LONDON – Scottish bride Teresa Brown’s dream of a perfect wedding day probably did not include attacking the groom with her stiletto shoe and spending the weekend in a cell.

Police arrested the 33-year-old in the couple’s hotel room in April while her wedding reception continued downstairs, prosecutor Alan Townsend said Tuesday at Aberdeen Sheriff Court. She spent the rest of her wedding weekend in a cell.

The distraught groom, Mark Allerton, 40, staggered to the front desk, clutching a bloody towel to his head, Townsend said.

“He indicated that his wife had struck him over the head with a stiletto heel,” the prosecutor said.

Police found Brown, a real estate agent’s assistant, sitting on the hotel room bed, surrounded by broken glass.

Brown told police she and her husband had “been accusing each other of different things,” the prosecutor said, without going into details. Brown said she hit him on the head because he had taken a hold of her, he added.

Brown’s lawyer Stuart Beveridge said the newlyweds began throwing things at each other after an argument in their room turned physical. He said Brown had been on antidepressants at the time and had been drinking.

“She and her husband are still together although this incident has not helped,” he said, adding she is receiving counseling.

Sheriff James Tierney let Brown off on the assault charge with a warning and fined her 250 pounds ($505) for damaging the hotel room and ordered her to pay the hotel 500 pounds ($1,150) in compensation.

Hilton Treetops said in a statement that they were happy the case has closed.

“This has been a very unusual case,” the hotel said.

BERLIN (AFP) – A 25-year old psychology student ran away with the first foot race down Berlin’s swish Kurfuerstendamm boulevard in stiletto high heels.

It took Nadine Sonnabend just 12 seconds to run the 100 metres (328 feet) on her seven centimetre-high heels (almost three inch), said the organisers of the Stiletto Run, which is being held as part of the Global Fashion Festival.

“I much prefer tennis,” admitted Nadine, as she walked off with her 10,000-euro (12,800-dollar) voucher to spend at Berlin’s most prestigious department store KaDeWe, admitting that she rarely wears high heels.

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) – It isn’t surprising that shoes are an obsession with the beauties who grace Brazil’s Carnival parades — they’re generally the biggest things they wear below the neck.

Dancers at Carnival, the pre-Lenten bash that starts this weekend and ends on Ash Wednesday, say the higher the better for their towering heels, worn with soaring feathered head-dresses and little else but glittery patches, strategically placed.

Social customs are thrown out and roles inverted during the festivities, when ordinary people dress up as royalty or in drag to celebrate before Lent, the period of repentance that lasts until Easter.

Dancers say the platform sandals, preferably with shiny straps and buckles that snake to the knee, help prevent them from tipping over and injuring their ankles while dancing the lightning-quick gyrations of the samba.

“Platforms are safer,” said Iris Sol, 28, a dancer for the drum section of the Barroca Zona Sul samba club in Sao Paulo.

“I’ve paraded with samba troupes since I was six, but the truth is that I was dancing samba when I was born,” she said.

Sandals with platform heels push body weight onto the ball of the foot, where the samba is danced. Samba platforms go as high as 17 centimetres, or 6.6 inches. Heels are extra-wide.

“Platforms make women more beautiful, elegant and taller, with better posture. They help you stick out your chest and butt a bit,” said Magaly Santos, 22, Sao Paulo’s 2005 Carnival queen.

The culture of derrieres is so big in Brazil that GNT, a popular cable channel, produced a show about them in preparation for Carnival this year. Its title? “The National Passion.”

Some Brazilians are so eager for plump backsides that they go to plastic surgeons for silicone implants.

A display of samba sandals by Fernando Pires, who designs for top dancers, included eye-catching designs like swirls of red, yellow and orange leather resembling flames, and black heels topped with lanyards of fake diamonds and pink beaded jewels.

Carnival dancers put almond oil on their feet to prevent skin from cracking and splitting. But they say blisters are inevitable during hours of late night dancing to thundering drums.

“It hurts. You get blisters and feel pain but you samba a lot because you don’t want to stop,” said Michele Eleuterio, 20, of the samba troupe Unidos do Peruche.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The gym that brought New Yorkers “Cardio Striptease” has dreamed up “Stiletto Strength,” a workout to get women in shape to wear the highest of heels.

At a recent lunch-time session at Crunch gym near Times Square, dancer Amber Efe demonstrated how to strut like a cat-walk model, pivoting on six-inch heels that would challenge even the most ardent follower of shoe king Manolo Blahnik.

“Imagine you’re at the bar, raise one hand high like you’re holding your drink,” she told the class, music pounding as she acted the part of a club-goer working through a crowd.

“Don’t spill the drink,” she told the group, a mix of women who clearly had plenty of experience and others still tottering on shoes that didn’t show much wear.

Crunch’s class list includes “Circus Sports” and “Cycle Karaoke” and national fitness director Donna Cyrus said the most popular nontraditional class in recent years was “Cardio Striptease,” aerobics with a sexy twist.

“Stiletto Strength” was launched in January in response to client griping about getting back into high heels for winter.

“They’re businesswomen and they have to wear heels so they want to understand how to look better in them and feel confident,” Cyrus said.

Participants wear running shoes for the first part of the class, which focuses on strengthening lower body and abdominal muscles and improving balance and posture. The heels come out for the last 15 minutes.

“I came at the beginning just because I was curious,” said Andrea Kussack, 27, who isn’t required to dress up for her job but needs practice wearing “going-out” shoes.

“I recently bought for my boyfriend’s Christmas party these really high heels. I made it through the night but it wasn’t the most enjoyable thing and I haven’t worn them since,” she said.

So what is the secret to walking tall?

“Your abs and don’t look down. Look where you’re going,” said instructor Kafi Pierre. “And your ankle strength, if you have weak ankles you’ll tend to roll inward or outwards.”

Cyrus called in a podiatrist to assess the class, which has been launched in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. “He said ‘You know, the answer is women shouldn’t wear heels,’” Cyrus said.

But she said women will wear them anyway.

“Your feet will probably never recover because it’s not a position you’re meant to be in all day long,” she said. “This class will strengthen your legs and your core, it will make it less painful, but it will never be pain free.”

I am thinking they will have a nice crowd of guys “enjoying” their workout.