MISS USA PRELIMINARY CONTEST CUTS 51 CONTESTANTS DOWN TO 15 FINALISTS
It begins with 51 contestants representing every state in the union plus the District of Columbia. The journey will end on Friday with just one winner crowned Miss USA 2008. The weekend preliminary competition with exhaustive interviews has cut it to the final 15 but neither the lucky or unlucky beauty queens will know whether they are in or out of the finals until the Miss USA 2008 pageant goes up live on NBC-TV in five-days time. The judge’s verdicts are unknown to anybody and are safely locked up until moments before the live telecast! Then new judges take over for the toughest assignment of all.
All 51—including the brave and courageous Miss Iowa, Abbey Curran who battles cerebral palsy—performed the parade of swimsuit and evening gowns at the weekend for the preliminary judging.
All eyes were on our Miss Nevada, 23-year-old Veronica Grabowski, along with Miss Massachusetts, 23-year-old Jackie Bruno and Miss Missouri, 21-year-old Candice Crawford.
Our First Lady of Nevada, Dawn Gibbons delivered a proclamation from the Governor to the pageant participants and organizers. Hot pop-music couple Zowie Bowie, who perform at Red Rock Resort, provided the entertainment for the evening. The preliminary showing means first rehearsals for Friday’s live telecast are now officially underway and Luxe Life got the peek backstage and in the rehearsal halls.
The glamour girls got a break from the hectic dawn to dusk schedule with their charity fundraising dinner organized by former 1980 Miss Pennsylvania, Andrea Patrick Forte. She has run the Patrick Talent Agency for Miss USA contestants for the past 17 years from her Pittsburgh headquarters. A year ago she formed her Once Upon a Dream clothing company with both inspirational and motivational messages imprinted on the fashions—sold online and in specialty boutiques.
Andrea has been married for 17 years to pop-singer Fabian who is still out on tour with Bobby Rydell and Frankie Avalon and has regular concert engagements at the Dick Clark Theater in Branson, Missouri. She told me of an incredible coincidence with this year’s pageant host, Donny Osmond. “Back then Bob Barker was the show host and he wound up selecting many of my models for his TV shows,” said Andrea. “But Donny was the star entertainer that year and I got to do a tap-dance routine with him. This year he’s hosting so I’m looking forward to a reunion dance with him later this week!”
I asked Andrea who hosted the On Top of Cloud 9 dinner at Fashion Show, for this year’s entrants what the difference was between the girls then and now. She said: “Today they are thinner and taller. The voluptuous girl has gone by the board. When I entered there were no teachers or trainers. We were all just innocent at the contest. Today its become an industry and the girls are taught how to walk and talk professionally for the pageant.” Andrea writes the “Dear Andrea” column for the Supermodels Unlimited magazine. She discovered that her anecdotes and “Words to Live By” were successful on jewelry, calendars, journals, date and address books so she expanded into a made in the USA ecologically safe product-line with a portion of the proceeds going towards the American Diabetes Association because her mother, Gladys died from the disease.
At the dinner I checked in with our Miss Nevada to see how her “curfew” separation from boyfriend, Mindfreak magician Criss Angel was going. I couldn’t help noticing the major-bling ring now on the fourth finger of her left hand! She wouldn’t answer any questions about that but did tell me that they are both using email, text messaging and cell phones to keep in close touch while—like all the other contestants—she’s at the Planet Hollywood Resort and unable to get home to Henderson!
Last night (SUN) the contestants got their final break from all the pageantry with an evening of bowling up at Red Rock Resort. We’ll have those photos on Wednesday but tomorrow (TUE) Luxe Life goes on a shopping spree with the Miss USA beauty queens in Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood Resort and then show you the photos from their glamorous bikini swimming pool shoot and a night on the town at the Tryst nightclub in Wynn.