World Notes PAGEANTS

What is a beauty pageant without bathing suits? Plenty, the sponsors of last week's 37th annual Miss World contest decreed. In a bow to feminist scorn and changing fashion, the 78 hopefuls who paraded in London's Royal Albert Hall before thousands of raucous spectators and 500 million television viewers wore leotards instead of swimwear. "Leotards are a lot more fashionable," said Pageant Sales Director Michael Morley. They are also more modest, he added, because the "cut is not so high on the thigh."

When the 90-minute contest ended, judges crowned Ulla Weigerstorfer, a 5-ft. 11-in. Viennese blond, as the fairest of them all. Bookmakers had listed the 20-year-old veterinary student as a 20-to-1 long shot. Her victory worried Boyfriend Joseph Wegrostek, 40, a lawyer and divorced father of three. "I fear we may split," he said. "Austria has now become too small for her."