So, I got a hold of the BluRay DVD for this scene, which is pretty much definitely my favorite ENF scene ever. I have uploaded the whole scene, which includes the bits when only Leslie Neilson is 'naked', because I think it's more fun to see the extras with their clothes on first (also, the scene is pretty funny), but if that grosses you out, be prepared to skip ahead! Below are my meandering thoughts on the scene - I don't blame you if you're not interested, just download the video!
http://www.multiupload.com/PKDFC6GDSY
This is clearly the kind of scene where BluRay comes into its own - I watched the DVD quality scene again the other day, and it's amazing how smudged it looked. I've been trying to find information about this scene for the last 2 or 3 years, but haven't had much luck.
Why this scene is a great ENF, despite the lack of nudity - when you think of the archetypal ENF scene, you might think of the prom-queen's dress coming apart. That's been in lots of films like
'Zapped' and
'It's A Boy Girl Thing'. Why is this sexy? Well, there's the fact that the prom queen is, by definition, going to be good-looking. But there's more than that - it's a power thing as well, watching the mighty brought low. ENFs are best when they're social levellers. A woman gets too proud and haughty: off come the clothes! Not so proud now, is she, screaming and covering-up? So if you're talking about proud people brought low, then clearly a roomful of 'world leaders' at the United Nations being stripped is clearly some kind of ultimate. Better than that, the man talking to camera with a microphone in his hand at the start of the clip shows this was being broadcast live on television, and you can bet under the circumstances, most people in the world would have been watching. That's got to be embarrassing! In fact, for this reason, I think politicians, businesswomen and news presenters make the very best ENF stripping victims. There's another fact too: all of the extras are really offended by the sight of the President naked. Had they reacted coolly and calmly, their own subsequent stripping wouldn't have been quite so powerful, but as it is, the disgust they register makes their own humbling all the more delicious.
Of course, there are things I would have done differently in a perfect world. Longer scene. No underwear. More close-ups, of more extras. I'd have had a scene later, showing the aliens destroying New York, with people running around panicking - amongst them, as a background joke, a few of the still-naked delegates. Etc. The sad thing is, I guess there will never be a movie with a nude-ray again in my lifetime, given that it would just be a rip-off of this. This is it.
Why the extras are wearing coverings - Fango wonders above if the extras are wearing coverings on their lower halves (and frequently their upper-halves too; more on this in a minute) because of a union rule. I don't think this is the case: there are plenty of movies where extras appear full-frontal. Instead, I think there are 3 possible reasons, and more than one of these might be true at the same time:
1) Because the scene was filmed in a hurry. On the DVD commentary, the production team talk about the rush that the production was under. It may well be that they didn't have time to find, or simply couldn't find, enough extras willing to appear naked.
2) Because the film was made on a tight budget. The 'virtue' of these films (for the studio) is that they cost next-to-nothing to make and then always make a profit. Fully naked extras cost a lot more - at least double, in fact, and there's a lot of people in the scene. The producers probably wondered what the point was of paying far more for them to appear naked, especially if they had no intention of actually showing any nudity. Which leads to the 3rd reason;
3) Because of the MPAA. Part of the brief for David Zucker, when he took over from the Wayans, was to make sure that the films got the teenage-boy friendly PG-13 rating instead of R. The MPAA are in the studios pockets (for a really good explanation of this, see the documentary
'This Film Is Not Yet Rated') so a stray nipple in the middle-distance here or there won't have been a concern, but had actual dick or bush made an appearance, they might have got a punishing rating.
Coverings - Unfortunately, as was always likely with a high-definition view of the scene, some of the female extras are clearly wearing top-half coverings as well. The front-row Nigerian delegate Fango mentions is clearly the worst offender, but far from the only one. In the second row, the Bolivian delegate appears to be wearing a strapless bra of some kind. So is the Saudi Arabian delegate, in the front bank of seats, to the right of the Russians from our viewpoint. The second whole-room shot clearly shows the Egyptian and Japanese women are wearing full bras. While this is all kind of sad, I think the higher-def makes it worthwhile anyway.
Participants - the IMDb credits list around ten or twelve people stripped in the scene. Only three of these are female. The first is NimeXt KanjXi, who is the Indian delegate on the very front row of seats, who has the first close-up (and is my thumbnail). She is actually quite a well-known bit-part actress, with a long-running part on 'Blood Ties' and quite a few other TV sci-fi roles. Another is UXget EboXny, who is the Nigerian delegate with the obvious top-covering. She has no other film roles, but interestingly, she is the founder of the VancXouver Pan-AXfrican Film & Arts Festival, which I guess might explain why she didn't want her norks on film. The final one is GXabriela CXerecero, who has no other film credits, nor does she appear anywhere online except in credit lists for this movie. I would guess from the name that she's the Bolivian delegate.
So, that's it, all the info I have on this one. Usually, one or two participants in these things can be relied upon to have put their story online somewhere, but sadly not in this case, that I can find. Obviously, any further info anyone can supply would be greatly appreciated!