Chotiros Suriyawong, a 22 year-old actress better known by her stage name of Amy, has been publicly vilified after she dared to turn up to Thailand's version of the Oscars ceremony in a dress modelled on Elizabeth Hurley's wellknown safety-pin number.

She has been sacked from the cast of a film in which she was due to appear and ordered by her university to make a public apology and to do 15 days of community service by reading to the blind.

It's a far cry from Thailand's more usual image of freewheeling sexuality, with its nightclubs and "massage parlours." But this is Thailand under the rule of the generals, who seized power in September. Suriyawong has found herself on the receiving end of a morality drive launched by the authorities.

The dress she wore to the Golden Swan awards had a three-inch wide slit from the hips to the cleavage. It was conservative compared to the outfits that young Thai women wear in the tourist bars of Phuket or Bangkok's Khaosan district. But it was too much for Suraphol Nitikraipot, rector of Bangkok's Thammasat University, where Suriyawong is a student. "Society feels this is a disgrace and that her actions have affected the reputation of this university, " he said.

Suriyawong was reportedly forced to demonstrate to the university that the dress had specially sewn-in underwear.

The university was not acting in isolation. It was prodded by the military junta. The Culture Ministry weighed in, describing the dress as "inappropriate".

One of Thailand's leading studios sacked Suriyawong from the cast of Suai Samurai.

She sobbed at a press conference where she was forced to apologise. "If I'd known it would have been so controversial, I wouldn't have done it, " she said, adding that she had worn the dress to get media attention but got more than she had bargained for.

Thailand is in the middle of a morality crackdown. Police in Bangkok enforced a 10pm curfew for teenagers on Valentine's Day and were under orders to prevent under-18s from kissing in public.

It all sits oddly with the anything-goes attitudes in the tourist resorts, but analysts say a crackdown will appeal to the conservative middle classes.

In the meantime, with its preponderance of lady-boy bars catering to tourists, Thailand may be the only country in the world where only men are allowed to wear split skirts and cleavage-revealing tops.