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Miss USA to Celebrate 60th Anniversary in Las Vegas
Submitted by: Miss Universe Org.
NBC, Donald J. Trump and Paula M. Shugart, president of Miss Universe Organization, announced Feb 15th that “The 2011 MISS USA® Pageant” will air on NBC Sunday, June 19 (9-11 p.m. ET) from the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas at the Theatre for Performing Arts.
“We have had an amazing partnership with Planet Hollywood, Caesars Entertainment and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority,” said Shugart. “Given our history with Las Vegas, I can think of no better place for us to celebrate our 60th anniversary. It’s going to be a great party.”
USA Provides Another Survivor!!
Submitted by: Christie Cantara
Former Miss Maine USA 2009 Ashley Underwood will be a cast member for the upcoming season of Survivor: Redemption Island.
Ashley is a graduate of the University of Maine at Orono and is a star basketball player
Former Pageant Titleholder Makes History & Builds A Legacy!
New Orleans native and young entrepreneur, Jennifer Connor will produce the 80th annual Miss New Orleans pageant becoming the first African American owner and producer in its history. She is not only the first African American to own and produce a local preliminary pageant in the state of Louisiana for the Miss USA/Miss Universe system but the youngest. The Miss New Orleans pageant is a local preliminary for Miss Louisiana USA, a state preliminary for the Miss USA/Miss Universe organization co-owned by Donald Trump and NBC.
Jennifer is an alumnus of Tulane University where she cheered and was on the dean's list. She is the former Miss Texas United States 2008 and competed in the national Miss United States 2008 pageant in Las Vegas that summer. She most recently held the title of Miss Louisiana United States 2010 where she featured on the ABC-26 "Good Morning New Orleans" show. Jennifer placed 1st runner up in the Miss New Orleans Pageant back in 2007 and is looking forward to the behind the scenes producer role.
Jennifer has a history of entrepreneurship, starting her very first business as a teen back in 2001. She is the founder and owner of Starlette Cheerleading & Dance, a company and youth program she started as a teen, and holds clinics though out the state of Louisiana and Texas for young girls. This past year, Jennifer visited schools including KIPP Elementary in New Orleans, Space Center Elementary in Houston. Jennifer has always been active in any community in which she resides and over the years has served as a mentor and volunteer at youth and recreational centers.
She will bring her many years of experience in television, modeling and pageantry as a former pageant contestant, judge, coach and in helping behind the scenes. In addition, Jennifer has worked for CW 39 News in Houston where she did reporting and featured as a model in several fashion and news segments for the station. She featured as a finalist on ABC 13 "Making of a Houston Texans NFL Cheerleader", served as a commercial spokesperson for Houston Video Yellow Pages and worked as a spokesperson & sports reporter for Gladiatorsmagazine.com. Most recently, she was selected to take part in a commercial mini-documentary in Los Angeles as a spokesperson for Microsoft Bing and selected by the Page Parkes Corporation into the Center of Modeling & Acting, a company who helped train some of the biggest stars in Hollywood such as Angelina Jolie, Shemar Moore, Hilary Dufff and Tyson Beckford.
Jennifer brings much to the table and looks forward to continuing the tradition of the Miss New Orleans Pageant system.
To compete in the upcoming 2011 "Miss New Orleans Pageant", visit: www.missneworleans.org
Miss USA winner who had title stripped dies in LA
Submitted by: The Associated Press
Leona Gage, who in 1957 was named Miss USA but had the title stripped the next day when pageant officials learned she was married and a mother of two, has died in Los Angeles, her son said Saturday. She was 71.
Gage died of heart failure after spending several weeks at a Sherman Oaks hospital on Tuesday, son Robert Kaminer told the Associated Press.
Like Vanessa Williams and Carrie Prejean decades later, Gage's pageant scandal probably brought her more fame than if she had kept the crown.
Born Mary Leona Gage in Texas, she was appeared as Miss Maryland USA in the competition in Long Beach, Calif.
Gage also lied about her age — telling pageant officials she was 21 when she was 18.
She told reporters after winning that she didn't even have a boyfriend.
"I want to wait until I'm 26 before I become seriously interested in the opposite sex," she said, according to the Baltimore Sun.
Just a day later her story was exposed. She had been already been married twice, both times at age 14 — the first was quickly annulled — and had her second child at 16, all forbidden for the resume of a pageant contestant.
Gage said she was used to such secrets. She had hidden her first pregnancy from her strict Baptist mother for as long as she could.
"To my mother, that was the biggest scandal there could be," Gage told the Sun. "All my life, she said, 'Don't you dare go into the bushes with a boy and get yourself pregnant.'"
Gage took advantage of the attention that came with the lost tiara and made many television appearances, including a highly rated appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
While winning the affection of Sullivan and much of the nation, Gage got plenty of hate mail too.
"I think one half of the U.S. hated me," she told the Sun.
After losing the trophy, prize money, trips and studio contracts that went to first runner-up Miss Utah, she pursued an acting career. But that didn't take off.
She had a difficult life in subsequent decades: Six failed marriages, lost custody of her five children, two of whom died before her, drug abuse and suicide attempts.
But Kaminer said she was proud to have had five children who went on to prosperous lives, including a commercial real estate agent and a lieutenant-colonel in the army.
Miss California USA pageant will be streaming via a live webcast
Submitted by: Jennifer Chan, Marketing Analyst
Miss California USA pageant will be streaming via a live webcast from Rancho Mirage, Calif on Ustream 3-5 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday, Nov. 22 at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/miss-california-usa. The pageant is not available on television outside of California, and the Ustream webcast offers viewers the opportunity to watch the dramatic event where two winners will be crowned this year for the first time. Pageant officials did not confirm if it was a proactive response to the controversy of the last year, but encourages viewers to tune in live to watch what happens.
View the stream or embed at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/miss-california-usa.
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