St. Joseph, Mo. ? Go ahead, tell Bobbi Pyle her prom dress is ugly.

You won’t hurt her feelings, really. She’s actually pretty proud of it.

Pyle freely admits that the multicolored, floor-length polyester dress was never her favorite. That’s why, although she can still fit into the size-5 dress 30 years after her senior prom, she never really wanted to until she got the chance to model the dress on national television.

“Mom took me shopping, saw it on sale for 20 bucks and said, ‘This is the dress we’re getting,”‘ Pyle said. “I know it wouldn’t have been my first choice, but it was something we could afford.”

On April 22, 30 years to the day of the 1972 William Chrisman High School prom in Independence, the hosts of ABC’s “Live with Regis and Kelly” put out a call for ugly prom dresses for an upcoming “Ugliest Prom Dress Fashion Show.”

Re-enter Pyle’s dress, which had been hanging in her closet. She sent in a photo of herself wearing the dress and won a spot as one of six finalists in the fashion show.

“I think it’s great,” said her husband, Bob. “Probably the most unusual thing is 30 years later she can still fit in that dress, plus the fact she’s still got it.”

Bobbi Pyle and her 17-year-old daughter, Kelli, flew to New York on Tuesday morning to appear on the show, which will air live at 9 a.m. today.

“It’ll be fun: an all-expenses paid trip, my 15 minutes of fame,” Mrs. Pyle said.

Pyle has already been on television once, winning a camcorder two years ago on Rosie O’Donnell’s show.

She said she hadn’t been told what the top prize would be for having the ugliest prom dress.

“They said something about a designer dress,” she said.

Her husband hasn’t seen the other dresses, but thinks she has a good shot at winning.

“You can tell her it’s the ugliest dress you’ve seen and you won’t hurt her feelings,” he said. “She’s heard it from everybody. It looks like a curtain.”