Miss Wooten was a photo op favorite

» Florida’s Hometown USA:

We took a road trip to this year’s edition of Florida’s Hometown USA Pageant in Orlando on Saturday. Pageant director Linda Watts puts together a lovely pageant for those who are too young to compete for Miss Florida Teen USA all the way through their last teenage years. Miss Florida Teen USA 2006 Jennifer Wooten is a past titleholder and made one of her first appearances since winning her title. Photo Opportunities were all around so enjoy the pictures!

Front row at the pageant

Miss Wooten with Linda Watts during intermission Saturday

» Pageant People Interviews:

Last month, Maria Menounos left a three-year gig at Entertainment Tonight to serve as both a special correspondent for Access Hollywood and a contributor to NBC's Today. What's it all mean? The 27-year-old Greek goddess found a few minutes between her new jobs to speak with TVGuide.com about the move and to weigh in on a watershed day in infotainment history.

TVGuide.com: When you were in the 1996 Miss Teen USA pageant as Miss Massachusetts Teen USA, you told host Bob Goen that when you "grew up," you wanted to work with him on ET and your wish came true. Kind of wishing now you'd aimed for world peace?

Maria Menounos: That and a puppy for everyone. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: Some could argue that leaving ET for Access is like quitting the Mets to join, well, the Mets. I mean, aren't they basically the same shows?
Menounos: There's a major rivalry between the shows, so it's more like going from the Yankees to the Red Sox. But for me it was just an opportunity. Today was something that I definitely couldn't pass up on, and at Access I'm getting to do more specialized things.

TVGuide.com: Like not starting off every sentence with "Brangelina..." or "TomKat..."?

Menounos: [Laughs] Yeah, I'm getting to do more sit-down interviews and stuff that I really enjoy doing. And [executive producer] Rob [Silverstein] is an amazing boss, so I'm having a great time. He and [co-anchor & Miss USA host] Billy [Bush] have been trying to plant seeds in my brain for such a long time, and I didn't even consider it. But when my contract came up, NBC expressed a strong interest and it went from there.

TVGuide.com: Oct. 5 was one heckuva day, huh? We started with the Lindsay Lohan-car crash story, followed by Nick-Jessica divorce reports, a rumored secret Brad-Angelina wedding and, to cap it off, the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes pregnancy! I was saying here at the office that should an Eva Longoria video turn up, the walls would implode.

Menounos: I know, it was wild right? And I was completely out of the loop. For Today, I was in San Francisco doing a story on the third most expensive house in the country. So when I checked in with Rob, he goes, "This couldn't be a crazier day" and went down the laundry list of things. I was like, "Oh, boy!"

TVGuide.com: You've almost completed a film you started producing at age 18, and have two shorts starring no less than Lara Flynn Boyle and Wilmer Valderrama on the festival circuit. Did you ever imagine you'd be such a prolific producer?

Menounos: Absolutely, because that's what I did before I did anything else. I was studying film and journalism in college, knowing that I wanted to do both. Did I know how it would all unfold exactly? No. [Laughs] I'm a Gemini, I've got too many moving parts! I knew that I'd be dabbling in anything under the sun.

TVGuide.com: I'll just wrap this up by saying that it has been great speaking with you.
Menounos: Listen, I'm usually a bit more fun, but I've been up since 1 a.m. and I'm actually waiting outside of court right now to go show them that I put a license plate on my car. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: There's ET's story for tomorrow: "Maria Menounous: Scofflaw!"
Menounos: Huge scandal!

» Pageant News Wanted!

Are you a titleholder or at large delegate who is making appearances or doing good things in the community? We would love to tell all of the Miss Florida USA Family your story. Send pictures and updates to telair@aol.com as we feature everything Miss Florida USA on Friday’s at Faces & Places.

» Alumni News Wanted!

If you know of any Miss Florida USA alumni in the news please drop us an email to feature them in future articles. Email all info to info@missfloridausa.com! Until next week here to good pageantry!

PICTURE OF THE WEEK!

We just love the beauty of Thailand so when we found this picture of Miss Universe 2005

Natalie Glebova of Canada arrives at a 'Wai' upon her return to Bangkok, the home of

her victory we just thought it was picture of the week material.

Thanks to Reuters/Chaiwat for the imagery. Enjoy!

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