BERLIN -- Gabriella Brum, the 18-year-old blond beauty who won the Miss World constest, resigned her hours-old title Friday and flew home in a huff to Berlin because of newspaper reports she had posed nude for her 52-year-old boyfriend in the United States.
Kimberly Santos of Guam, the runner-up in Thursday's contest, became the new Miss World automatically. Miss Santos, a 19-year-old brunette, was supposed to have flown to Seattle en route home and was believed not to have known of her ascendency.
However, the Pan American flight arrived in Seattle without her aboard and her whereabouts were unknown. An airline spokesman theorized that she learned of Miss Brum's resignation shortly before the flight left London and decided not to leave.
Miss Brum resigned after winning the Miss World title in London late Thursday because she didn't wanted 'to go along with the racket surrounding a Miss World and to put up with it for a whole year,' her stepfather said earlier.
Her mother, Angelika Roure, 39, collected her at Berlin airport on a flight from London via Duesseldorf, but the two avoided reporters and whisked away in a taxi amid rumors Miss Brum had sold her exclusive story to a West German tabloid newspaper.
Miss Brum quit in anger only 14 hours after she was chosen from a field of 68 international beauties vying for the Miss World title at London's Royal Albert Hall.
She appeared at London's Heathrow Airport wearing a long fur coat over a blue track suit, strode up to the British Airways counter and asked startled officials, 'How can I get to Berlin? I have to get there today.
'Get me home,' they quoted her as saying. 'I'll sleep on the floor. I'll do anything. Just get me to Berlin tonight.'
Contest organizers said the reasons for her resignation were not immediately clear although it appeared that the West German beauty was furious at British newspaper reports that quoted her boyfriend as saying she once posed in the nude for him and was expelled from school.
The Miss World organizers indicated they had not asked her to resign and Miss Brum herself made no immediate comment.
'This morning Gabriella was a very happy young lady,' said Mrs. Julia Morley, the contest organizer. 'I really can't tell if it was the publicity that triggered it off.
'She told us she does not wish to hold the title of Miss World and having discussed the matter with her we agreed to respect her request.'
Rumors that she planned to resign began circulating as soon as British tabloids hit the stands with reports about her romantic involvement with Benno Bellenbaum, a 52-year-old film producer living in Hollywood.
One newspaper, The New Standard, said it reached Bellenbaum in Hollywood and quoted him as saying that while Miss Brum had once been expelled from school, she had done nothing wrong.
'She has only ever posed nude for photographs for me, not for anybody else,' Bellenbaum was quoted as saying.
Britain's ITV television network said several London newspapers were negotiating with Bellenbaum, whom it described as 'a producer of exotic films,' to buy nude photos of Miss Brum.
With the Miss World title went a cash prize of $12,000 and business contracts worth $36,000. They now go to Miss Guam.
The Miss World contest was unusual this year for banning figures on the contestants' measurements, saying the international beauties should be judged more for their personalities.
But the nine judges still got to see the contestants in swimsuits as well as evening gowns before selecting seven finalists -- among them Miss United States, Brooke Alexander, 17, of Hawaii, who placed sixth.
