BeautifulPeople.com Rejects the “Ugly”

BeautifulPeople.com, an online dating site established exclusively for “beautiful men and women,” has rejected over 30,000 members for not meeting the site’s attractiveness standards, reports the Guardian.

Last month, the “Shrek” virus — named after the Dreamworks animated film starring a big, green ogre — attacked the software that BeautifulPeople.com uses to screen its potential members.

This allowed for thousands of members to be admitted to the site without undergoing the usual attractiveness screening process.

When BeautifulPeople got their screening software up and running again, they terminated the accounts of some 30,000 new members admitted during the virus’ attack.

“We have to stick to our founding principles of only accepting beautiful people — that’s what our members have paid for,” explains Greg Hodge, managing director of BeautifulPeople.com.

Hodge apologized to the public for the “unfortunate people who were wrongly admitted to the site and believed, albeit for a short time, that they were beautiful.” A helpline has been established to provide counseling to distressed rejects.

This controversy is not the first for BeautifulPeople. Last year, about 5,000 members had their accounts terminated after they appeared to gain weight during the holiday season.