Bringing dishonor to the title
October 16, 2006 When former Miss USA Shanna Moakler allowed herself to be towed down the Hudson River on a faux iceberg last week to promote a new Smirnoff malt beverage, you had to wonder what former beauty queens are coming to.
I don't begrudge a young woman the chance to earn a few bucks, but Moakler's been all over the news lately, and not always in a flattering light. Earlier this month, she was embroiled in a face-off with Paris Hilton, that paragon of vacuous celebrity, in a Los Angeles nightclub. Apparently angry about Hilton's public canoodling with Moakler's estranged husband, Moakler allegedly confronted Hilton and punched her in the face before being drenched with alcohol and pushed down some stairs.
Since being crowned Miss USA in 1995, Moakler, 31, has been a fixture on the cheap celebrity trail. She followed up her pageant victory with a series of Playmate and Playboy DVDs and video calendars, bit parts in movies and TV shows, and talk show appearances. On her own short-lived reality show on MTV, "Meet the Barkers," she and her then newlywed husband, Travis Barker, invited the whole world to gape at their marital life and the lives of their two children.
Before last week's ride on the iceberg, Moakler was a contestant on "Dancing With the Stars," from which she was booted because her dancing skills weren't of star quality. But a spokesman for Smirnoff said they chose her to push their product precisely because she's young, hot and in the news. The spokesman declined a request for an interview with Moakler, saying she wasn't available.
It's enough to make one long for the old days, when the Miss America title was the prize coveted by American girls. Apart from Vanessa Williams' youthful indiscretion in posing for some nude photos - long before she won the crown - I don't recall a single Miss America who exploited her title as shamelessly as Moakler has exploited hers.
The Miss USA contest seems to be about hot bodies and celebrity for celebrity's sake. But the Miss America pageant focused more on the total woman. Miss Americas were prim, proper and politically correct, and it seemed that the career goal for most of them was to teach disabled children or to work for world peace. A number of them have gone into show business or politics, but on the whole their post-pageant behavior has been exemplary. Nightclub brawls never entered into it.
But this is a different era. The Miss America Pageant, now deemed too boring, has been banished from network television, while the hot TV beauty pageants are Miss USA and Miss Universe. I admit that I eventually tired of the Miss America shtick as well, but at least those contestants had to be educated, possess some talent, and be interested in community service, as well as be beautiful, while contestants in today's hot pageants need only be beautiful and sexy.
"She'll do anything!" Maureen Lippe, president of the Lippe Taylor communications agency and a former beauty and fashion editor for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, said of Moakler's iceberg stunt.
"It's indicative of the country's obsession with celebrity. These young girls get a little taste of it by winning a contest. Then they get misguided and go off the deep end. Their role models are Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan, who will do anything to be in the tabloids week after week. They don't do anything with their careers, but they dress up and do crazy things - steal boyfriends, cell phones and try to steal each other's identities. All because they're fighting to be on the covers of the tabloids."
Lippe, whose company once represented a cosmetics company owned by former Miss America Phyllis George, says George has been an amazing role model for other women - an entrepreneur, a mother, and a concerned and committed citizen.
It is too bad that celebrity no longer needs to be connected to talent. Instead, it's about misbehavior, which is what keeps beautiful young women in the headlines. Like Omarosa, the wicked star of "The Apprentice," who holds a PhD but spends her time going from one reality show to another. And Moakler, who for all we know could have talents we've never even seen, but who was last seen riding on a faux iceberg.
This sends a dangerous message to young women, especially teenage girls. It tells them it's more important to be beautiful, flamboyant and naughty than it is to be smart and well-rounded. And that's a message we should all be working against.
I don't begrudge a young woman the chance to earn a few bucks, but Moakler's been all over the news lately, and not always in a flattering light. Earlier this month, she was embroiled in a face-off with Paris Hilton, that paragon of vacuous celebrity, in a Los Angeles nightclub. Apparently angry about Hilton's public canoodling with Moakler's estranged husband, Moakler allegedly confronted Hilton and punched her in the face before being drenched with alcohol and pushed down some stairs.
Since being crowned Miss USA in 1995, Moakler, 31, has been a fixture on the cheap celebrity trail. She followed up her pageant victory with a series of Playmate and Playboy DVDs and video calendars, bit parts in movies and TV shows, and talk show appearances. On her own short-lived reality show on MTV, "Meet the Barkers," she and her then newlywed husband, Travis Barker, invited the whole world to gape at their marital life and the lives of their two children.
Before last week's ride on the iceberg, Moakler was a contestant on "Dancing With the Stars," from which she was booted because her dancing skills weren't of star quality. But a spokesman for Smirnoff said they chose her to push their product precisely because she's young, hot and in the news. The spokesman declined a request for an interview with Moakler, saying she wasn't available.
It's enough to make one long for the old days, when the Miss America title was the prize coveted by American girls. Apart from Vanessa Williams' youthful indiscretion in posing for some nude photos - long before she won the crown - I don't recall a single Miss America who exploited her title as shamelessly as Moakler has exploited hers.
The Miss USA contest seems to be about hot bodies and celebrity for celebrity's sake. But the Miss America pageant focused more on the total woman. Miss Americas were prim, proper and politically correct, and it seemed that the career goal for most of them was to teach disabled children or to work for world peace. A number of them have gone into show business or politics, but on the whole their post-pageant behavior has been exemplary. Nightclub brawls never entered into it.
But this is a different era. The Miss America Pageant, now deemed too boring, has been banished from network television, while the hot TV beauty pageants are Miss USA and Miss Universe. I admit that I eventually tired of the Miss America shtick as well, but at least those contestants had to be educated, possess some talent, and be interested in community service, as well as be beautiful, while contestants in today's hot pageants need only be beautiful and sexy.
"She'll do anything!" Maureen Lippe, president of the Lippe Taylor communications agency and a former beauty and fashion editor for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, said of Moakler's iceberg stunt.
"It's indicative of the country's obsession with celebrity. These young girls get a little taste of it by winning a contest. Then they get misguided and go off the deep end. Their role models are Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan, who will do anything to be in the tabloids week after week. They don't do anything with their careers, but they dress up and do crazy things - steal boyfriends, cell phones and try to steal each other's identities. All because they're fighting to be on the covers of the tabloids."
Lippe, whose company once represented a cosmetics company owned by former Miss America Phyllis George, says George has been an amazing role model for other women - an entrepreneur, a mother, and a concerned and committed citizen.
It is too bad that celebrity no longer needs to be connected to talent. Instead, it's about misbehavior, which is what keeps beautiful young women in the headlines. Like Omarosa, the wicked star of "The Apprentice," who holds a PhD but spends her time going from one reality show to another. And Moakler, who for all we know could have talents we've never even seen, but who was last seen riding on a faux iceberg.
This sends a dangerous message to young women, especially teenage girls. It tells them it's more important to be beautiful, flamboyant and naughty than it is to be smart and well-rounded. And that's a message we should all be working against.
TKPN
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