declined to say whether he would press charges. The maximum penalty is six months in jail.

“Well, that’s my call, but I haven’t seen anything” from police, Wyatt said.

TOKYO (AFP) – A Japanese stand-up comedian has been given a stern warning by Chinese authorities for baring his buttocks in front of tourists on China’s Hainan Island, press reports said.

Ken Mitsuda, 47, was shooting a scene for an entertainment programme for Osaka-based Asahi Broadcasting Corp. when he took the action at a popular Buddhist temple on the island on Monday, the Jiji and Kyodo news agencies said.

The comedian pulled the stunt after gaining approval from a Chinese coordinator present there, the reports quoted television company officials as saying.

He and staff members, after being questioned by local police, deleted the scene from the recording and submitted a letter of apology the next day before returning to Japan on Wednesday, the reports said.

“We sincerely regret that a senseless act was committed by programme staff and performers,” Asahi Broadcasting said in a press statement without going into details of the incident.

“We apologise to people on the island and instruct our staff involved in the programme to be careful so that such an incident will never happen again,” it said.

A local newspaper in Hainan reported the incident in its Thursday edition, the reports said.

Mitsuda is known as Ken in the popular comedy duo “Tommys” based in Osaka.

OMAHA, Neb. – Two things made Christopher Willever’s drunken theft of a Tobacco Hut even worse as he crawled across the store floor, a lousy belt and his camera-loving backside.

Omaha’s bare-bottom bandit was sentenced to three to five years in prison Friday for his March crime that earned him the fitting distinction.

“You were an ass in every true sense of the word in this crime,” Douglas County District Judge Thomas Otepka told the 22-year-old Willever.

Tired of being poor, Willever drank a fifth of rum and decided to rob the store, said his public defender, Kelly Steenbock.

He was drunk enough not to realize that his pants had fallen down, exposing his bottom to cameras that eventually fed the surveillance to TV shows across the country.

“He was pretty humiliated and embarrassed,” Steenbock said. “He showed his bottom to whoever turned on the TV.”

Steenbock pleaded the judge to sympathize with Willever’s youth, no prior felony charges and participation in an alcohol treatment program.

Otepka said Willever was an adult who is still supported by his mother and does not have a high school diploma. He also said Willever denied encounters with out-of-state authorities until presented with the cases.

Willever was arrested again later in the year for receiving stolen property from another burglary, while still facing charges in the bottom-baring case.

Willever could be eligible for parole after 18 months; he must also pay $1,100 in restitution to the store.

RICHMOND, Va. – To hear the students tell it, Stephen Murmer is a fun, popular art teacher who is always quick to crack a joke. But there is another side to Murmer. A side that has agitated school officials and resulted in his suspension. A side that focuses, almost entirely, on the crack in his backside.

Outside of class and under an alter ego, the self-proclaimed “butt-printing artist” creates floral and abstract art by plastering his posterior and genitals with paint and pressing them against canvas. His cheeky creations sell for hundreds of dollars.

This has not gone over well with Chesterfield County school officials, who placed Murmer on administrative leave from his job at Monacan High School.

Murmer contacted the
American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia after he was suspended on Friday, ACLU legal director Rebecca Glenberg said. He told Glenberg that administrators had suspended him with pay for five days because of his work as a butt-print painter and that he also could face unpaid suspension pending an investigation.

Murmer has been instructed by the school administration not to speak with the media, Glenberg said. He did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday.

Chesterfield County schools spokeswoman Debra Marlow confirmed that a Monacan art teacher had been placed on administrative leave but declined to provide additional details because it is a personnel issue.

“In the school system, personnel regulations state that teachers are expected to set an example for students through their personal conduct,” Marlow said. “Additionally, the Supreme Court has stated that schools must teach by example and that teachers, like parents, are role models.”

Murmer went to great lengths to keep his work life separate from his activities as an artist, said ACLU executive director Kent Willis. As a butt-printing artist, he goes by the name “Stan Murmur,” and appears in disguise in photographs and videos promoting his art.

“As a public employee, he has constitutional rights, and he certainly has the right to engage in private legal activities protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution,” Willis said.

A nearly naked Murmer expressed concern about remaining incognito during a 2003 appearance on the now-canceled cable television talk show, “Unscrewed With Martin Sargent.” In a clip from the show, available on YouTube.com, Murmer dons a fake nose and glasses, a towel on his head, a black thong — and nothing else.

“I’m certainly proud of the ass painting,” Murmer said in response to questions about his disguise. “I do have a real job where I do have real clients and I don’t think they’d be too understanding if I was also the guy who painted with my ass.”

That video has made the rounds at Monacan High, where the mere mention of Murmer’s name was enough to elicit grins from students Tuesday. Most appeared to be firmly behind their teacher, describing his suspension as “stupid,” “ignorant” and “kinda retarded.”

“Everyone has been talking about it,” senior Heather Thompson said with a laugh as she and other students streamed out of school.

Thompson, who worked with Murmer in the school’s art club, said many students have known about his paintings for a few years, but the YouTube clip recently got everyone buzzing. She and other students described Murmer as a funny, likable and popular teacher. There is little support among the student body for his suspension, she said.

“It was simply him expressing himself and his art, and it had nothing to do with school — he wasn’t advertising,” she said.

This is not the first time Murmer has faced potential problems because of his extracurricular activities. Three years ago, he contacted the ACLU after he was told school administrators were unhappy about his paintings, Willis said. The issue eventually blew over with no suspension issued, Willis said. It was unclear why administrators decided to take action now.

Owning a piece of Murmer’s art doesn’t come cheap. On his Web site, his creations run upward of $900. His most popular piece, “Tulip Butts,” goes for $600.

So how does one become a butt-printing artist? On his Web site, Murmur said his journey began a few years ago when he was told to find an organic item to use as a stamp for a class painting assignment. He decided to use his posterior. His final product was a hit with the class and a butt painter was born.

He was, however, the only student not asked to hold up his organic stamp.

NICOSIA (Reuters) – Bare buttocks plastered on billboards in Nicosia are the talk of the town in the Cypriot capital, but officials see no need to cover them up.

Complaints have poured in to local councils over the advert for a clothes chain showing a close-up of a woman’s bottom, bare except for a tan-colored thong.

One member of parliament, Maria Kyriakou, from the opposition Democratic Rally party, told Reuters it could even be a “potential distraction for drivers.”

But local authorities say they have no say on the content of adverts, police say they’ve seen worse, and the media watchdog says billboards are beyond its standard remit.

“Regardless of that, we have to look at the matter because a complaint was filed. If it was clearly pornographic we could possibly intervene, but sometimes you see even more explicit pictures in family magazines,” said Petros Petrides, secretary of the Media Complaints Commission.

That view was echoed by a police spokesman, who said: “It’s not considered obscene. Magazines show worse things.”

The poster takes its place among a sea of posters advertising candidates for parliamentary elections on May 21.