45-19-39

For two raucous weeks, Italy's top TV show, Lascia o Raddoppia (Double or Quits'), which is frankly modeled after the $64,000 Question, rocked the nation. Tempest in the TV pot was balloon-bosomed Maria Luisa Garoppa, 23, a tobacco shopkeeper from northern Italy whose knowledge of Greek drama is only surpassed by her unusual measurements (45-19-39).

No sooner had Maria--dressed in a red lace decollete sheath--given correct answers to eight questions on Greek tragedy (thus qualifying for 640,000 lire, or $1,024) than thousands of televiewers and an excitable press began complaining of her "exuberant body." Harried program directors corralled Italy's top couturiers in an effort to camouflage Maria, who complained: "Can I help it if I'm not built like a telephone pole?"

Overnight, Maria's clothes crisis became another front-page sensation. The fellow-traveling Avanti jumped at the chance to twit church papers: "[They] are evidently discontented with God, for they seek to change His creations." The nationwide hoopla was too much for Maria, and she refused to appear in a specially fashioned dress. Turin's La

Stampa put its tongue in its cheek: "It is almost like one of the Greek tragedies she knows so well."

Last week, after thinking it over for two weeks, Maria came back--in a modest black dress. The technicians were careful of their camera angles. Less important, perhaps, Maria also correctly placed some lines in Prometheus Bound, bringing her one headline closer to the $8,300 jackpot.

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