Philanthropy has a sexy new face...

Wear the skimpy costume for the cover? Please? I'll be your best friend!

Clad (or is it gift-wrapped) in head-to-toe Versace, Rory Gleason sweeps into her cavernous living room and greets visitors with an enormous whoop she no doubt perfected as head cheerleader for Alba High School Hurricanes in her hometown of Bayou La Batre, Alabama.

"If you want to say it like a local, it's 'BI-yo,'" she points out, thus saving non-locals the humiliation of mangling the pronunciation of yet another Gulf Coast noun. "I think the linguistics of the region have a lot to do with the fact that it was settled by the French and the Spanish, changing hands between the two several times that accounts not only for preponderance of French and Spanish names, but also the odd pronunciations," she explains. "For instance, most English-speakers would say 'PE-can,' whereas we would 'p-CAWN,' and Biloxi is 'b-LUX-ee.'

She throws back her head and laughs, and then looks you straight in the eye and deadpans "Please, stop me when I get off on a tangent."

We think not, as Gleason's life - on paper, at least - appears to be one long string of (mostly lucky) tangents starting with winning the title of 'Miss Seafood' at age 16.

"I do not come from Southern gentility," she explains. "I grew up knowing how to seine for shrimp and tong for oysters, two odious jobs if ever" she points out. "My dad was a fisherman, so it was expected that I would pitch in and help when needed. I was popular in high school, but I like to think it was because I was a nice person to everyone and gave 100 percent to everything I did."

"There were prettier girls in my town and certainly ones from better families," she observes. "And the only reason I entered the Miss Seafood pageant was on a bet - not that I would win, but that I would enter and complete it. You could have knocked me over when I won."

Does she still have her sash?
"I do, but you'll never find it," she replies. "No one will ever know which year I reigned - at least not if I can help it," she says with a smile.

A mental picture, Rory in Dior, dripping with jewels, shod in Blahnik, greeting her good friend, French First Lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy, at an official reception in Paris, her outfit finished off with a 'Miss Seafood' sash is hard to resist.

"For me, the point in winning wasn't 'Oh, I'm pretty' or 'Oh, they like me'' or even 'I'm going to ride the pageant circuit as far as I can,'"says Gleason, crossing a leg. "The point was, 'I never thought of myself this way. Maybe other people see something I don't. Maybe I need to broaden my horizons a bit.'"

She has certainly done that - turning a degree from Boston's prestigious School of the Museum of Fine Arts into a high-energy career as an art consultant, jetting all over the world advising museums as well as private collectors on what to look at and what to buy.

She met her husband, wealthy Russian luxury retailer Boris Dinesovich in the course of her travels. "He is, if you would pardon the expression, the classic Russian oligarch," she explains. "Although, unlike some of his contemporaries, he has never killed anyone, nor has he run afoul of the authorities - that I know of," she laughs, then shudders.

The two were married in a lavish ceremony in St. Petersburg, (aka Leningrad) five years ago. She laughs "Can I tell you I'm not sure who was less ready for who - the Russians or the Alabamans! But you know, champagne and vodka can work wonders on bridging the cultural divide. Once the toasts began, it was as if everyone had grown up next door to each other."

I speak for all Restless Style readers when I say we are smitten, Ms. Gleason-Dinesovich, utterly smitten.n

All of which leads up to today, which finds her ready for her closeup in her gigantic, funky, art-and-sculpture-festooned grand salon, in a recently-purchased enormous faux chateau built at the turn of the last century on the outskirts of GC and mysteriously abandoned not long after completion.

"My husband thought I was crazy for buying this place, but I said 'Honey, it's in a lovely town, and besides, it's the only place in the U.S. besides Alaska that comes even close to approximating a Moscow winter." She bats her eyes, for emphasis.

"Which means I might actually be able to get him here at least once in the coming months," she adds.

It was a tangent that brought her to GC in the first place, she explains. "I was here to visit my homegirl, Sabrina Castellano," she explains. "We met when she was curating at the Pompidou in Paris. She was just so sweet and passionate about art, I had to have her over. My husband and I just fell in love with her. We were bereft when she told us she was leaving Paris to move to Wisconsin."

The couple maintains homes in Paris, Moscow, London and now, Genoa City. "It had been my plan to surprise Sabrina with my new base of operations," Gleason explains, "but I guess it wasn't in the cards. When Sabrina died, it was like losing a sister. I miss her so."

"Nonetheless, if it hadn't been for her, I would never have discovered Genoa City, it's lovely, and I think it's a perfect North American base of operations for me. I see it as Sabrina's gift to me."

These days, when she's not buying art she spends her time supporting Arts education - particularly in underserved public schools. Last year, the couple donated some $25 million toward various philanthropic projects.

"Schools are really hurting in so many ways," she says. "And people say to me all the time, 'There is so much to be done, why are you focusing your funds and energy on art of all things?' And I say to them 'Look, whether you're making it or experiencing it, art is all about thinking outside the box, experiencing things in a whole new way, or creating a new whole out of old pieces.

What better way to get a child imagining a different life than the one he or she sees around them? What better way to teach a child about process? How you do one thing and get a result, and then you build on that result to get an even bigger result, and then sometimes, you take a step and end up making a mess and you have to start over, but you've learned what doesn't work, which still places you closer to your goal."

Sort of like a collection of tangents?
"Exactly," she answers. "After all, how many Miss Seafoods can there be in any given year?" She lets out a whoop.