PRELIMINARY PAGEANT UPDATES!

» Emerald Coast Orientation Feb. 12, 2005!
The Miss Emerald Coast USA 2005 orientation session will be held Feb. 12, 2005, at the beautiful Legacy by the Sea Resort, the official hotel of Miss Emerald Coast USA & Miss Emerald Coast Teen USA. The Legacy is located at 15405 Front Beach Road on Panama City Beach, and our orientation will take place from 2:30-5:30 PM in the conference room. Activities for the day include swimsuit fittings, photo shoots and pre-taping segments for the March 20 television show. If you plan to attend orientation, please RSVP to amanda@leadingladymagazine.com. See you there! Final registration deadline for Miss Emerald Coast USA is March 5. For more information, check out www.MissEmeraldCoastUSA.com or call 850-321-3688.

» Miss Daytona Beach USA on Hiatus
Look for a change in date and directorship to be announced soon for our Volusia County qualifying pageant. It will be rescheduled for this season, if you have inquired about competing please call Tel-Air at 954 924-4949 or telair@aol.com.

» Miss Miami USA rescheduled to May 14
In another scheduling change the Miss Miami USA Pageant date has been moved to May 14th. For more information contact the Around Florida USA staff at AFUSA99@aol.com.

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STATE PAGEANT ELIGIBILITY STATS

Miss Florida USA 2006

Delegates Entered: 14

Delegates Eligible: 52

Miss Florida Teen USA

Delegates Entered: 14

Delegates Eligible: 39

Every week more delegates become eligible to compete at state.

The season started with qualifiers from the past year. All of each pageants top15 qualify

along with Miss Amity & Miss Photogenic. Each preliminary pageant qualifies delegates

as “at large” status with their finalist, amity, photogenic and peoples choice awards.

Next Pageant Weekend: February 5th – Miss Gainesville USA & February 6^th Miss Citrus Teen USA!

THE ROAD TO MISS USA

A First Hand Look At Miss USA, Part II
By Mary Delach Leonard
OSAGE BEACH, Mo.

If beauty is skin deep, make it a thick skin.
As a newly crowned public figure, Finnessey has learned to take a lot of flak. Some St. Louisans complained, for example, because she calls Florissant her hometown and not the Gateway City. American Indian groups blasted the showy feather headdress she wore as a costume at the Miss Universe pageant. Her looks, words and comings-and-goings are fodder not only for the gossip columnists but for Internet bloggers. "People are very quick to judge," she said. "If they can bring you down a level, it makes you seem more human."

In online chat rooms, fans whisper regularly about which titleholder has had cosmetic surgery. On the Web site of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, a certain Kansas City dentist takes credit for creating Finnessey's "new smile," and bloggers have unearthed likenesses of Finnessey modeling on a Web site for plastic surgeons. So, has she had cosmetic surgery? "My answer to that is always that everyone has had some sort of cosmetic enhancement - everyone," Finnessey said. "Look at people who have braces, or use whitening toothpaste or get hair highlights, there are so many things. So, who hasn't done that? We all have in some regard. So, that's my answer."

Finnessey, a Republican, has been politically outspoken. She told Reuters after winning the title that she would use her position to help explain America's involvement in Iraq. "What needed to be done had to be done," she told the news agency. That comment made hay on political blogs and earned her the title "GOP Babe-of-the-Week" on JerseyGOP.com. While Finnessey acknowledges that Iraq has become "a tough and sticky situation," she believes Americans must continue to support the troops and that "it's your duty to support your president."

In Quito, Ecuador, where she competed at the Miss Universe pageant (and placed second to Miss Australia), she said she was stunned by all of the anti-Americanism she observed. "Every feeling they had was negative about our country and our president," she said. “It made me realize that being Miss USA was not about being an icon of beauty, it's about being an ambassador of your country, keeping the focus on our soldiers, keeping awareness on our servicemen and women, to show the rest of the world what a true American is about."

To that extent, she has visited wounded troops and toured with the USO in Cuba and Korea.
She said the media are often surprised because she is so candid, but she has to be true to herself, even though she got in trouble with pageant officials because she announced her support for President George W. Bush before the election. "You do walk a line, but at the end of the day, you have to know you're not going to please everybody," she said.

Another fact of public life is the need for security - Miss USA is escorted at all appearances. She gets 300 e-mails a day, more than a few from men dreaming of meeting her some day. But she's also received bizarre mail, and she takes no chances. Watching out for Finnessey falls to her pageant-assigned travel managers, such as Karen Elliott, who lives in Kansas City and travels with Finnessey when she returns to Missouri. "Shandi has to be the one who is kind and outgoing - I'm the heavy," said Elliott, who was her chaperone at the Jaycees convention. Her job is to keep Finnessey on schedule and out of harm's way. "I really enjoy traveling with her," Elliott said. "Shandi is so easygoing. She's as sweet as she appears."

Meet the Finnesseys

Though Finnessey has met the president, schmoozed with Donald Trump and partied with the rich and famous, on this Friday night in the Ozarks, she was as excited as a schoolgirl because her parents were coming the next day. "I have the perfect family. I love my parents," she said. "I am so incredibly blessed to have them." Miss USA and her mother, Linda Finnessey, 57, who recently retired as a special-education teacher in the Hazelwood school district, giggled like best friends Saturday afternoon as they related events of the past year. "You left out the most important part," one would say. "I'm getting to it," would come the reply.

Finnessey's father, Patrick, 59, a retired criminal investigator for the U.S. Treasury Department, watched them with quiet bemusement. He traveled with his daughter when she was Miss Missouri 2002, logging more than 5,000 miles. He has taken hundreds of pictures documenting the ups and downs of his daughter's pageant life. "Shandi has always had a very good attitude," he said. "She didn't always win, but she didn't get bitter. Shandi has never walked away in tears."

He points out how subjective pageants are. "Anything can happen on any given night, depending on the judges," he said.

Until Finnessey won Miss USA, she lived at the family home in Florissant, a comfortable brick two-story, where four very fat cats take turns sleeping in cardboard boxes, and an African grey congo parrot talks up a storm and watches "Animal Planet" when nobody is home. On the mantel in the family room are crystal trophies: Miss USA 2004, "Best Evening Gown" from Miss America 2002 and an impressive one from Incarnate Word, which named its theater after Finnessey.

Finnessey said pageants are a family affair. She took shopping trips with her mom to find the right outfits. Her dad found inventive ways to cook all those chicken breasts. "One of the things I'm going to miss is taking those fun trips with her," said Linda Finnessey, who was already looking ahead to April 11, when her daughter crowns the next Miss USA in Baltimore. "We just had a fun time, and all of a sudden that's over with."

Miss USA said she has gotten a kick out of showing her brothers - Paul, 34; Damion, 32, and Shane, 28 - around New York, where she has lived for the past year. "I've always been the little sister," she said. After the title Finnessey is planning a move to Los Angeles, and she is interviewing with talent agents. She can see herself as a talk show host - "a more glamorized Dr. Phil" - or perhaps hosting a travel segment. Something beyond the 9-to-5, she said.

On her digital camera, she showed off a photo of a new beau, Italo Zanzi, gushing over his blue eyes. Zanzi, 30, is a lawyer with Major League Baseball, and she brought him home for Christmas. She said that no matter what the future brings, no one can take away her current success. "When I'm 90," she said, "I will still be Miss USA 2004."

About Miss USA:

* Miss USA’s pearl and diamond crown, designed by Mikimoto, is worth more than $200,000.

* Besides a $40,000 salary, other job perks include: an apartment shared with Miss Universe and Miss Teen USA at Trump Place overlooking the Hudson River in New York; chauffeured limousine; clothing allowance; two-year scholarship worth $45,000 to the School for Film and Television in New York.

* The Miss Universe Organization charges $5,000 for an appearance by Miss USA. The fee is often waived for charitable organizations.

* Contestants must be at least 18 but no older than 27 by Feb. 1 of the pageant year.

* Duties include serving as a national advocate for breast and ovarian cancer education, research and legislation.