Pageant News Bureau

Diana Tilden-Davis, Miss South Africa 1991, reportedly was bitten on the leg by a hippopotamus while visiting Botswana in late December 2003. She was airlifted to a South African hospital and was reported to be in stable condition. She was a runner-up to Miss World 1991.

The reigning Miss Florida 2003, Shauna Diane Pender, is reportedly making progress in her recovery following a severe car accident in Miami on Nov. 7, 2003. Ms. Pender, 24, who was first runner-up in the 2003 Miss Florida Pageant, assumed the state title in late October following Ericka Yolanda Dunlap's Miss America victory in September. She was on her way to make an appearance at a charity event when an 18-wheeler truck crushed her car. Three other passengers in the car suffered minor injuries. The Miss Florida Organization's executive director, Mary Sullivan, has said that Ms. Pender, a native of Kathleen, Ga., and a former Miss Georgia competitor, is improving daily.

Miss Savannah, Sharron Nicole Redmond, 21, faces murder charges after the death of her boyfriend, Kevin Shorter, on Dec. 19, 2003. Ms. Redmond, who acknowledges shooting him two days earlier but claims self-defense, will not be disciplined by pageant authorities unless she is convicted.

Veruska Ramirez, a model who was Miss Venezuela 1998 and first runner-up to Miss Universe, reportedly was briefly kidnapped in December 2003 in Venezuela, was robbed of some possessions but then was let go unharmed after autographing nude photos of herself that were in her car. This tactic is unlikely to be of much use to the average kidnap victim, but keep it in mind.

In an unusually public action, Gemma Stefani, 19, who took second place in May 2003 as Iraq's Maiden of Beauty, is pressing charges against a man she says raped her in Nairobi, Kenya, in July 2001. Meanwhile, former Iraqi titleholders Daniella Tchervenkova and Ivana Kohut are alleging sexual harassment by Uday Hussein, son of overthrown strongman Saddam Hussein. Uday Hussein was killed in July 2003 in a battle with American troops.

Miss Savannah, Sharron Nicole Redmond, 21, has been charged with aggravated assault in the Dec. 17, 2003, shooting of a man described as her boyfriend. Kevin Shorter, 25, was listed in critical condition. Ms. Redmond was named Miss Savannah in summer 2003 after Andrea Bailey, who won the Miss Savannah Pageant, was crowned Miss Georgia (America). Ms. Redmond was free on $5,000 bail, but could face a murder charge if Shorter dies.

Jessica K. Schilling, 19, the reigning Miss USA International and recent competitor at Miss Earth, died Nov. 27, 2003, in Palm Springs, Calif., after a one-vehicle road accident. She lived in nearby Palm Desert and was a former Miss Teen Palm Springs and Miss Teen California International. Her death fell on the day Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, and that holiday brings some of the heaviest travel of the year. Highway fatalities are, unfortunately, numerous.

TV alert

Miss America 2004, Ericka Yolanda Dunlap, will be back in her hometown of Orlando to appear in the 20th annual Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade. The parade will be televised Dec. 25, 2003 on ABC-TV from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. to noon PST). ABC is the host network of the Miss America Pageant each September. Ms. Dunlap will also be seen on the repeat edition of "Oprah" on Christmas Day. The episode, taped in October, is titled "The Moment That Changed My Life." The syndicated program airs at various times; check local listings.
MSNBC will air the two-hour "JonBenet Ramsey Murder Mystery" on Dec. 27 and 28, 2003. Check local listings for time and channel. JonBenet Patricia Ramsey, a 6-year-old child beauty queen, was killed on Christmas night 1996 at her family's home in Boulder, Colo. The case remains unsolved, but has generated much media coverage, some of it irresponsible. Her father, John Ramsey, and her mother, Patricia "Patsy" Ann Paugh Ramsey, who was Miss West Virginia 1977, now live in Atlanta, and have vigorously challenged innuendos that they were somehow at fault.
Miss West Virginia 1992, Kimberly Marie Parrish, will host several several pre-Christmas showcase product specials before Christmas on the QVC shopping network; check local listings. QVC is the leader in electronic retailing –- a televised shopping service that broadcasts live retail programming 24 hours a day. Ms. Parrish, who joined QVC in 1996, was the host of her own talk radio show, "Woman to Woman," for WLTP-AM, a Clear Channel Communications station in Parkersburg, W.Va. She was also Miss West Virginia U.S. Teen in 1987. QVC, which stands for Quality, Value, and Convenience, started in 1986 and currently has several other pageant personalities on-air, among them: Lisa Robertson, Miss Tennessee 1989; Mary Beth Roe, who was Miss Minnesota T.E.E.N. 1977 and Mrs. Minnesota 1989-1990; and David Venable, who hosted the 1995 Miss Pennsylvania Pageant.
Trio, a cable outlet for pop culture, arts and entertainment, will air the 1958 and 1983 Miss America pageants during its "Award Shows" themed month. They will air on Dec. 21, 2003, from 8 p.m. to midnight EST. They will also be shown Dec. 22 from 8 a.m. to noon EST. The winners of these pageants were Mary Ann Mobley of Mississippi (1959) and Vanessa Lynn Williams of New York (1984). The 1958 pageant was hosted by famed pageant emcee Bert Parks with Miss America 1955, Lee Ann Meriwether, and CBS News correspondent Douglas Edwards as the pageant color commentators. The 1983 pageant was hosted by entertainer Gary Collins, Ms. Mobley's husband.
The Dec. 3, 2003, live NBC broadcast of "Christmas In Rockefeller Center," which featured Miss USA 2003, Susie Castillo, will be shown again on Dec. 21, 2003, on the BRAVO cable network at 1 p.m. EST / noon CST. She is interviewed by "Today" news anchor Ann Curry about 20 minutes into the one-hour holiday special. Check local listings.
Miss USA 2003, Susie Castillo, will preside along with Ann Curry and Al Roker over the 71st annual lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York City on Dec. 3, 2003. NBC will air the one-hour festivities live at 8 p.m. EST / 7 p.m CST. NBC just completed its first season of being the host network for the Miss USA, Miss Universe, and Miss Teen USA pageants. Also appearing at the holiday special event will be a 1997 Miss Universe Pageant guest entertainer, Enrique Iglesias.

On the Web: Pageant historian and writer Jimmy Steele has signed on as a columnist on the Pageant Gossip Web site. The first installment is now up.

The December 2003 of CRITICAL BEAUTY e-zine features a follow-up interview with Miss Universe Organization President Paula Shugart, the memo pad drawings of Eric Siow, and an article on the relationship between pageants and the Islamic dress code.

TV alert

CBS will air the satirical beauty contest film "Miss Congeniality" on Dec. 2, 2003, at 9 p.m. EST / 8 p.m. CST. Sandra Bullock plays FBI agent Gracie Hart in the 2000 hit. She noted in October 2003 that a sequel is planned. (See PNB archives for details.) Check local listings.

On Dec. 7, 2003, Miss USA 2003, Susie Castillo, and Miss Teen USA 2003, Tami Nichole Farrell of Oregon, will appear in the 2003 San Jose (Calif.) Holiday parade. The parade, with the theme of "Once Upon a Time," will be televised live locally starting at 9 a.m. PST.
Ericka Yolanda Dunlap, Miss America 2004, will be a guest celebrity contestant the week of Dec. 1, 2003, on the game show "Hollywood Squares," hosted by this year's Miss America Pageant host, Tom Bergeron. The show was taped in Los Angeles in October. Check local listings.

Kristen Dawn Chenoweth, who was Miss Oklahoma City University and second runner-up to Miss Oklahoma 1991, was featured in the NBC telecast of the 2003 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City on Nov. 27, 2003. She sang songs from the hit musical "Wicked," of which she is a cast member. Also appearing on NBC that morning was Miss Tennessee Teen-USA 1999, Rachel Boston, who was there with other cast members of "American Dream" to promote their Sunday night NBC program.

Miss America, Ericka Dunlap of Florida, is spending the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday – Thursday, Nov. 27, 2003 – in Kuwait making appearances before U.S. troops. The visit has been styled as a demonstration of the relevance of Miss America, but Ms. Dunlap is presumably avoiding U.S.-occupied Iraq because of continuing unrest there.

Mrs. America 1996, Cynthia Pensiero, has signed on with Allen Tate Realtors in Charlotte. She will specialize in residential sales. She can also be seen in a national commercial for Mueller's Pasta. She is the mom at the dinner table.

Actress and singer Vanessa L. Williams, a former Miss America, sang the "The Star-Spangled Banner" on Nov. 17, 2003, at the inauguration of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. She starred with Schwarzenegger, a fitness competition winner and film star, in the movie "Eraser."

TV alert

The "Kimberly and Dana" episode of "Switched" will air on Nov. 17, 2003, at 5 p.m. on the ABC Family Channel. It was filmed at the Miss Connecticut Teen America and Miss Connecticut Junior Teen America competition. Dana Daunis was Miss Connecticut Teen America 2002. Check local listings.

Several Hawaiian Tropic girls were chosen to model in the La Perla lingerie fashion show that took place at Caesar's hotel and casino in Atlantic City, N.J., on Nov. 9, 2003. The models included in the show were Mariel Clary, Miss Atlantic City '03; Mary Jo Thomas, Miss Wilkes-Barre, Pa. '03; Ashley Vargo, Miss Wilkes-Barre, Pa. '02; Linda Mitchell, Hawaiian Tropic supermodel/director (who also appeared in the "Baywatch" wedding television special), Donna Shepherd, Miss Atlantic City fitness award winner '02 (who also appeared on "Temptation Island", and was Miss Pennsylvania United States '02), and Ashley DeFazio, Miss York, Pa. '03, among others. The show was hosted by John O'Hurley (J. Peterman of "Seinfeld") and Nicole Eggert of "Baywatch."

O n t h e N e w s s t a n d

Kim Ratliff, recent winner of the Mrs USA-Universal Pageant, is featured in the magazine Arts & Leisure. Ms. Ratliff, who is working on her Ph.D. in psychology and is a military wife and mother, is featured as Mrs NC-Universal. The issue of the magazine was released Nov. 17, 2003.
Jewelry ads featuring Miss Rhode Island Teen USA 2003, Kristina Primavera, appears in the November 2003 issue of InStyle Magazine and the December issue of Marie Claire.

Actress Sandra Bullock has announced that she plans to reprise the role of FBI agent Gracie Hart from the hit 2000 movie "Miss Congeniality" in an upcoming sequel to the satirical beauty contest film. No start date for Warner Bros' "Miss Congeniality 2" has been announced, but production may start in March 2004. Marc Lawrence has written a script centering on Ms. Bullock's character. It is unknown whether veteran actor William Shatner, who was the 2001 Miss USA Pageant host and played the host of the fictional Miss United States in the first film, will reprise his role. The first "Congeniality" movie made more than $100 million at the domestic box office. It also featured actors Benjamin Bratt, Candice Bergen, Michael Caine, and several past real-life pageant winners, among them, Miss Arizona USA 1989, LeeAnn Locken (who played Miss Nebraska), and Holly Mills, Miss Texas USA 1998 (who played Miss Ohio). It is unclear if any of them will return for the second picture

Former Miss Mansfield (Ohio) and Miss Ohio 1992, Robin Michele Meade Yeager, who was a Top 10 finalist in the 1992 Miss America Pageant, will be taking a week off from her morning anchor position at CNN Headline News to celebrate her 10th wedding anniversary. She and her husband, Timothy, will be staying in the Great Smokies. Scheduled to replace Ms. Meade as anchor for the week starting on Nov. 2, 2003, is another former Miss Mansfield, Christi Paul. She was third runner-up to Miss Ohio 1993, Titilayo Rachel Adedokun. Ms. Paul has been with Headline News since April 2003 and has often filled in for Ms. Meade and other anchors since her relocation to Atlanta from Phoenix, where she was a news anchor and weathercaster. Ms. Meade, 34, a former anchor in Miami and Chicago, started her position with CNN the week of the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks in 2001.

TV alert

The reigning Miss America, Ericka Yolanda Dunlap of Florida, will appear on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Oct. 31, 2003 (check local listings for time and channels in your area). Ms. Winfrey, who was Miss Fire Prevention 1971 and Miss Black Tennessee 1971, interviews Ms. Dunlap during the program, which was taped Oct. 16. The show is titled "The Moment That Changed My Life," and it's about major moments that have changed the guests' lives. Later that night, the Oxygen Network will air the "Oprah After Show," about candid conversations with the audience after the taping of the``Oprah Winfrey Show.'' This airs at 7-8 p.m. EST / 6-7 p.m. CST, with re-airing at 1-2 a.m. EST/Midnight-1 a.m. CST. Check local listings.

The conflagration that has swept much of Southern California in late October 2003 has brought tragedy to a pageant family. Ashleigh Roach, Princess of the House of Ireland, died while riding in a car with her brother and sister on Oct. 26 as they attempted to escape fast-moving flames near San Diego. Her sister, Alyson Roach, Queen of the House of Ireland, is in critical condition with severe burns. Their brother, Jason Roach, escaped with second-degree burns. Queens such as these sisters are chosen as goodwill ambassadors for the House of Pacific Relations, a 68-year-old organization that fosters goodwill among various ethnicities and national heritages in the United States. A religious service will be held Oct. 30 at 4 p.m. at Center for the Arts Escondido, 340 N Escondido Blvd., Escondido, Calif. A fund-raiser benefit will be Nov. 2 at 1 p.m. on at Tom Giblin's Irish Pub, 640 Grand Ave, Carlsbad, Calif. Donations to the House of Ireland in their memory can be sent c/o John Hyatt 4885 W Mountain View, SD, 92116.

October bride

We don't always cry at weddings, but . . .

O n t h e N e w s s t a n d

The November 2003 issue of Maxim magazine features former Miss Venezuela Christina Diechman in its "Foreign Body" section.

TV alert

Miss America 2004, Ericka Yolanda Dunlap, will be featured on the TV program "Inside Edition" on Oct. 23, 2003. She will also make a guest appearance on "Oprah" on Oct. 31, 2003. The program should air the same day. Check local listings for both programs. Ms. Dunlap, a native of Orlando who won the national title representing Florida, will sing the National Anthem prior to the Orlando Magic's opening season basketball game Oct. 30, 2003. The game will air regionally in Florida on the Sunshine Network at 6:55 pm EST.
The Spanish-language cable network Univision will televise the tape-delayed 2003-2004 Miss Venezuela Pageant on Oct. 26, 2003 at 3 p.m. EDT / 2 CDT. The pageant, held Oct. 16 in Caracas, was emceed by talk show host Mayte Delgado and Gilbert Correa. Miss Venezuela 2003, Mariangel Ruiz Torrealba, who was first runner-up in the 2003 Miss Universe pageant last June in Panama, returns to crown her successor, who will represent the South American county in the 2004 Miss Universe Pageant in June 2004 in Ecuador.
"Oprah" will air her first Millionaire Inventor Challenge Show on Oct. 30, 2003. Melanie Patterson, a former Mrs. United States and inventor of PIBS - The Disposable Bib on a Roll, will be among the guests. The episode was taped in Chicago on Oct. 4, 2003. Check local listings.
"Entertainment Tonight" correspondent Maria Menounos, who was Miss Massachusetts Teen USA 1996 and a PNB cover girl, was a guest judge on "Pet Star" hosted by former Miss Teen USA Pageant host Mario Lopez. Ms. Menounos, who is in her second season with "ET," happily gives a "seal of approval" and proves an excellent judge of horseflesh in this taped episode, which airs on Animal Planet. Check local listings.

Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry, who was Miss Teen All American 1985, Miss Ohio USA 1986 and a finalist at Miss World 1986, was the guest host of "Saturday Night Live" on Oct. 18, 2003. Ms. Berry, who recently announced her separation from husband Eric Benet after nearly three years of marriage, will soon be filming "Nappily Ever After," a comedy-drama about a black woman's journey to self-discovery. She also appears in "Gothika," a film about a woman trapped in an insane asylum; it will be released Nov. 21. She is on the cover and and in a feature story in the current issue of US Weekly Magazine.

PNB photographer Benjamin Gibbs has established a site for selling photographs. The site is at www.printroom.com, and the access word is photobygibbs.

MusicSpace.com, a nationally renowned direct marketing company and producer of the country's most popular music compilations, has announced that it has included the hit single "One More Try" by Miss Washington 1981, Kristine Elizabeth Weitz on its latest collection "Fired Up!" a 32-song dance CD album. Ms. Weitz, who was a preliminary swimsuit winner and non-finalist talent winner at the Miss America Pageant, is now known simply as "Kristine W." (She adopted the initial when she started her singing career in London where no one could pronounce "Weitz." The 6-foot-tall former national javelin champion and UNLV graduate also will appear on "Access Hollywood" on Oct. 21, 2003. The show will feature her in its "New Music Tuesday" segment. Ms. Weitz won the Billboard Award for "Newcomer of the Year 1997" and received high praise for her recent albums "Some Lovin'" and "Land of the Living." The RCA recording artist released her first album "Feel What You Want," her global dance floor anthem, in 1994, and it reached the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Hot Dance/Club Play chart. Besides singing, she is married and the mother of two children.

Miss Oregon Teen USA 1990 and Miss Teen USA 1990, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, has accepted an offer to be in the Steve Martin comedy "Shopgirl," which is based on Martin's critically acclaimed best-selling novella of the same title. Ms. Wilson-Sampras, 30, who has also appeared in hit films "Beautiful" and "Billy Madison," will play a makeup counter employee who competes for Martin's attention. The film, which will be released by Touchstone Pictures in the fall of 2004, also will feature Martin and actress Claire Danes. In August 2003, Ms. Wilson-Sampras stood by the side of her husband, tennis star Pete Sampras, when the 14-time grand champion announced his retirement. The couple married in 2000 and have one son.

O n t h e N e w s s t a n d

Miss USA 2003, Susie Castillo, appears with her mother, Carmen Cintron, in a one-page ad in the October 2003 issue of "Woman's Day" magazine. The pair from Massachusetts appear in the ad for Bristol-Myers Squibb's "Woman's Cancer Network" program marking October as "Breast Cancer Awareness" month.
In a recent October 2003 issue of Time magazine, Szu Yu (Beverly) Chen, Miss Taiwan, Republic of China 2003, is featured in a full-page ad titled "Discover the Allure of Taiwan" for the Tourism Bureau of Tiawan. Ms. Chen, 24, is a student at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia. She was Miss Melbourne Chinatown in 2001. During the 2003 Miss Universe Pageant last June in Panama, Ms. Chen made news by challenging the demands of the contest organizers that she wear a sash describing her as Miss Chinese Taipei rather than Miss Taiwan. At one press conference after the pageant, Ms. Chen wore the Miss Taiwan sash that she had not been allowed to don during competition. She attributed the actions of pageant organizers to pressure from the People's Republic of China, which in recent years has sent contestants to Miss Universe. The ad in the magazine coincides with the 92nd anniversary of "National Day of the Republic of China" (Ten/Ten) which was Oct. 10, 2003. For more information, see www.gio.gov.tw

The 10th Annual World Travel Awards were held Oct. 13, 2003, at the Plaza hotel in New York. Donna Shepherd, Miss Pennsylvania United States 2002, and Mariel Clary, Miss Hawaiian Tropic Atlantic City 2003, were onstage to hand out the awards. The host for the evening was John O'Hurley (who played J. Peterman on "Seinfeld"). Some guest presenters/performers were Deborah Gibson, John Stamos, Bebe Neuwirth and Ben Vereen, among others.

Shawn Cunningham, anchor/reporter at WAGM-TV in Maine, has received two 2003 Aegis Awards for her reporting. In addition to her current anchoring duties, she has also been promoted to station health reporter, and will be reporting a segment called "Medical Mondays" on the station's 6 p.m. newscasts.

Porntip Nakhirunkanok of Thailand, who was Miss Universe 1988, gave birth to a son on Oct. 12, 2003. The boy has been named Sean Robert Simon. The former beauty queen, who spent much of her youth in California, is married to wealthy American businessman Herb Simon.

Police in Louisville, Ky., report that Heather French Henry, who was Miss America 2000, struck and killed a bicyclist with her vehicle on Oct. 12, 2003. According to initial reports, Mrs. Henry, who is married to Kentucky Lt. Gov. Steve Henry, was not at fault. The woman who died in the accident was not identified.

TV alert

The A & E cable network will air its episode of "Take This Job" – which features a former Mrs. America who coaches two Mrs. Maryland contestants for an upcoming pageant – on Oct. 19, 2003, at 2 p.m. EDT / 1 CDT. Check local listings.
The 2004 Mrs. America Pageant will be televised tape-delayed on the PAX cable network Saturday, October 11, 2003 at 9 p.m. EDT / 8 p.m. CDT. Check local listings. The 27th annual pageant staged in Hawaii on Sept. 19, 2003, will also be re-aired at the same hour on Oct. 18, also on PAX. Florence Henderson, a longtime pageant host and star of the long-running sitcom "The Brady Bunch," returns to co-emcee with Hal Linden of "Barney Miller" fame. At the conclusion of the two-hour program, Mrs. America 2003, Kristi Leigh Phillips of Alabama, crowns Mrs. Missouri, Heidi Crawford Dinan, 31, of O'Fallon, Mo., as Mrs. America 2004. Ms. Dinan, a California native and mother of an 8-year-old daughter, will represent the United States in the 2004 Mrs. World Pageant next June.
A repeat showing of the episode "The Boca Story" from the 1990s TV comedy "The Nanny" will air on Oct. 15, 2003, at 9:30 a.m. EDT / 8:30 a.m. CDT), on the Lifetime cable network. Check local listings. The then-reigning Miss USA 1997, Brook Lee (who was soon to become Miss Universe 1997), and other 1997 Miss Universe contestants appear on the 30-minute sitcom along with Miss Universe 1996, Alicia Machado.
On Oct. 15, 2003, The Learning Channel (TLC) will re-air its June 27, 2003, "A Wedding Story" episode of "Katie and Tim" which features Miss America 2002, Katie Marie Harmon, and Oregon Air Guard Captain Timothy Ebner. The couple were married June 14, 2003, in McMinnville, Ore. The 30-minute program airs at 2 p.m. EDT / 1 p.m. CDT. Check local listings. Ms. Harmon recently released her CD "Katie Harmon, Christmas Memories" and was the co-author of "Under The Crown: 51 Stories of Courage, Determination and the American Spirit," a book that takes readers behind the stage with the contestants of the 2001 Miss America Pageant in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The A&E cable network will air its episode of "Take This Job," which will feature a former Mrs. America who coaches two Mrs. Maryland contestants for an upcoming pageant. The program will air on Oct. 19, 2003, at 2 p.m. EDT / 1 p.m. CDT. Check local listings.

PNB offstage archive