SI Swimsuit Edition to Highlight Gulf Coast Recovery from BP Spill

Submitted by Anonymous on February 10, 2012 - 4:34pm

Some of the background scenery in this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition -- due out on Tuesday -- might look familiar to Big Bend residents.

One of the five locations the magazine's editors chose to shoot the annual edition -- its most popular, for some reason -- was the St. George barrier island near Apalachicola, USA Today reported Friday.

The move was intended to show the area is completely cleaned up after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the newspaper reported.

The shoot took place in October, but the town's officials were sworn to keep quiet about it before the magazine -- and its models -- left town.

The idea was a hit with town and state officials, who are looking forward to the potential business that could come their way thanks to the good publicity.

"Indescribably huge," Shari Kerrigan of Florida's Office for Film and Entertainment is quoted as saying. It "will certainly put it on the map."

The magazine's still-secret cover is set to be unveiled Monday night on "Late Night with David Letterman."

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