Miss Tennessee crowned new Miss USA By ALEX VEIGA, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 24, 7:39 AM ET
LOS ANGELES - Rachel Smith realized she had a real shot at the Miss USA crown when she made it to the top 15. Next up was the swimsuit portion of the pageant, and the journalism graduate from Tennessee told herself: "I'm just going to work it." Smith, 21, ultimately bested 50 other aspiring beauty queens to win the title of Miss USA on Friday night.
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The 5-foot, 11-inch-tall brunette is a graduate of Belmont University and a former intern for the production company behind "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
"I'm speechless at this point, I really am," Smith said after the pageant.
Contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia competed to succeed Miss USA Tara Conner, who entered rehab after accounts surfaced suggesting she was boozing at New York clubs. The Kentucky native was in danger of losing her crown, but Donald Trump, who co-owns the pageant with NBC, gave her a second chance.
The telecast didn't shy away from the controversy, opening with a string of news and interview clips about Conner's woes. Then, the 21-year-old blonde emerged onstage wearing a strapless, ruffled gown.
"It has been the most unforgettable year of my life and I'm back, and better than ever," Conner said to wild applause from the audience at the Kodak Theatre.
Smith, of Clarksville, Tenn., edged out top finalists Meagan Yvonne Tandy of California; Cara Renee Gorges of Kansas; Helen Salas of Nevada; and Danielle Lacourse of Rhode Island, who was named the first runner-up.
When asked whether she was ready to take over for Conner, Smith admitted it would "be a little bit of a challenge," but quickly added she was ready for it.
"I'm excited to see what this year will hold," she said.
Smith also praised Conner's stewardship of the Miss USA title and her handling of the challenges she faced.
"I definitely learned a lot," Smith said of Conner's tenure as Miss USA.
Asked how she would behave during her reign, Smith said: "I'm going to be honest and open."
Tim Vincent and Nancy O'Dell of "Access Hollywood" hosted the pageant, which made its return to Hollywood after two years in Baltimore.
During a brief onstage interview with Vincent and O'Dell, Conner said her future plans included writing a book, and doing "correspondence work and a little bit of acting."
Other contestants whose behavior ran afoul of the pageant's standards were not as fortunate as Conner. Miss Nevada USA Katie Rees lost her title after racy pictures of her surfaced on the Internet, and Miss New Jersey USA Ashley Harder resigned when she got pregnant. Miss USA contestants must not have ever been married or given birth.
The Miss USA Pageant began in 1952 as a swimwear promotion in Long Beach.
Contestants pay a fee to enter and must win a state title before competing for the Miss USA crown. The winner gets to live in a fancy New York apartment for a year, during which she'll spend most of her time traveling as she represents the Miss Universe Organization and speaks out on breast and ovarian cancer awareness. She also gets to represent the United States in the worldwide Miss Universe competition.
During the swimsuit competition, the beauty queens performed a synchronized strut wearing blue, pink or lilac bikinis before posing individually for the judges. All the competitors also had brief walk-ons in their evening gowns before the finalists took their solo strolls for the audience.
The audience was given the opportunity to vote, selecting Rebecca Moore of Alabama as Miss Photogenic. The contestants voted Stephanie Trudeau of Montana as Miss Congeniality.
A panel of six judges were tasked with determining the winner: TV personality Jerry Springer, "Blow Out" star Jonathan Antin, "E! News" co-host Giuliana De Pandi, MTV's Vanessa Minnillo, Baby Phat President Kimora Lee Simmons and Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss.
___
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Showing posts with label Contest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Contest. Show all posts
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
Pre-preview Miss USA 2007
New Miss USA to be selected tonight
POSTED: 3:46 p.m. EDT, March 23, 2007
Story Highlights• Miss USA contest scheduled for Friday night
• Current Miss USA, Tara Conner, embroiled in controversy
• Conner went through rehab for alcohol problems
Adjust font size:
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Beauty queens from across the nation prepared to compete Friday night for the title of Miss USA in a live televised pageant expected to go beyond the traditional evening gown and swimsuit staples and touch on the issues that nearly cost the reigning titleholder her crown.
The pageant, co-owned by Donald Trump and NBC, was making its return to Hollywood after two years in Baltimore.
Contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia were vying to succeed Miss USA Tara Conner, who entered rehab after accounts surfaced suggesting she was boozing at New York clubs. The episode might have cost Conner, a native of Kentucky, her crown, but Trump gave her a second chance.
Other contestants whose behavior ran afoul of the pageant's standards weren't so fortunate. Miss Nevada USA Katie Rees lost her title after racy pictures of her surfaced on the Internet, and Miss New Jersey USA Ashley Harder resigned when she got pregnant. Miss USA contestants must not have ever been married or given birth.
Still, Trump's decision to spare Conner sparked a war of words between the real estate mogul and "The View" co-host Rosie O'Donnell.
Far from sweeping the scandals under the rug, however, pageant organizers were using the extra attention drawn to the pageant in recent months to spotlight at least Conner's own bouts with alcohol and the steps she has taken to get help. Conner underwent a stint in rehab in Pennsylvania for her drinking.
The contestants, who arrived in Los Angeles about two weeks ago, were not allowed to go out without a chaperone. They also had to sign a "moral contract."
The Miss USA Pageant began in 1952 as a swimwear promotion in Long Beach.
Contestants pay a fee to enter and must win a state title before competing for the Miss USA crown. The winner gets to live in a fancy New York apartment for a year, during which she'll spend most of her time traveling as she represents the Miss Universe Organization and speaks out on breast and ovarian cancer awareness. She also gets to represent the United States in the worldwide Miss Universe competition.
Like the Miss America Pageant, Miss USA was incorporating a few new wrinkles to keep viewers tuned in to the action, including more behind-the-scenes shots.
The audience was also given the opportunity to cast votes from home for Miss Photogenic.
A panel of six judges were to determine the winner: Jerry Springer, "Blow Out" star Jonathan Antin, "E! News" co-host Giuliana De Pandi, MTV's Vanessa Minnillo, Baby Phat President Kimora Lee Simmons and Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss.
Hosting the pageant: Tim Vincent and Nancy O'Dell of "Access Hollywood."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/23/missusa.ap/index.html?eref=yahoo
POSTED: 3:46 p.m. EDT, March 23, 2007
Story Highlights• Miss USA contest scheduled for Friday night
• Current Miss USA, Tara Conner, embroiled in controversy
• Conner went through rehab for alcohol problems
Adjust font size:
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Beauty queens from across the nation prepared to compete Friday night for the title of Miss USA in a live televised pageant expected to go beyond the traditional evening gown and swimsuit staples and touch on the issues that nearly cost the reigning titleholder her crown.
The pageant, co-owned by Donald Trump and NBC, was making its return to Hollywood after two years in Baltimore.
Contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia were vying to succeed Miss USA Tara Conner, who entered rehab after accounts surfaced suggesting she was boozing at New York clubs. The episode might have cost Conner, a native of Kentucky, her crown, but Trump gave her a second chance.
Other contestants whose behavior ran afoul of the pageant's standards weren't so fortunate. Miss Nevada USA Katie Rees lost her title after racy pictures of her surfaced on the Internet, and Miss New Jersey USA Ashley Harder resigned when she got pregnant. Miss USA contestants must not have ever been married or given birth.
Still, Trump's decision to spare Conner sparked a war of words between the real estate mogul and "The View" co-host Rosie O'Donnell.
Far from sweeping the scandals under the rug, however, pageant organizers were using the extra attention drawn to the pageant in recent months to spotlight at least Conner's own bouts with alcohol and the steps she has taken to get help. Conner underwent a stint in rehab in Pennsylvania for her drinking.
The contestants, who arrived in Los Angeles about two weeks ago, were not allowed to go out without a chaperone. They also had to sign a "moral contract."
The Miss USA Pageant began in 1952 as a swimwear promotion in Long Beach.
Contestants pay a fee to enter and must win a state title before competing for the Miss USA crown. The winner gets to live in a fancy New York apartment for a year, during which she'll spend most of her time traveling as she represents the Miss Universe Organization and speaks out on breast and ovarian cancer awareness. She also gets to represent the United States in the worldwide Miss Universe competition.
Like the Miss America Pageant, Miss USA was incorporating a few new wrinkles to keep viewers tuned in to the action, including more behind-the-scenes shots.
The audience was also given the opportunity to cast votes from home for Miss Photogenic.
A panel of six judges were to determine the winner: Jerry Springer, "Blow Out" star Jonathan Antin, "E! News" co-host Giuliana De Pandi, MTV's Vanessa Minnillo, Baby Phat President Kimora Lee Simmons and Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss.
Hosting the pageant: Tim Vincent and Nancy O'Dell of "Access Hollywood."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/23/missusa.ap/index.html?eref=yahoo
Monday, March 5, 2007
How to Win CNBC's Million
How to Win CNBC's Million-Dollar Challenge
By Bill Barker
February 12, 2007
Driving to work the other day, I was listening to CNBC on my satellite radio, and I heard (for what must be the 40th time this week) that CNBC is sponsoring its "Million-Dollar Portfolio Challenge."
I got to thinking, "Hey, what's the strategy for actually winning this thing, or placing second-best? How can I share the information with as many readers as possible, so that I increase my chances of winding up in some rich person's will?"
So here's the information that I think will help improve your chances of winning (cue the drumroll, pause for effect, and zoom into the face of Dr. Evil) ...
One MILLION dollars!
(Sort of.)
Sort of?
Although this contest is advertised (and it's a pretty advertisement!) as carrying a $1 million prize, the fine print reveals that it will be paid out over 25 years as an annuity. It has a net present value of about $617,000. After taxes, it's probably worth a bit less than half a million. Definitely less if you're paying income taxes in the District of Columbia. Still, let's be sporting and round up to $500,000.
According to Wikipedia, 150,221 people entered last year. Given increased familiarity and more promotion, I'm guessing there should be 200,000 to 250,000 entrants this year. All things being equal, you've got about a 1 in 225,000 chance of winning this lottery.
But all things are definitely not equal in this game. Playing the right way, I think you can increase your odds.
Lessons from last year's winner
To promote the contest on its website, CNBC demands that you ask yourself: "Is Your Investment Strategy Worth $1 Million?" But, as you'll see, this contest has stunningly little to do with "investment strategy," and everything to do with maximum risk-taking.
Consider that last year's winner turned the notional $1,000,000 that a contestant starts with into more than $5 million in a period of only eight weeks.
Now, you might think that the winner must be a heckuva investor, which he might be. But according to MSN Money, his strategy was, after a good initial run of trading his way from the notional $1 million to $2 million, to put his whole "portfolio" into one stock.
Escala, if you can believe it. Yes, the winning "investing strategy" was to go all-in on a scandal-ridden fiasco of a company -- one that has subsequently seen its management group indicted, and the bet (no one would call it an "investing strategy") was made at a perfect moment as the stock recovered a portion of its price -- briefly, as things turned out.
Now, taking all of an actual $2 million portfolio and investing in a company embroiled in a Ponzi scheme investigation is reckless stupidity of the highest order. But within the context of an online stock-trading contest, where the winner gets a huge prize and the other couple hundred thousand players get nothing, it's brilliance.
That's because doing anything other than the riskiest thing possible with your play money is just accepting a loss. Somebody out of a couple hundred thousand people is going to at least triple his or her money over the course of the game. There's no real money to lose with a bad bet, and everything to gain by catching lightning in a bottle. Or if not everything....
One MILLION dollars!
(Sort of.)
Where's this year's Escala?
In this game, you really want to be "invested" in one or two stocks at a time. You'll do well fishing around the lowest market cap the game allows ($500 million), seeking stocks with high betas or other indicators of extreme volatility, and prices in or near the single digits. Popular, volatile stocks where emotions run high on both sides -- Rambus (Nasdaq: RMBS), Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), or Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) -- seem like good choices for the game, but really are too big to make the jumps you need. The chance that these three stocks could double quickly is infinitesimal.
Far better companies would be ones like CMGI, with a market cap of $600 million and a share prices less than $2. Sirius Satellite (Nasdaq: SIRI) has the right share price, but the market cap is bigger than I'd like. Ballard Power (Nasdaq: BLDP) is a pretty good choice, but I'm not sure what the definitive catalyst would be over the limited time period that the contest occurs.
I do know of one, though, that is virtually certain to take a violent move up or down during the contest.
All or nothing -- scheduled for March
AtheroGenics (Nasdaq: AGIX) is a stock tailor-made for this game. I learned about it from Charly Travers, our resident Rule Breakers biotech guru. It's a company with essentially all its eggs in one basket -- the drug AGI-1067, a coronary artery disease treatment, is in phase 3 clinical trials in co-development with AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN). According to the company, test results are due out in early March, and there is a huge market opportunity for the drug -- if trial results are successful. According to Charly, after results are announced, the company will either be worth much, much more, or perhaps as much as 70% less -- immediately.
Hey, that's perfect! If the trial results are announced in early March and come in positive, you'll be virtually guaranteed a spot near the top of the pile. And if it misses, you won't have to worry about the rest of the contest. You'll be out of the running quickly, with no real money ever lost.
Now, there are only two drawbacks to using Atherogenics -- at a market cap of $480 million, the company is just shy of qualifying for the game at today's price. Also, the trial news could be released just before the contest starts on March 5.
But even if AtheroGenics releases early, there are other companies in the same vein. So if you hope to compete in CNBC's game, that's my advice to you: Find a small, volatile stock with a potential catalyst coming in the next two months. It's not a good bet in real life, but it's your best bet to win ...
One MILLION dollars!
(Sort of.)
Our Motley Fool CAPS research service might be a good place to hunt for such a stock. Click here to sign up for free.
Bill Barker wants to send a shout-out to CNBC's Mark Haines for his years of professionalism. Bill owns shares of no company mentioned in this article. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/02/12/how-to-win-cnbcs-million-dollar-challenge.aspx
By Bill Barker
February 12, 2007
Driving to work the other day, I was listening to CNBC on my satellite radio, and I heard (for what must be the 40th time this week) that CNBC is sponsoring its "Million-Dollar Portfolio Challenge."
I got to thinking, "Hey, what's the strategy for actually winning this thing, or placing second-best? How can I share the information with as many readers as possible, so that I increase my chances of winding up in some rich person's will?"
So here's the information that I think will help improve your chances of winning (cue the drumroll, pause for effect, and zoom into the face of Dr. Evil) ...
One MILLION dollars!
(Sort of.)
Sort of?
Although this contest is advertised (and it's a pretty advertisement!) as carrying a $1 million prize, the fine print reveals that it will be paid out over 25 years as an annuity. It has a net present value of about $617,000. After taxes, it's probably worth a bit less than half a million. Definitely less if you're paying income taxes in the District of Columbia. Still, let's be sporting and round up to $500,000.
According to Wikipedia, 150,221 people entered last year. Given increased familiarity and more promotion, I'm guessing there should be 200,000 to 250,000 entrants this year. All things being equal, you've got about a 1 in 225,000 chance of winning this lottery.
But all things are definitely not equal in this game. Playing the right way, I think you can increase your odds.
Lessons from last year's winner
To promote the contest on its website, CNBC demands that you ask yourself: "Is Your Investment Strategy Worth $1 Million?" But, as you'll see, this contest has stunningly little to do with "investment strategy," and everything to do with maximum risk-taking.
Consider that last year's winner turned the notional $1,000,000 that a contestant starts with into more than $5 million in a period of only eight weeks.
Now, you might think that the winner must be a heckuva investor, which he might be. But according to MSN Money, his strategy was, after a good initial run of trading his way from the notional $1 million to $2 million, to put his whole "portfolio" into one stock.
Escala, if you can believe it. Yes, the winning "investing strategy" was to go all-in on a scandal-ridden fiasco of a company -- one that has subsequently seen its management group indicted, and the bet (no one would call it an "investing strategy") was made at a perfect moment as the stock recovered a portion of its price -- briefly, as things turned out.
Now, taking all of an actual $2 million portfolio and investing in a company embroiled in a Ponzi scheme investigation is reckless stupidity of the highest order. But within the context of an online stock-trading contest, where the winner gets a huge prize and the other couple hundred thousand players get nothing, it's brilliance.
That's because doing anything other than the riskiest thing possible with your play money is just accepting a loss. Somebody out of a couple hundred thousand people is going to at least triple his or her money over the course of the game. There's no real money to lose with a bad bet, and everything to gain by catching lightning in a bottle. Or if not everything....
One MILLION dollars!
(Sort of.)
Where's this year's Escala?
In this game, you really want to be "invested" in one or two stocks at a time. You'll do well fishing around the lowest market cap the game allows ($500 million), seeking stocks with high betas or other indicators of extreme volatility, and prices in or near the single digits. Popular, volatile stocks where emotions run high on both sides -- Rambus (Nasdaq: RMBS), Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD), or Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) -- seem like good choices for the game, but really are too big to make the jumps you need. The chance that these three stocks could double quickly is infinitesimal.
Far better companies would be ones like CMGI, with a market cap of $600 million and a share prices less than $2. Sirius Satellite (Nasdaq: SIRI) has the right share price, but the market cap is bigger than I'd like. Ballard Power (Nasdaq: BLDP) is a pretty good choice, but I'm not sure what the definitive catalyst would be over the limited time period that the contest occurs.
I do know of one, though, that is virtually certain to take a violent move up or down during the contest.
All or nothing -- scheduled for March
AtheroGenics (Nasdaq: AGIX) is a stock tailor-made for this game. I learned about it from Charly Travers, our resident Rule Breakers biotech guru. It's a company with essentially all its eggs in one basket -- the drug AGI-1067, a coronary artery disease treatment, is in phase 3 clinical trials in co-development with AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN). According to the company, test results are due out in early March, and there is a huge market opportunity for the drug -- if trial results are successful. According to Charly, after results are announced, the company will either be worth much, much more, or perhaps as much as 70% less -- immediately.
Hey, that's perfect! If the trial results are announced in early March and come in positive, you'll be virtually guaranteed a spot near the top of the pile. And if it misses, you won't have to worry about the rest of the contest. You'll be out of the running quickly, with no real money ever lost.
Now, there are only two drawbacks to using Atherogenics -- at a market cap of $480 million, the company is just shy of qualifying for the game at today's price. Also, the trial news could be released just before the contest starts on March 5.
But even if AtheroGenics releases early, there are other companies in the same vein. So if you hope to compete in CNBC's game, that's my advice to you: Find a small, volatile stock with a potential catalyst coming in the next two months. It's not a good bet in real life, but it's your best bet to win ...
One MILLION dollars!
(Sort of.)
Our Motley Fool CAPS research service might be a good place to hunt for such a stock. Click here to sign up for free.
Bill Barker wants to send a shout-out to CNBC's Mark Haines for his years of professionalism. Bill owns shares of no company mentioned in this article. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/02/12/how-to-win-cnbcs-million-dollar-challenge.aspx
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