Bébé Bares All

for the first time, sex queen brigitte bardot poses for off-the-set uncoverage

Since BB's derrière first received international exposure 13 years ago, the Bardot myth has grown ever more complex and imposing--thanks in part to a succession of husbands and lovers, a well-publicized try at suicide and innumerable hassles with photographers. However, the accompanying exclusive photos of the sex kitten--the first nude studies she has permitted--and her increasing willingness to appear on TV suggest a new rapprochement among Brigitte, her audience and the media she has never fully trusted. Bébé's legendary sexual indulgences, on screen and off, no longer provoke puritanical outcries; she has been vindicated by an ongoing cultural revolution that she helped set in motion. Long before the pill was popular, Brigitte, the pampered but rebellious product of middle-class materialism, showed an up-tight world that sexual emancipation for women was more than an idealistic phrase. Sincerity, in the Bardot life style, is a greater virtue than propriety--a sense of values that is rapidly gaining adherents. Not that acceptance and imitation have spoiled BB: She remains as delightfully unencumbered and unpredictable as ever.