Reasons To Watch This Year's Beauty Pageants
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Photo: © Gary Gershoff/WireImag
Current Miss America, Teresa Scanlan, was crowned after calling Wikileaks espionage and denying the public's right to government information. Maybe this year's winner can start her tour at Guantanamo Bay and wipe away her tears of joy with the Constitution.
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Photo: © Zimbio
We understand why someone would vote for Lindsay Evans in a scholarship competition. 2008's Miss Louisiana Teen is in serious need of some schooling! She decided to dine and dash in her home state, but forgot to take her purse when she ran. Oh, and it had a bag of weed in it.
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Photo: © Noel Vasquez/Getty Images
Instead of writing about South Carolina's Cait Upton, we'll let her speak for herself. Behold, Cait's answer to 'Why can't many American's locate the US on a map?': "Some people out there in our nation don't have maps and uh, I believe that our, I, education like such as, uh, South Africa, and the Iraq, and I believe that they should, uhhh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us."
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Photo: © Behindthecrown.com
1981's Miss Arkansas, who went on to win the Miss America title, was one of the many women who had an alleged affair with President Bill Clinton. The pageant queen told newspapers in 1998 that she and the former Arkansas governor got it on during her reign.
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Photo: © Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Rick Alonso, a sponsor of Miss America preliminaries in California, was exposed as a gay porn star and owner of three adult websites last November. Alonso, who operated in gay porn under the alias Jake Cruise, was a major donor to the scholarship organization. Talk about dirty money.
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Photo: © Jason Kempin/WireImage
Former Miss USA Tara Connor was forced into rehab after reports of her drinking and drug abuse surfaced during her 2006 reign. We don't know what's more embarrassing: being ratted out by the current Miss Teen USA, or getting a public scolding from Donald Trump.
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Photo: © Denise Truscello/Getty Images
Thou shalt not open thy mouth when thou has nude photos lurking. It didn't take long for Carrie Prejean, 2009's Miss California USA, to back up a series of anti-gay comments (made during the competition's Q&A) with her devout Christian upbringing. It took even less time for bloggers to dig up topless pictures the beauty queen took during her time as a model.
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Photo: © STR/AFP
It's not everyday that Miss Universe execs have to tell a contestant to put on clothes, but that's exactly what happened to Miss Colombia, Catalina Robayo. Turns out the beauty queen made a habit of going commando in short skirts and dresses.
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Photo: © AFP
This pageant queen found herself behind bars when she was caught hanging out with a cartel lord and his posse of drug dealers. Mexico's Laura Zuniga was also traveling with guns and around $100,000 cash.
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Photo: © HOANG DINH NAM/AFP
While most girls on our list had figurative slip-ups, plenty of pageant winners quite literally succumb to gravity. Take 2008's Miss USA, Chrystie Stewart, for instance.
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Photo: © Getty Images
Remember in college when you couldn't drink in sorority letters? Well, Washington's Elyse Umemoto missed that chapter meeting because the girl got caught playing a full game of beer pong wearing her crown. While pageant execs were pissed, Jeff Probst didn't mind and cast her in 2011's Survivor South Pacific.
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Photo: © Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images
The original beauty queen scandal. Vanessa Williams was the first black Miss America, crowned in 1984. The same year, she was stripped of her crown when nude photos of Williams were published in Penthouse. Nearly three decades later it looks like the former pageant winner is doing just fine without the tiara.
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Cait Upton was probably frightened, and would answer much better if not under pressure. Show compassion.
Posted 3:23 PM on 01/15/2012