January 27, 2006
January 27, 2006
Miss Waller and Ms. Perkins share lead roles in this lavish production number
» Pageant
Doubleheader Weekend!
Two
pageants in two days – no problem! Last weekend we had the pleasure of a
true pageant weekend as it was East Coast and West Coast for yours truly. Were
not talking a Big E. Smalls and
Tupac type rivalry but Miss Daytona Beach and Miss Tampa were in the house as
it was a two coast weekend with some amazing young ladies on the pageant
runway.
It
was up early on a very cold Saturday morning as a four-hour drive from Hollywood
to Daytona Beach was well worth the effort. Arriving at The Ormond Beach
Performing Arts Center to so many happy and enthusiastic delegates had me in a
very good mood. In full rehearsal was director Kim Decker with her dedicated
group of volunteers. Miss Miami Teen USA 2006 Kendra Waller had the 23 delegates
in full dance rehearsal. At Daytona Beach USA you always expect something fun
from their stage show!
It was great seeing the Florida USA Alumni competing and assisting. Miss Daytona Beach USA Meg Perkins handled the co-hosting duties while some of our state contestants were on-stage. After meeting and kibitzing with our friends and fans of Volusia County it was time for the evenings preliminary night show. The crowd was large and enthusiastic as the evening was fast paced and well presented. It was great seeing such support for this pageant. Here are some pictures from the day!
Meg Perkins and a proud Mom after a job well done of hosting the pageant
(left)Former Miss Florida Teen USA Miss Amity Winner Rikki Klaus brought a college friend to the pageant (right)
Chelsea always has such support from her family at pageants!
Miss Orlando/City Beautiful Director Frank with his posse!
(click on thumbnails to enlarge images)
Tampa Sunday
Once
again the alarm sounded and it was off to the highway as we traveled west on I-4
to our final destination of the weekend. The Tampa Bay Westshore Doubletree
Hotel for the 5th annual Tampa USA Super Pageant. Director Michael
Galanes and the staff of Citrus Productions were in the middle of preparing for
the evenings festivities.
The delegates backstage before the show begins!
Once
again we meet and greeted so many of our Miss Florida USA family and had a
wonderful time of talking pageantry. Thirty-five contestants competed for the
six titles as it was truly a grand evening. The audience included several of our
reigning titleholders and it was standing room only. Big props to our Miss
Nature Coast Teen USA Camden Collins who totally stole the show with her amazing
singing abilities as she started off the evening with “Amazing Grace”! Also
a great job goes to Miss Nature Coast USA Shilah Goodwin who was the pageants
choreographer.
The Duren girls during intermission (left) Camden Collins wowed the audience in Tampa (center)
Miss Nature Coast USA Shilah Goodwin with Miss City Beautiful USA Deanna Polina
(right)
Miss Florida USA 1999 Melissa Quesada with good friend Tina Novak
As always enjoy the pictures and we look forward to seeing everyone at this weekends Miss Hollywood USA Pageant on Hollywood Beach.
Getting the crowns on straight
(click on thumbnails to enlarge images)
»
Sundance Hit is Pageant Film “Little Miss Sunshine”The
Sundance film festival entered its second week yesterday with a record: Fox
Searchlight is coughing up $10.5m (£5.9m) for the worldwide distribution rights
to Little Miss Sunshine, the biggest deal for a single film in the festival's
history. The amount squeaks past the $10.25m mark set by 1999's Happy, Texas.
Little Miss Sunshine, which centers on an eccentric family racing from New Mexico to southern California so that a seven-year-old girl named Olive can enter a beauty pageant, is the first feature film from award-winning music video makers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Smashing Pumpkins).
A bright future
for Little Miss Sunshine
» Scenes
from the Miss America pageant in Las Vegas
By
KATHLEEN HENNESSEY
Associated Press Writer
--
Whenever or wherever it's held, one thing never changes at Miss America _ little
beauty queens come to see how it's done. So it was Saturday, with dozens of
sash-wearing, crown-bedecked young girls turning out at the Aladdin Resort &
Casino to watch the pageant, pick up pointers and have mom snap their
photographs. Among them: Taylor Ellinger, 13, and little sister Temara, 7, in
matching red suits, white Mary Janes and rhinestone crowns. "I want to be
Miss America," said Temara, a second-grader from Fort Collins, Colo., who
is National American Miss Cover Model Princess 2005. "It would be cool
because she's the queen of America."
"I'm here because I've always wanted to be Miss America and I just wanted
to see how it works," said big sis Taylor, National American Miss Colorado
Pre-Teen 2005. Crawling around at the feet of their mother, Tiffany Ellinger,
was their 2-year-old brother, Tarik. No sash or crown for him, though he does
have a title of his own: International Cinderella Prince Charming Cover Boy. He
declined comment. --James Denton's getting to be a real ladies' man.
Denton, who plays hunky plumber Mike Delfino on the hit ABC series
"Desperate Housewives," spends plenty of time around Eva Longoria and
other beautiful women on the set. On Saturday, hosting the Miss America Pageant,
he found himself surrounded with 52 more beauties. Denton liked it, but his wife
Erin _ who gave birth to the couple's second child in March _ isn't sure she
does. "My wife is really unhappy with my agent," Denton said.
"But I'm the big winner."
Denton doesn't know whether he'll be pulling host duty for next year's Miss
America contest, but given the strange goings-on at Wisteria Lane lately, who
knows? "The way guys are dropping on `Desperate Housewives,' I may need the
work." --The ticket-less pageant fans who poured into the Aladdin Resort
& Casino earlier this week were quickly slapped with the reality of Miss
America's new life on cable.
Country Music Television, the cable network that picked up the Miss America
Pageant after ABC dropped it last year, reaches nearly 79 million homes _ but
not a single Aladdin hotel room. Aladdin employees quickly scrambled to make the
fix, adding CMT to its cable system's offerings and assuring fans shut out of
the sold-out show that they wouldn't be blacked out. --As
the 52 contestants made their way to Las Vegas from Los Angeles, where they
began the week with a publicity tour, they did what many Interstate 15 travelers
have done before them: stopped for lunch in Baker, population 914. Three
busloads of well-coifed, fresh-faced beauties poured out into the home of the
world's tallest thermometer and Herron's Bun Boy coffee shop to the shock and
joy of some bikers rolling through the dusty Death Valley town on
Harley-Davidsons. As
the contestants waited with their entourage for their lunch order that included
50 assorted salads, Miss Alabama posed with Kenny Baker, 44, a biker from her
home state.
"Well, she's got my vote," Baker said. -At
a news conference this week, a lineup of "formers" talked to reporters
about the future of the struggling pageant and secrets to life after crowning.
Miss America 1971 Phyllis George and Miss America 1962 Maria Fletcher were among
those on the panel revealing some of their beauties secrets. "We
care," George said matter-of-factly. "We want to look good." The
display of well-aged beauty inspired a teary Miss America 2004 Ericka Dunlap to
proclaim proudly that if the panel was any indication then she could take heart
that she was going to look great when she's "old." "I didn't mean
that!" Dunlap quickly recovered. "I mean, older!"
--A classic pageant disaster was avoided when Miss Montana's missing wardrobe
was located in Idaho and rushed to the Aladdin Resort & Casino in time for
her preliminary appearance Tuesday. The wardrobe, reportedly valued at $8,000,
had been lost in the mail _ the method many contestants used to transport their
pageant wear to Las Vegas. They were allowed to travel with only two suitcases.
Montana's Sophia Steinbeisser, who boasts that she knows how to drive a tractor,
said she took the mishap in stride and went shopping for a replacement wardrobe
before her original clothes were located. Her chaperone, Avice Hoff, told the
Las Vegas Review-Journal that the clothing hunt cost nearly $500 in cab fares.
Kudos to both of our Miss Florida Teen USA competing this weekend in Las Vegas. Mari Wilensky (1st ru FTUSA’00/t15 FUSA ’03) who represented Florida was awarded with a top 10 placement. Shannon Schambeau (2nd ru FTUSA ’00) was the 4th Runner Up while representing our nations capital. Ms. Schambeau, 25, Miss District of Columbia is a certified skydiver who aspires to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, she won $1,000 for her victory in Friday’s Swimsuit competition. You looked great Shannon! We are very proud of both Ms. Schambeau and Ms. Wielnsky. Way to go Shannon and Mari!
Miss District of Columbia, Shannon Schambeau, center, reacts as she's named
one
of ten finalists at the 2006 Miss America pageant in Las Vegas
Miss Florida, Mari Wilensky, second from right,
reacts as she's named one of ten finalists
» 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!
Even though we are big Miss USA fans, who doesn’t get goose bumps
when they hear “Here she is Miss America”!
So this picture of the week was a no-brainer,
here
is your new Miss America Sunshine State.
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