Monday, June 26, 2006

Miss Wisconsin Named

Wisconsin
Jun 26, 2006

New Miss Wisconsin Meghan Coffey is a 22-year-old graduate of Marquette University. She graduated with a major in biomedical engineering and also plans to attend law school. As the winner, she receives a $10,000 cash scholarship, other prizes, and a trip to compete in the Miss America pageant. She says she welcomes the chance to go on a speaking tour throughout the state pushing her Start a Heart platform -- which focuses on the lifesaving importance of making automatic external defibrillators available in schools and other organizations. Her platform was something personal... it resulted from something in her own family, when a cousin survived an emergency cardiac arrest. Tracy Gest, last year's Miss Wisconsin, also competed as Miss New Berlin.


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Editorial: An Oshkosh welcome to Miss Wisconsin event

Oshkosh welcomes the women here for the 2006 Miss Wisconsin scholarship competition. No finer showcase of young talent can be found this time of year in one place. Oshkosh feels honored to continue to play the host to this wonderful event.

Of course, we'll know late Saturday who will succeed Miss Wisconsin 2005 Tracy Gest.

But it's more than that. Someone on stage in Oshkosh this weekend may become the next Miss America. That's what makes the weekend pageants, parades and public events such a powerful moment for Oshkosh. Something big may start here.

Thankfully, it's no longer acceptable to refer to the competition as just a pageant. The Miss Wisconsin and Miss America competitions have evolved with the times. The modern event is a blend of graded performances and public events of approbation for their hard work. A demonstration of talent, projection of confidence and taking a stand for a cause round out the competition.

As a community, we should get behind this competition with all the vigor we have in past years. Let's cheer these young women in the preliminary competitions. Let's encourage them to keep living lives of leadership at the coronation reception Saturday night at the Convention Center --- and long after the weekend has ended.

The victory of the Miss Wisconsin scholarship competition isn't in who gets to wear the crown. The victory is that every woman who came to Oshkosh is a woman who will make a difference in the future.

The Final Thought: The Miss Wisconsin 2006 scholarship competition matters because it gives young women and men of the state positive role models.

SOURCE



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Sunday, June 25, 2006

President Bush Appoints Miss America 2001 Angela Baraquio Grey To Civic Participation Council


By The Miss America Organization, 6/21/2006 2:49:05 PM

President George W. Bush has designated Jean Case, the CEO of the Case Foundation, as Chair of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation and appointed four new members -- actress Janine Gauntt Turner of Texas, Miss America 2001 Angela Baraquio Grey of Hawaii, business entrepreneur and "Apprentice" winner Kelly Perdew of California, and former college and professional football star Daniel Wuerffel of Florida.

Miss America 2001 Angela Baraquio Grey

"We're pleased that the President has made these appointments so that we can continue to strengthen volunteer service in America," said the Council’s Executive Director, Kari Dunn. "This is a critical time for advancing the service agenda, and I am confident that Jean Case and the newest members of the Council will help us expand opportunities for all Americans to serve their communities and country."

The new appointees join a dynamic group of 21 leaders from a variety of fields in the private, public, and non-profit sectors, including business, entertainment, athletics, education, philanthropy and government. The Council, established by President Bush in January 2003 and renewed last year, is charged with promoting and recognizing the contributions that Americans of all ages and backgrounds are making to their communities through volunteer service.

Angela Perez Baraquio was an elementary Physical Education teacher and Athletic Director at Holy Family Catholic Academy when she won the title of Miss America 2001.

Angela Baraquio Gray, Miss America 2001

During her year of service, she traveled over 20,000 miles a month on a national speaking tour entitled, "Character in the Classroom: Teaching Values, Valuing Teachers."

Baraquio is the Founder and President of the Angela Perez Baraquio Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that promotes character education and provides scholarships and grants to students and teachers.

In addition to her foundation, Angela is also featured as a Host on the entertainment talk show, "Living Local with the Baraquios," with three of her six sisters. She is active in volunteer work with a number of other non-profit organizations, and has appeared in television campaigns for the Hawaii Foodbank and Catholic Charities.

She is also the recipient of the "2003 Women Helping Women Award" from the Soroptomist International Club and the 1st "Hawaii's Filipina Young Woman of the Year 2004" Award.

Her inspirational story, "Give It a Try," is published in the book Chicken Soup from the Soul of Hawaii.

Other Council members include NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne, journalist Cokie Roberts, entertainer Art Linkletter, and singer Hilary Duff.

In his January 2002 State of the Union Address, President Bush called on all Americans to make a difference in their communities and across the globe through volunteer service. He created USA Freedom Corps, an Office of the White House, to help Americans answer his Call to Service.

Visit http://www.volunteer.gov or call 1-877-USA-CORPS to find an existing volunteer service opportunity and to find more information about volunteer service.

"Please join me in congratulating Angie on her newest appointment. We are proud of our Miss America 2001 Angela Baraquio Grey and her outstanding accomplishments, " stated Art McMaster.

The Miss America Organization is one of the nation's leading achievement programs and the world's largest provider of scholarship assistance for young women.

Last year, the Miss America Organization and its state and local organizations made available more than $45 million in cash and scholarship assistance.

For more information, go to http://www.missamerica.org



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Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Tim Kretschmann recognized on OnMilwaukee.com

OnMilwaukee.com recognized founder of TKPNPodcast.com and host of the PageantCast and local radio program, the Stimmung Stunde, as one of the "100 Milwaukeeans you need to know." Check it out on http://onmilwaukee.com/buzz/articles/100people2.html

All of us over here would like to thank OnMilwaukee.com for this mention and the mention last year (
Kretschmann's radio hour helps maintain German traditions) and wish them continued success.


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Roker makes beauty call on Miss USA

Miss USA 2006, Tara Elizabeth Conner, celebrates her win.

Until recently, the only chicken cutlets Al Roker knew about went on a grill.

He now also knows that the rubber, removable breast enhancers used in beauty pageants are also called chicken cutlets.

"I'm thinking Perdue," said Roker of learning about the nonedible cutlets.

He got firsthand experience with the beauty trick as the executive producer of "Uncovered: The Hidden Lives of Miss USA," a new documentary airing tomorrow night at 9 on E! Entertainment.

The program goes behind the scenes at the Miss USA Pageant of 2006. Roker and his crews spent three weeks leading to the annual pageant, culminating with the show itself.

"I always took these things for granted," Roker said. "It's kind of like, you may like sausage, but you don't want to see it made. You may like Miss USA, but I think you'll actually enjoy what goes on."

"Miss USA," for the record, airs on NBC - the same network of Roker's morning home on "Today" - and is produced and owned by Donald Trump.

The NBC connection had nothing to do with the show, Roker said. Instead, it stems from a chance meeting at a fund-raiser, with 2004 Miss USA Shandi Finnessey. The beauty gave Roker insight into the show and he was taken with the fact that Miss USA shares a New York apartment with Miss Universe, and Miss Teen USA.

"I thought, lo and behold, this is a reality show," Roker said. "And if it does well enough, it could wind up a series."

Roker said the E! show includes some beauty aspects, some drama and some humor.

"It's one of those shows that has a little something for everyone," said Roker, who produced the show with Lisa Sharkey and Sara Nichols.

There's no set timetable for a reality series based on the Miss USA Pageant, Roker explained.

And it won't be the first. Recently, the people behind the Miss America Pageant said they would launch a reality show tracking contestants up to the ceremony, which now airs on CMT.

Still, Roker said there are stark differences between the two events.

"I think there is more of a sense of fun with the Miss USA pageant," Roker said. "It's not quite steeped in Americana. The problem the Miss America folks had was it didn't evolve. They got left behind. Miss USA has more of a sense of humor, a sense of fun."



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Miss Wis pageant follows the dream


By Sarah Owen
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers

OSHKOSH — It's a moment some young women spend their childhoods chasing after, or dreaming about ...

Shhhh. It's on!

Sitting in her parents' living room as a little girl, Janelle Larie watched each year as a new Miss America was crowned on TV.

"There was always excitement in the house when it was on," she said.

The women were so beautiful, so talented, she thought. "I hoped that I'd grow up to be someone little girls looked up to … a representative and role model girls emulated."

Fifteen years later, the 20-year old is the current Miss Oshkosh, and one of 28 girls vying for the Miss Wisconsin title at this week's 2006 scholarship competition. The organization will hand out between $20,000 and $25,000.

"It's so phenomenal, all the money that's out there just for women who compete in this program," said 2002 Miss Wisconsin Jayme Dawicki, 26.

"I had student loans, and they're completely done, paid for. I'd have barely been making a dent in them right now."

It's not a beauty pageant?

Miss America began as a swimsuit contest in 1921 as a gimmick to keep tourists in Atlantic City past Labor Day, said Sue Captain, Miss Wisconsin executive director. In 1954, Miss America moved to TV, bringing beautiful bodies, gowns and dreams of a crown into living rooms.

Miss Oshkosh and Miss Wisconsin are franchised under Miss America.

And those swimsuits?

The swimsuit part of the organization now promotes physical fitness and confidence, not having perfect dimensions, Captain says. But, in reality, there are still critics.

"There are so many pageants that it's easy to confuse Miss America with others," Larie said.

New image, more support?

Today Miss America is noted for awarding more than $40 million in cash and tuition scholarships annually. But it too has opted to make changes in an effort to turn around dwindling public interest. "They're trying new things with the pageant, to make it more appealing to audiences," McNett said.

There's the transfer from ABC to CMT, moving to Las Vegas from Atlantic City this year and giving talent more weight in judging. There's also the pressure to add more "reality TV" to it, Captain said.

"I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing," she said. Locally, she added, Miss Wisconsin battles for attendance, coverage and support with events such as Country USA, though she said thousands come to Oshkosh for the pageant.

If the Miss America pageant loses momentum, scholarship funding from public donations could be affected.

"Right now everybody you ask will say, 'we could always use more money.' And because (the economy) is on the lean side, we're fighting everybody else," Captain said.

What's in store

Interest in the organization by contestants is growing. Women who never considered themselves "the pageant type" have found it rewarding.

Miss Wisconsin 1992 Stephanie Klett, who was raised with nine brothers, was always a tomboy. When she won her title, she became vocal about both pageants and being a feminist.

"You can do both," she said. "If you know the program, that's exactly what it is. You can be anything."

Contestants hope the public is starting to see "with the Miss America Organization it's really about the platform and making a difference," McNett says.

Sarah Owen writes for the Oshkosh Northwestern.


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Sunday, June 18, 2006

From Miss America to Tennessee mom


Kellye Cash Sheppard raises family in Milan

The rhinestone tiaras from 1986 are in a box somewhere under her middle child's bed. If it weren't for her grandmother, the trophies would be gathering dust somewhere behind the growing mountain of wood and metal her three kids bring home from softball, basketball, soccer and whatever else is in their lives.

"If Frances Blanton had her way, the crowns would be on a silk pillow in the middle of the grand piano, and as long as she's alive and coming to visit, the trophies will be out and visible," Kellye Cash Sheppard said with a laugh at her grandmother's love, and the defining moments of her life.

That, and the reality that being Miss America - even when it was 20 years ago - is something she can't put away in a closet or under a bed.

"It changes a person. It's changed me," said the Milan resident, who is still the only Miss Tennessee to capture the biggest prize in pageantdom. (The late Barbara Walker Hummel went to Atlantic City and won the 1947 Miss America title as Miss Memphis. She was the last Miss America to represent a city, not a state).

The memories hit Kellye again on Friday in Nashville, as she helped her former agent with a new client, a young singer just starting out.

"She was frightened, unsure of herself, but I went into autopilot. Somehow I knew what to say to move things forward and settle her down," Kellye said. "That's Miss America. Until I went through it, I was never outgoing. I was never able to get up in front of a group and sing, or speak or (as laughter builds) make a fool of myself."

The pageant thing started when Kellye, a Navy brat who migrated from California for college, agreed to play piano for a friend competing in the Miss Memphis State pageant.

Husband Todd Sheppard picks up the narrative:

"A frat then convinced her to compete the next year. She was runner-up, and Janie Evans with the Miss Milan pageant convinced her to enter her competition," Todd said. "Three months later, she wins Miss Tennessee, and ..."

And you thought her great-uncle Johnny Cash had cornered the family market on grabbing lightning in a bottle.

Kellye said the Miss Tennessee victory in Jackson hit home hardest.

"You think, 'I won! I'm going to the Miss America Pageant!' first of all," she said. "But I think the fact that the crowd is right there in that building (Carl Perkins Civic Center), and everything's up close - you felt it and knew it right away.

"You know, to this day I can't tell you the date I won that title; I was so excited."

By contrast, two months later in Atlantic City "felt like TV Land."

By the time the late Bert Parks did his thing, Kellye said, "I was on auto pilot for days. My Dad was at sea (with the Navy), so I knew I wanted to mouth, 'I love you Dad' for the camera and did. I had promised the kids I'd visited at St. Jude (Children's Research Hospital) that if I won I'd give them the 'screw a lightbulb in' kind of corkscrew wave, and I did.

"But ... I didn't cry right away. That didn't happen for two or three days, until I sat on a hotel bed and it finally all hit me."

The magnitude of the job hit her after an appearance in Arkansas, where she joked in a press conference that one of the biggest things she'd found out in her reign was that "there are actually people living in North and South Dakota and Nebraska ... and it made the AP wire."

Open mouth, insert foot, season to taste.

She still has the letter from the governor of North Dakota saying he hoped she'd be in the job long enough to "find out there are people in the Dakotas, and that the sun sets in the West."

"I go up there and I still get teased," she said, enjoying the joke now.

After her year holding down the title, she went back to California, married Todd Sheppard and they moved to Memphis.

"That's where we first thought God wanted us to be," said Todd, who, like his wife, is very grounded in faith. Funny thing, the Man Upstairs used a pageant to re-route their lives one more time.

"Kellye was asked to host the Miss Milan pageant. She conned me into agreeing to be a judge, which I never do, and held me to it," said Todd, who had spent a year as basketball coach at Millington High School. "The Milan superintendent was in the audience, was without a basketball coach and he came up and said I should apply ..."

The Sheppards have been in Milan ever since, raising their three children. Mainly on ballfields - but son Brady, 14, played Sky Masterson in a school production of "Guys and Dolls" this year. He and sisters Cassidy, 12, and Tatum, 7, will be in a local production of "Beauty and the Beast" this summer.

Miss America will be the one playing Mom with the applause. Most days she's Mom with the lunch or the van, though Todd says "she goes to a skating party and somebody points and says, 'There's Miss America!'"

She goes public on her terms. She's made a handful of Christian music CDs, done some TV, supported her share of causes and candidates, and once commuted from Milan to Branson, Mo., for nine months doing a one-woman Patsy Cline show that she'll still dust off from time to time.

"She'd dash from a Sunday matinee back home to spend Monday with the kids and dash back for Tuesday evening," Todd said. "That was a long nine months."

But usually "tiara lady" comes out only a few weeks this time of year. Two weeks ago she emceed the state pageant in New Mexico. This week, she'll be doing the same thing in Oshkosh, Wis.

Last year, she was at the mike through the preliminaries of the first Miss America Pageant in Las Vegas "until that actor from 'Desperate Housewives' (James Denton) took over for TV purposes," she said, laughing again.

Beauty queen or not, Kellye is also not immune to those "life passage" moments, though hers are sometimes a bit more unique.

One came two years ago, when Kellye was emcee at the "Miss America's Outstanding Teen" pageant, a Miss America offshoot in Orlando.

"I looked at the group of girls," said Kellye, now 41, "and said, 'Well this is it ... it's the first time I'm old enough to be everyone's mother."

Or the day Tatum came home from school after a visit by the reigning Miss Tennessee, Tara Burns.

"She was so excited that Miss Tennessee came to her school, and that she got an autograph," Kellye said, "but Tatum walked up to her and blurted out, 'My mom is Kellye Cash!' and was taken aback when Tara just said, 'Yeah, I know her.' "

Or this past week when she dropped Cassidy off at basketball camp, and discovered her daughter wearing a long-forgotten T-shirt that says "Milan loves Miss America."

"I said, 'You're not going to wear THAT!'" Kellye said, "and she told me, 'Mom, I want girls to know I'm proud of you.'

"I had to say to myself, 'It's OK ... It's O-K ..."

The kid could've hauled the rhinestones out from under her bed.

Visit jacksonsun.com and share your thoughts.

- Pete Wickham, 425-9668



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Former Miss America, chaperone reunite in O.C.

By MICHAEL MILLER Staff Writer, (609) 463-6712
Published: Saturday, June 17, 2006
Updated: Saturday, June 17, 2006

OCEAN CITY — Peggy Lloyd knew a historic opportunity when she saw one.

It was 1962, just one year after the Berlin Wall was erected, and the Atlantic City native was chaperoning Miss America Marie Beale Fletcher on a U.S. military tour of Europe.

At Checkpoint Charlie, one of the wall's famous border crossings, she walked past an armed West German soldier and approached the imposing concrete structure.

Her young protege warned her not to go any farther.

“I told her, ‘What are you doing? They're going to shoot you!'” Beale Fletcher recalled.

“I said, ‘Nonsense, I'm smiling,'” Lloyd said.

Lloyd picked at the base of the wall and scavenged two souvenirs, one for each of them.

On Friday, Lloyd brought that shapeless hunk of rock to the Music Pier for an impromptu reunion with her former charge.

Lloyd, 92, chaperoned 12 Miss Americas around the world for the pageant. Now she lives in the Gardens, a north-end neighborhood in Ocean City.

On Friday, she reunited with Beale Fletcher who is in town today to judge tonight's Miss New Jersey Scholarship Pageant. Lloyd brought a scrapbook full of pictures and mementos with her. Lloyd was a teacher who volunteered with the pageant for 10 years before going on the road with the winners.

“She made every place we went to come alive,” Beale Fletcher recalled.

That day in Europe, the two Americans watched distraught West Germans try to make contact with their family members over the border by waving handkerchiefs from rooftops. Many were crying.

Beale Fletcher, too, still has her chunk of the Berlin Wall. She keeps it tucked safely away in a velvet bag like a precious diamond necklace.

“It's an ugly rock. But it reminds me that freedom is never free,” she said.


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Saturday, June 17, 2006

Fitness buff eyes Miss America title

No doubt about it: Sarah French looks good in a swimsuit.

Don Shrubshell photo
Miss Missouri Sarah French, 20, looks over some of the memorabilia she collected during the state pageant over the weekend in Mexico, Mo. She’s looking forward to the Miss America contest in January.

But the new Miss Missouri says there’s more to the competition than beauty. As the University of Missouri-Columbia student gears up for the Miss America contest, she’s excited the country will get to see another side of contestants.

"America doesn’t realize how intelligent these young women are," said French, a 20-year-old broadcast journalism major from Hot Springs, Ark.

French represented Mid-Missouri in the Miss Missouri contest Saturday in Mexico, Mo. The pageant included events such as talent, evening gown and swimsuit competitions.

A fitness buff who enjoys kickboxing and Pilates, French said her hard work paid off in the swimsuit competition, which she won. "I just think it shows your physical fitness," French said.

America will get a more complete look at French and other state contest winners before the Miss America competition airs in Janurary 2007 when Country Music Television airs a reality series showcasing the pageant’s preliminary competition in September. "Finding Miss America" will air the week before the pageant.

Art McMaster, president and CEO of the Miss America organization, said it’s not a stretch to base a reality show on the long-running competition. "We’ve been a reality television show for 51 years," he said. "All these shows you see nowadays, we see it as taking it from us, but taking it much farther down the road."

French said an interview portion of the preliminary competition will offer a glimpse into the contestants’ value systems. "People don’t realize what they ask you in interviews. They ask me about stem-cell research, same-sex marriage, illegal immigration, the war," she said. "Anything you can think of, they ask me about."

French, who is active in Pi Beta Phi sorority, Mizzou Diamond Darlings and the Homecoming Steering Committee at MU, said winning the competition would be a big boost to her perspective career in broadcast journalism.

"The Miss America system is the No. 1 organization in the entire world that gives the most scholarship monies to young girls and women," French said. "That’s very important to me, because my ultimate goal is to be a broadcast journalist, hopefully for a national network."

Winning would also give voice to her physical fitness platform. French took up the cause because members of her family, including her mother and grandmother, have diabetes.

She said people could do a lot to improve their health by improving their lifestyle.

Her mother, for example, has controlled her diabetes through healthy eating and exercise and no longer has to have insulin shots, French said. "It’s just so important for kids and adults to learn healthy eating and exercising habits to better their lifestyles," she said.

She said one in five Missourians is overweight or obese, a problem she said can be addressed by reducing portion sizes.

"Of course, it’s up to each individual what they’re going to put in their mouth, but it sure does help if they have a smaller food-size portion in front of them," she said. "It’s real hard to say ‘no’ when you have this huge cheeseburger and extra-large fries in front of you."

French said all 52 contestants have causes they’re equally passionate about. "It’s really neat to see how these women are so driven and determined," she said, "and not only bettering their lives for their future, but to help others."

SOURCE



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Miss Wisconsin pageant events set to begin

On Sunday, 28 contestants arrive in Oshkosh to begin a week-long competition for the title of Miss Wisconsin.

Miss Wisconsin is a preliminary of the Miss America Pageant, the largest scholarship foundation for women in the world. Contestants will compete in four areas of competition: talent, interview, evening wear and swimsuit.

Preliminary competition will take place on Thursday and Friday with the finals on June 24 at the Alberta Kimball Auditorium at Oshkosh West High School. The show starts at 7:30 p.m.

At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, contestants will participate in the Miss Wisconsin parade through downtown Oshkosh with an autograph signing session at the Oshkosh Convention Center immediately following the parade. The parade route is from Lincoln and North Main to City Center. The parade and autograph session are open to the public.

Tickets are available through the Miss Wisconsin Web site, www.misswisconsin.com, or at the door.

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Surrender to the universe

Surrender to the universe

BEAUTY is on her side . . . Erin McNaught is sorting herself out for the final of the Miss Universe contest. Picture: Adam Head

Michael Wray and Andrew Potts

June 16, 2006

ERIN McNaught's jeans won't make it to Los Angeles when she represents Australia in her quest to represent the universe.

As the newly crowned Miss Universe Australia, the 24-year-old Gold Coast model freely admits her life is "not my own life" any more.

Jeans, she has been told, are out. The small tattoo on her right ankle of the Roman numeral for two has to disappear.

"I have to cover it with make-up," she said.

And her day-to-day schedule until at least the end of July? That's in the hands of her public relations team.

As the shock of winning the Australian title on Friday wore off, the Gold Coast model has slowly come to terms with this global competition.

Three weeks ago, she was not even entered.

However, her agency sent a picture to Miss Universe representatives, who did not have time to visit Queensland.

They chose her and another Queenslander to fly to Melbourne for the final.

"Probably about 50 per cent of the girls who are in the final will have had work done," she said.

According to the competition website "any kind of unnecessary surgery" is not encouraged. But only a few countries including Sweden, France and Israel have banned cosmetic surgery.

McNaught, who went to Brisbane's Kenmore High School and has deferred her wildlife biology degree, said some contestants had prepared their whole lives for the final.

SOURCE



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Busy Brook Lee helps build new Asian TV network

art
NADINE KAM / NKAM@STARBULLETIN.COM
Brook Lee signs a copy of "Universal Beauty" for Craig Tottori at Moku Ola Hawaiian Healing Center in the Koko Marina Shopping Center.

Last week was a blur to Brook Lee, back in town briefly to promote the book to which she contributed, "Universal Beauty: The Miss Universe Guide to Beauty," as well as to promote ImaginAsian TV, a new network geared toward all things Asian.

As the network's newly minted director of development, Lee is charged with bringing original programming to the 24/7 network.

BROOK NOTES

"Universal Beauty: The Miss Universe Guide to Beauty"
By Cara Birnbaum (Rutledge Hill Press)
With foreward by Donald Trump and advice from Miss Universe title holders, including Hawaii's Brook Lee; hardcover, $29.95. Available at Borders locations.

"We've been on the air in Hawaii since January, but we hadn't had a chance to do a big launch," she said.

That opportunity presented itself at Sunset on the Beach Saturday night, with Lee as host to those who had come to watch "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," along with snippets of iaTV programing, including an interview with one of "Harry Potter's" young stars, Katie Leung.

While here, Lee met with producers in hope that some home-grown talent will find its way onto the national airwaves. She said it's otherwise been a struggle to find programming that fits the network's criteria of all-Asian programming all the time.

Currently living and working out of Los Angeles, Lee, the 1997 Miss Universe from Hawaii, said, "By numbers, the Asian-American population is bigger on the mainland, but the culture is not reflected in the media, as opposed to here, where we embrace all things that speak to the Asian-American experience."

The main difficulty in finding a Hawaii crossover hit is that "a lot of things here are niche-market driven," Lee said. "There's a lot of pidgin, a lot of inside jokes; people on the mainland don't understand it. We have to find stuff that will stick."

The network itself is based out of New York, where a group of Asian-American men started with a movie theater that offered first-run Asian films as an alternative to repetitive Hollywood fare. Its popularity led to rapid expansion into radio and, now, television.

Lee's association with iaTV came about as a result of her work for "Pacific Fusion," a TV magazine based out of San Francisco, specializing in Asian and Asian-American issues and culture. In her travels to promote the show, she got to know the iaTV execs, who offered her "a real job," which seems to come somewhat as a relief to a woman accustomed to short-term gigs and living by her famous wit and smarts, which come across in her interviews in "Universal Beauty." The book of tips from former Miss Universe title holders was written by Cara Birnbaum, with a foreword by pageant owner Donald Trump.

You can almost hear the chorus of cynics saying, "Yeah, right," at the idea of a book featuring beauty advice from women fortunate to have been born beautiful. Yet, the world's greatest beauties have the same insecurities as anyone else, also contending with the passage of time and the dry skin, collagen loss and wrinkles that come with it.

And it's no secret that Lee never saw herself as particularly beautiful, crediting her win to a mixture of smarts and personality.

"I was really flying under the radar the entire time. Before, (Hawaii contestants) were told to go win the congeniality and hair awards. We really were not expected to win. I'd be told, 'Just get the Pantene award, spread the aloha spirit and don't forget to pass out the mac nuts.'"

art

Amelia Vega, Miss Universe 2003, from the Dominican Republic, is on the cover of "Universal Beauty." Brook Lee is on the back cover.

To this day she said she wondered, while standing with 10 other former Miss Universes for the New York launch of the book, "How did I win this thing? Because those girls are tall, like 6-foot-1, and so beautiful. I'm only 5-7."

"But I'm a realist. My identity lay more with knowing how to communicate. In the book, if you notice, I'm not the one to go to for eye-makeup tips."

In the book, with interviews gleaned over eight hours in the course of a year, we learn that low-maintenance Lee doesn't even own a hairbrush.

"I just throw it up in a bun and rip it off before going out. I think the cut has a lot to do with it, and I have a great guy who cuts my hair."

This is one tip that's not in the book, but she'll go six months or more without a haircut to come home and have Paul Tamaoka of Bottega Antoine cut her hair.

"I have angry, tough, coarse hair, so if it's not cut right ..."

The bottom line, she said, is "at the end of the day, you can only be yourself," and that might serve as iaTV's creed as well.

"(Asian-Americans have) always been taught to blend in," Lee said. "Now a new generation is growing up, looking not to be so homogenous, and people on the mainland are crazy about Asians. They want to dress like 'harajuku' girls. They want to put anime stuff all over.

"It's very different when you have National Geographic telling you about your people, as opposed to putting your own stories and experiences on film.

"We're just a startup, so it's not like we can set up Pamela Young for the rest of her life and turn her into an Oprah. It's a slow process.

"But if you were looking at BET (Black Entertainment Television) 15 years ago, no one thought that African Americans had money. No one was looking at them as a demographic. Now, when Tom Cruise needs to promote his movie, he goes on BET. It's a force to be reckoned with, a voice for a demographic and a people, and I think ImaginAsian has the potential to do that for Asian Americans."

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Size outranks sex for women

June 14, 2006

THE average Australian woman worries about the size and shape of her body every 15 minutes — more often than men think about sex.

Only 3 per cent say they are happy with what they've got, with 80 per cent believing their "whole life" would improve if they were more body beautiful.

The survey of more than 2000 women, published today in New Woman magazine, found most wished they were 15 kilograms slimmer.

The average woman questioned weighed 70 kilograms and was 169 centimetres tall. But most believed former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins, who is 62 kilograms and 180 centimetres, to be the ideal woman.

Dissecting their body parts, 45 per cent said they had large thighs, 34 per cent judged their arms as "chunky" and 42 per cent said they had "muffin tops", a roll of fat over their waistband. Half the respondents were happy with their breasts.

One-third admitted to using some kind of slimming pills, and half said they had skipped meals to lose weight. Twenty-five per cent of women from Sydney and Canberra let their size spoil their sex life. But 66 per cent of Darwin and Melbourne women said it was not an issue.

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'Fantasy images harmful to young'

June 13, 2006

A FORMER international model and one-time Miss Universe has hit out at the fashion industry for promoting a distorted body image she said was damaging young people.

Australia's Kerry Wells, who was crowned Miss Universe in 1972, said the increased use of computer-enhanced images in teen-oriented and celebrity magazines prompted many young people to "think even the real people look like glamour-pusses".

"There wasn't Photoshop when I first started modelling but they used to do a fair bit of airbrushing," the 55-year-old said after attending a workshop with year nine students in Melbourne today.

"I think the danger now is that they are doing the same thing with celebrities, they are doing the same things with real people.

"It's very difficult to separate what is real from fantasy, and many kids just think, 'I'm never going to look any good'."

Ms Wells spoke at the official launch of "Bodythink" – a program running in Victorian schools that encourages students to question the body image presented by the fashion industry.

"You may wonder what I'm doing here today given that when I was younger, as a model, and briefly as a beauty title-holder, I perpetrated the promotion of a female body image which few women can emulate," she said.

"I, like the others here today, are concerned that girls and boys are now increasingly insecure about the way they look."

Students today studied a magazine cover showing Hollywood actress Kate Winslet – an image that was stretched to give her longer legs and a smaller dress size.

They also heard eight out of 10 young girls do not like what they see in the mirror, and five thought they were too fat.

One in four young people diagnosed with an eating disorders is male.

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Russell County welcomes home Tara Conner

Phil Pendleton

IN APRIL.. KENTUCKY NATIVE TARA CONNER... WAS CROWNED "MISS U-S-A." TODAY... SHE'S BACK IN HER HOME STATE. CONNER GREW UP IN RUSSELL SPRINGS.... BUT NOW SHE'S GETTING READY FOR THE "MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANT."
SHE SPENT THE DAY IN SOMERSET... WHERE SHE RECEIVED A BIG SURPRISE.
PHIL PENDLETON REPORTS.

It's been nearly 2 months since Tara Conner took that walk across the stage that forever changed her life. But now she's back home in Kentucky.
i've had to overcome some obstacles because I am from a southern state. People hold certain opinions of southern states, which is great for me because I get to prove how wonderful our state is.>
And now's she's finally able to share her experiences with Kentuckians. Via teleconference she spoke to Kentucky soldiers serving in Iraq.
And I feel so fortunate just to talk to you.
And school children across the state. Young girls asked her what it took to get to where she is now.

But the highlight for Conner was something she wasn't expecting.

A chance to talk to her brother Josh, who's also serving his country in Italy.
I haven't seen my brother in over a year. And I just got to look at his beautiful face. And It meant so much to me..because he's such an amazing person.
Conner's parents say their daughter predicted she might be famous one day. But for Conner, she says the great thing about fame is traveling and meeting other famous people. In Somerset, Phil Pendleton



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Miss America hosting pageant

by KRISTIN WILSON kristinw@herald-mail.com

HAGERSTOWN

Reigning Miss America Jennifer Berry will appear at The Maryland Theatre later this month as mistress of ceremonies for the Miss Maryland Outstanding Teen pageant.

Berry, who won the Miss America pageant representing Oklahoma, is believed to be the first reigning Miss America to visit Hagerstown in 21 years, local pageant organizers said.

Miss America 1985 Sharlene Wells made guest appearances during the 1985 Miss Maryland pageant, according to Herald-Mail archives.

"Everyone is very excited" about Miss America's involvement with the teen pageant, said Barbara Carson, a local volunteer with the Miss Maryland Organization. Pageant organizers hope Berry's appearance will create more interest in the teen segment of the Miss America Organization.

Every year, the reigning Miss America participates as mistress of ceremonies in several state-level Miss America pageants.

This year, Berry will act as host of five pageants. The Miss Maryland Outstanding Teen pageant is the only teen event she is scheduled to host, according to information from the Miss America Organization.

States are chosen based on request and the amount of time since a national winner visited, said Art McMaster, president and CEO of the Miss America Organization.

Berry is scheduled to make several appearances in Hagerstown during her visit, including at a luncheon hosted by Hagerstown Mayor Robert E. Bruchey II, the final night of the Miss Maryland pageant and a luncheon open to the public Saturday, July 1.

Berry will act as mistress of ceremonies at the Miss Maryland Outstanding Teen competition on Friday, June 30. Miss America 1981 Susan Powell will act as host for the Miss Maryland 2006 pageant, concluding July 1.

Berry will be traveling to Hagerstown after spending time in Washington, D.C., with the Mothers Against Drunk Driving organization, her platform organization.

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Thursday, June 15, 2006

Finalist from Clear Lake wins Iowa pageant crown

Emily Nicholas
Miss Iowa 2006
ELDRIDGE - Emily Nicholas of Clear Lake will be representing the state of Iowa in the upcoming Miss America Scholarship Pageant.

The 21-year-old graduate of Greenville College was crowned during the 2006 Miss Iowa Pageant finals held Saturday night at the North Scott Fine Arts Auditorium in Eldridge. The 2005 Miss Iowa, Kay Pauszek, passed the tiara to her successor.
Nicholas, competing as Miss Cedar River, also was the top scorer at Thursday's preliminary talent competition with her vocal solo. She recently received her degree in music performance from Greenville.
This is the first time in the history of the Iowa pageant that sisters have both worn the crown. Emily is the younger sister of Miss Iowa 2004, Carolyn Nicholas. They are the daughters of Greg and Julie Nicholas of Clear Lake.
The first runner-up for the state crown was Miss Clinton County, Alisa White of Goose Lake. She was the winner of the interview competition and Friday's talent competition, as well. Second runner-up was Devin Howell, Miss Eastern Iowa. Olivia Myers, Miss Burlington, was third runner-up, and Miss Muscatine, Cassie Lauterbach, was fourth runner-up.
Holly Mayland, Miss Kossuth-Winnebago, won both the non-finalist talent and non-finalist interview segments; Miss Louisa County Cara Van Ness won the state Community Service Award; Olivia Myers won the National Community Service Award; and Lacy Johnson, Miss Southern Iowa, was the Academic Award winner.
Candidates are judged in the areas of interview, talent, evening wear and physical fitness in swimsuit.
Nicholas will spend the year of her reign traveling the state, promoting her platform, "Character Counts - Be All That You Can Be." She will also be preparing for the upcoming Miss America Pageant, to be held in Las Vegas.
With $50 million presented nationally, the Miss America Scholarship Program is the largest source of scholarships for women in the world.


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McConnell gets high-profile pressure to vote for flag-burning ban


By Janet Patton
HERALD-LEADER WASHINGTON BUREAU

Proponents of a constitutional ban on flag-burning threw two baseball heroes, one Miss America, dozens of veterans and the Senate leadership at Sen. Mitch McConnell yesterday in an effort to give them the one vote they might need for victory.

At a Flag Day press conference outside Senate offices, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said that his Senate Joint Resolution 12 stands a good chance of being the first flag-burning ban to pass the Senate. A year ago, the House of Representatives easily passed similar legislation.

"We have the votes, if some of these people do not pull back," Hatch said.

"This amendment is supported by Democrats, Republicans, Independents and people of all faiths," Hatch said. The legislation would put on the ballot nationwide a constitutional amendment that would authorize Congress to prohibit "the physical desecration" of the U.S. flag. Thirty-eight states would have to ratify the amendment before it could become law.

Later in the morning, a group of veterans opposed to the amendment protested, according to a release from the Veterans Defending the Bill of Rights. They were joined by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., according to the release.

"Amending the Constitution to limit Americans' freedom of speech is a misguided and dangerous use of the time and resources of Congress," Keith Kreul, past national commander of the American Legion, said in the release. "Members of the Senate should be fighting for real veterans' issues, not symbolic attacks on the Constitution."

The Senate is expected to consider action on the flag amendment in the next few weeks.

To demonstrate the kind of desecration the bill would address, baseball Hall of Famer Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., introduced Rick Monday, who as a Chicago Cubs outfielder snatched a flag from two protesters who were about to burn it in the Dodger Stadium outfield.

Yesterday, Monday displayed that faded but unmarred flag.

"Rick snatched the flag right from under their noses to thunderous applause. The crowd burst into God Bless America. It was arguably one of the greatest moments in the game," Bunning said.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said, "We're stepping in on Flag Day to say 'no more.'"

Frist said Senate leadership would work to finally get the bill out of the Senate.

McConnell, the Senate majority whip, did not attend the press conference. He has said that, on free-speech grounds, he will not support a constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning. McConnell's office did not return calls for comment yesterday morning.

Miss America 2000 Heather French Henry, who has made veterans' affairs her platform, particularly implored McConnell "to help protect our flag."

With widespread support nationally and in Kentucky for such an amendment, Henry said, "we're asking the senator to just go another step."

Henry was accompanied by her husband, Dr. Steve Henry, Kentucky's lieutenant governor under Paul Patton. Steve Henry is widely expected to run as a Democrat for governor in 2007.

Steve Henry said later that McConnell "believes in protecting the flag," but that he wants to do so statutorily, which could be overturned.

"We want to lean on Senator McConnell," Steve Henry said. "He could be a deciding vote on whether or not this passes."

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There she goes, Miss America ...

Jennifer Berry (l.) of Oklahoma, with Miss Georgia, Monica Pang

Whether you looked at the old Miss America pageants as television's last outpost of genteel feminine civility or as a surreal parody of actual human behavior, you will acknowledge they had a style of their own.

No imitator ever quite captured the nuance and attitude of Miss America, which as early as the 1940s had separated itself from the beauty pageant pack and become a unique mix of the America we had and the America we wanted.

It is precisely because of this historic singularity that the producers of the projected 2007 Miss America pageant should do the right thing and kill the old girl in her tracks.

According to an announcement Monday from the Miss America organization, the 2007 pageant begins with the taping of a seven-part "Finding Miss America" documentary in Las Vegas Sept. 5-13.

Camera crews will film 52 women as they make their way through the swimsuit, talent and evening wear competitions.

The edited footage will then be aired over a week on Country Music Television in January.

Viewers will be invited to call or go online and vote for their favorites. The 15 winners will compete in the finals, which CMT will air on a yet-to-be-determined date later in January.

Officially, as noted, this seven-parter is a "documentary." But is there anyone else out there who thinks this has the very strong aroma of reality TV?

Now it's true that reality TV and documentaries have shared turf for a while. It's also true that the Miss America people are unlikely to go as far as other pageants in viewership-boosting devices.

There's no indication, for instance, that Miss America contestants will be invited to have a bucket of fish guts poured over their pretty little heads, as 2005 Miss USA contestants were.

But Miss America doesn't have to go that far to stop being Miss America. It's no longer America's pageant. Hasn't been for years. It's a nomad TV production being peddled to whatever town can promise enough glitter to make it temporarily competitive in today's TV world.

For better or worse, there's obviously a market for this kind of show. Just as obviously, it can be created without dragging Miss America into it.

Like an old basketball player in danger of staying on the court too long, Miss America should be allowed to take a final bow and leave the building with one of the 20th century's great pop culture scrapbooks.

She shouldn't kick around on the fringes of the cable universe until one day she just spins off into space.



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Walthers crowned Miss Kansas - Miss America title next goal for Walthers

By STEVE SMITH Times Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 9:43 AM CDT
E-mail this story | Print this page
Sisters Melissa (at left) and Michelle Walthers are respectively first runner-up for Miss Teen Kansas and Miss Kansas. They won their titles Saturday. - photo by Steve Smith

TOWANDA - “Hundreds of times,” Michelle Walthers said, she had pictured herself being crowned as Miss Kansas.

“I went into it with the mindset of ‘I want to be Miss Kansas,'” she said. “I had prepared myself for that to be a reality from the very beginning; that's what I wanted.”

There had been two days of the anxieties of evening gown, swimsuit and talent preliminaries, as well as on-stage interviews and interviews with judges, leading up to that moment Saturday night in Pratt.

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New Miss Delaware sees opportunities

A Rowan University graduate who works as a chemical engineer, Jamie Ginn nonetheless believes that beauty pageants are relevant, that they offer women something useful.

In fact, she won one herself Saturday night, becoming Miss Delaware 2006.

The 24-year-old captured a swimsuit competition win with a fuschia bikini and the talent competition with a dance number.

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