The top pageant news stories of 2006The board of the Pageant News Bureau, as it has done since the mid-1990s, has chosen the five most important stories of the outgoing year. Sometimes it's a boring task. But let's face it, this was a juicy year.
1. The Tara Conner Scandal: Miss USA, Tara Conner, was the subject of the most famous "non-dethroning" in pageant history. It began in mid-December with leaks from inside the organization about her "partying" ways. Ms. Conner, it was said, had been seen drinking heavily in nightclubs, even though she was still officially a minor. (She conveniently turned 21, the legal age, as the scandal was fading.) Subsequent rumors indicated that she had publicly "smooched" with Miss Teen USA, Katie Blair, less out of lust than exhibitionism, and had taught the younger beauty queen to drink as well. Then there were reports that Ms. Conner entertained men in her quarters on a regular basis. Finally, it was whispered that Ms. Conner had tested positive for cocaine use. Each rumor was accompanied by the publication of more photos of Ms. Conner in a bikini. Just as the scandal had been whipped into a frenzy a few days before Christmas, pageant co-owner Donald Trump declared it officially at an end. Appearing with Ms. Conner at a news conference, Trump announced that she would be forgiven and allowed a "second chance." Ms. Conner, looking tearily vulnerable and more lovely than ever, revealed that she was going into rehab and would emerge a good girl indeed. She never specified which rumors, if any, were true.
2. The Katie Rees Scandal:
Just as one Miss USA furor fizzled, another briefly flared. Katie Rees, Miss Nevada USA, was stripped of her title after photos of her "partying" a few years earlier were posted on the Internet. The pictures showed Ms. Rees, obviously intoxicated, baring her body provocatively and simulating sex with men and women. This pageant scandal provoked comparisons with two others. The first was the just-concluded Tara Conner affair. Those who sympathized with Ms. Rees protested that the only difference between her and Ms. Conner was the presence of photographic evidence. This was true, but merely proved that a picture is worth a thousand whispers. The more interesting comparison was with the scandal of 1984 that cost Vanessa Williams the Miss America crown. What Ms. Williams had been talked into doing in a modeling studio, Ms. Rees had done willingly with a crowd of friends. The lesson: There are fewer inhibitions and a lot more photographers than there were in the '80s.
3. Miss America emerged from its cocoon: After no Miss America Pageant in 2005, the long-running contest was held in January 2006 -- no longer in September, no longer in Atlantic City and no longer on network television. Airing from Las Vegas on cable's CMT, the pageant got something from a media bounce from the novelty of its new circumstances. It will air again from Vegas in January 2007, and the real test is then.
4. The Ramseys became objects of sympathy: In the summer of 2006, there were poignant reminders of the 1996 murder of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey. Her mother, Patsy Ramsey, a former Miss West Virginia who had been hounded for years by unsubstantiated allegations that she was the killer, died in June. Then, in August, suspected pedophile John Mark Karr was arrested and brought back to the United States from Thailand after claiming to be the killer. He proved to be an eccentric fantasizer, and the case remains unsolved. But the reaction to the case in the media and among the public was overwhelmingly sympathetic to a family that had once been reviled.
5. Alternatives to the traditional international pageants showed new strength: Miss Hooters International and Miss Earth were two that rose to unprecedented heights in 2006. "The whole pageant scene will be transformed in the next five years," predicted pageant expert Gerdeen Dyer, the founder of PNB.
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