Miss America Beauty Pageant

The agent for former beauty queen and 1991 Mrs. America Jill Scott confirmed Wednesday that he is in talks with Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and several other men's publications to produce and distribute a pornographic film starring Scott. Scott, 44, was stripped of her crown after she won the Mrs. America title for filing for divorce, which violated rules of the pageant, according to her agent David Hans Schmidt of Phoenix. In 1996, she married multimillionaire C.

Miss Michigan Kirsten Haglund, a 19-year-old aspiring Broadway star, was crowned Miss America 2008 in a show billed as the unveiling of the 87-year-old pageant's updated look. Haglund sang "Over the Rainbow" and walked a crowd-pleasing strut in a black-and-gold bikini to clinch the title. She beat Miss Indiana Nicole Elizabeth Rash, the first runner-up, and Miss Washington Elyse Umemoto, the second runner-up, for the $50,000 scholarship and year of travel that comes with the crown.

Standing in the lobby of the CaliforniaMart, wearing penny loafers and a prep-school blazer over jeans, Lyndsay Kahler seems to inhabit a parallel universe. Her blond hair is poufed and sprayed around an oval face made up carefully over a golden tan. A small gold cross with a diagonal slash of diamonds falls over her white T-shirt. She draws stares from the workers here in Fashion Central as she and her entourage ride the elevator on a mid-August day to the wholesale showrooms.

An undercover sex sting that used Miss America as bait appeared to be in trouble until the beauty queen said Tuesday that she had changed her mind and agreed to testify against the men she helped arrest. Lauren Nelson, 20, of Lawton, Okla., worked with police in New York's Suffolk County to target would-be Internet sexual predators, taped for an episode of "America's Most Wanted" that aired on Fox last weekend.

After 84 years of crowning beauties on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, N.J., the Miss America pageant is moving to the Las Vegas Strip, organizers announced. The Aladdin hotel-casino will host the event, scheduled to air Jan. 21 on cable channel Country Music Television, organizers said. "What we wanted to do is find a new host city that has all the glitz and glamour Miss America is known for," said Art McMaster, chief executive of the Miss America Organization.

Miss Hawaii Angela Perez Baraquio, an elementary school gym teacher, was crowned Miss America 2001 on Saturday night. The 24-year-old said she plans to promote character education during her yearlong reign. Baraquio gasped when co-host Donny Osmond announced her name, and she then hugged first runner-up Miss Louisiana Faith Jenkins before ducking down to receive the crown.

Standing in the lobby of CaliforniaMart in downtown Los Angeles, wearing penny loafers and a prep-school blazer over jeans, Lyndsay Kahler seems almost to inhabit a parallel universe to the hyper-chic women who swirl around her. Her blond hair is poofed and sprayed around an oval face that is carefully but lushly made up over a golden tan. A small gold cross with a diagonal slash of diamonds falls over her white T-shirt.

Miss Oklahoma, Shawntel Smith, got a birthday present some young women only dream about: She was crowned Miss America on Saturday. But she had to share the spotlight with a viewer poll over whether to retain the controversial swimsuit competition. The swimsuits, a 75-year pageant tradition, won overwhelmingly. Of nearly 1 million telephone votes cast on 900-numbers, 79% favored keeping the swimsuits.

The Miss America pageant has had a change of heart over its plan to eliminate the two-minute talent routines performed by contestants. The last two women vying for the crown in the Sept. 18 telecast from Atlantic City will perform talent routines to help determine who becomes Miss America 2005, the pageant chief said. Last month, the Miss America Organization announced that it would draw the curtain on the amateurish talent routines, which have historically bored viewers.

The Miss America Organization fired its president barely two weeks after the pageant faced an uproar over a proposal to lift its 50-year ban on women who have been married or pregnant, the group said in Atlantic City. The organization's board of directors voted to "release" President and CEO Robert Beck, 60, former executive director of the U.S.

Sam Haskell, chairman of the Miss America Organization board, says he's using his connections as the former head of television for the William Morris talent agency to find a new TV home for the pageant. The 86-year-old Miss America competition was dropped Thursday by Country Music Television after two years of low ratings. The January crowning of Miss Oklahoma Lauren Nelson as Miss America drew only 2.4 million viewers, continuing a steady decline that had seen ABC give up the show in 2004.

The Miss America Pageant has been dropped by Country Music Television, leaving the 86-year-old competition without a TV outlet. The Viacom-owned network, which had rights to air the pageant through 2011, notified the organization, which had moved the pageant to Las Vegas from Atlantic City, that it would not exercise its option to televise the contest "in 2008 and beyond." "It's been a very good two-year run," said pageant head Art McMaster.

Ratings for the Miss America Pageant continue to plummet, with Monday night's live telecast averaging 2.4 million viewers, 20% fewer than last year, CMT reported Wednesday. On a positive note, the cable channel said its ratings among people aged 18 to 24 were up 257% from last year, thanks in part to a two-hour reality show about the pageant that aired in the days leading up to it on CMT, VH1 and MTV.

EVERY year, it seems, there's a new plan to reverse the long downhill slide of the Miss America pageant and return it to the must-watch status it enjoyed half a century ago, when 27 million viewers -- almost 40% of the television audience -- tuned in for three hours of bathing suits, ball gowns and baton twirling. In recent years, the length of the broadcast has been cut by a third. The easily ridiculed talent competition was largely eliminated, confined to the three finalists.

The annual Miss America pageant will be held on the Las Vegas Strip again next year, organizers said. The crowning will air live Jan. 29 on Country Music Television from the Aladdin Resort & Casino. The 85-year-old beauty contest left its hometown of Atlantic City, N.J., for Las Vegas last year in search of a younger audience, a fresh look and lower production costs.

The Miss America pageant will tape a seven-episode documentary series titled "Finding Miss America" in Los Angeles from Sept. 5 to 13, the Miss America Organization announced. The series, which is to air on Country Music Television, will show the 52 women in preliminary competition and give viewers a chance to choose which ones advance to the top 15 for a shot at becoming Miss America 2007.

Miss South Carolina, Kimberly Clarice Aiken, was crowned Miss America on Saturday night after pledging to spend the next year on efforts to educate the homeless. The field of 50 contestants, one from each state, was narrowed to five semifinalists late Saturday after two weeks of competition in swimsuit, talent, interview and evening gown categories.

Miss America officials, who have said "No dice" to contestants for 19 years, are gambling with the pageant's girl-next-door image this year. For the first time since casinos opened here in 1978, contestants who are 21 or older can enter them and shoot craps, play blackjack or try their hand at poker and other games. "These are young women. They're not babies. And we are not their parents," said Leonard C. Horn, the pageant's chief executive officer.

A 22-year-old aspiring teacher from Oklahoma was crowned Miss America in Las Vegas, the first time the storied but struggling pageant was held outside Atlantic City, N.J. Jennifer Berry, a student at the University of Oklahoma, was awarded a $30,000 college scholarship and yearlong speaking tour. Miss Georgia Monica Pang was first runner-up and Miss Alabama Alexa Jones second runner-up. Miss Hawaii Malika Dudley won Miss Congeniality.