Trump Lets Miss USA Keep Her JobDec 19, 2:18 PM EST
The Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Miss USA Tara Conner, who had come under criticism amid rumors she had been frequenting bars while underage, will be allowed to keep her title, Donald Trump announced Tuesday.
"I've always been a believer in second chances," Trump, who owns the Miss Universe Organization with NBC, said with Conner at his side.
Video: Miss USA keeps her job
Trump said he and Conner had met earlier Tuesday morning.
"She left a small town in Kentucky and she was telling me that she got caught up in the whirlwind of New York," Trump said. "It's a story that has happened many times before to many women and many men who came to the Big Apple. They wanted their slice of the Big Apple and they found out it wasn't so easy."
Conner won the title in April and has been living in New York. Recent media accounts of heavy drinking brought a storm of criticism, since she was underage at the time. She turned 21 on Monday.
In a tear-choked voice, Conner said, "In no way did I think it would be possible for a second chance to be given to me."
Turning to Trump, she said, "You'll never know what this means to me, and I swear I will not let you down."
Trump said Conner would be entering rehab.
If she had been dethroned, her title would have been taken over by first runner-up Miss California Tamiko Nash.
Conner, a 5-foot-5 blonde, has been competing in pageants since age 4. After winning the Miss USA title in April, she finished fourth in the Miss Universe pageant in July.
December 19, 2006
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A day after losing one superstar for a month, the Denver Nuggets got an even bigger one -- Allen Iverson.
The four-time scoring champion was traded by the Philadelphia 76ers to the Nuggets, a person in the NBA with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press.
The trade would send Andre Miller, Joe Smith and two 2007 first-round picks to the 76ers for Iverson and Ivan McFarlin, two people familiar with the trade told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity because the deal was not announced.
A news conference was scheduled for Tuesday evening in Philadelphia.
NBA scoring leader Carmelo Anthony was suspended for 15 games because of a weekend brawl between the Nuggets and New York Knicks. Iverson now takes his 31.2 scoring average to Denver and ends 10 turbulent seasons with the franchise that made him the No. 1 overall pick in 1996.
Mau Does Some Soul-Searching
Being criticized for her dark looks is nothing new to Mau Marcelo. When she was a kid, her classmates would tease her about it and there were times that she didn’t want to go to school because she felt bad about herself. At the same time, Mau also began joining local singing contests in her native Lucena. Everytime Mau would win a trophy for her singing, this would give her a boost and develop her self esteem. As Mau joined every singing tilt that her mom can possibly bring her to Mau’s self-confidence grew and she also learned to embrace and accept herself and her looks. One of her mottos in life is “black is beautiful.”
As a singing contest veteran, Mau has been able to develop her voice really well and she has her mom to thank for the singing styles that she has learned to develop. For singing contest afficionados, Mau is best remembered as the singer that teenage pop singer Sarah Geronimo bested in a national singing tilt that launched her to stardom. Being the fighter that she is, Mau did not just fade out from the singing scene. She went back to her old life in Lucena and continued her singing career by performing with her local band. But when the announcement to the Philippine Idol auditions came, Mau was again beckoned to try her luck. With more than two hundred trophies behind her, Mau was hopeful if not confident that she would do well in this competition. Already besting hundreds before reaching the level of auditions at the PICC, Mau became contestant number 1646. When she finally met Mr. C, Mamita and Kiko she dazzled them with her voice as she sang her version of “Laging Naroon Ka.” Mr.C’s comments then were quite telling of what Mau faced in the Philippine Idol competition. Mr. C said that people usually go for those who looked slim and fair in color but in looking for a new singing icon Mr. C saw the talent in Mau and said to her, “let’s prove them wrong.”
© AP
Paris Hilton
Dec 2, 1:28 PM EST
The Associated Press
Paris Hilton won't joke about her peeps. The hotel heiress canceled an appearance at next week's Billboard Music Awards because she didn't like the jokes written for her, according to a spokesman.
"It is my understanding that some satirical references ridiculed some of her peers," her spokesman, Elliot Mintz, said in a statement. "Paris did not want to say anything that could appear hurtful or embarassing about people she knows."
Mintz said Hilton received a script Friday that contained material she found "objectionable." Representatives for Hilton and the awards show could not come to an agreement about the script's content so she decided to scrap the appearance, he said.
A call to Billboard was not returned early Saturday.
The Billboard Awards will be handed out Monday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The show is scheduled to air live on Fox.
As Queen of France, Marie Antoinette attracted enough public loathing to ensure the French monarchy's downfall. That loathing, as Caroline Weber points out in Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, was largely focused on the queen's clothes. After the royal family was imprisoned in 1792, a mob invaded the Tuileries—their palace in Paris—and made straight for the queen's wardrobe, to festoon themselves in her rich garments and then rip into shreds whatever they didn't take. Earlier, at Versailles, another mob had rushed to the queen's dressing room just to smash all the mirrors, leaving the priceless furniture and paintings untouched.
This book's theme is the way young Queen Marie Antoinette took up pointed, disturbing fashions to give herself a visible autonomy and personal force that tradition didn't provide. Weber sees this as a deliberate strategy, although it makes more sense as an instinctive maneuver. French queens had no political role, could never inherit the throne or exercise royal power, and this future queen had arrived at Versailles politically ignorant and inept. She found the court riven with faction, she had few reliable supporters of her own, and her distant imperial mother's advice soon proved useless. Marie Antoinette might well have felt that her personal style was all she could manipulate.
Oops, don't get it so literal! Actually, my favoite color is yellow, not black. I just refer the title to the topic of this page because it talks about my favorite contestants from different singing talent searches of the two tv stations in the country, ABS-CBN and ABC 5. These two contestants just happened to be black gurls.
On ABC 5, Philippine Idol has shocked the tv viewers with its system of choosing the winner. The contestant with the lowest text votes is booted out of the comptetition, while the one will survive to the finale has the chance to be the first Philippine Idol. Everyweek's result is just unpredictible who shall go home and can't continue on the running. It's nothing new to those people who've watched the American version, where Jasmine Trias ended up to the top 3.
My number one favorite for Philippine Idol is Maureen Marcelo of Lucena City. She was born to an African-American father and a Filipino mother.
When did you first start to sing?
When I was 7 years old
Do you have any formal singing training?
No