LOS ANGELES: Tara Conner ended her tumultuous reign as Miss USA on a high note on Friday, turning her highly publicised stint in rehab for drugs and alcohol into a story of courage and female empowerment.
Conner handed over her tiara to Rachel Smith, Miss Tennessee and an aspiring journalist, ending a year in which scandals revived flagging interest in a pageant industry that seemed to have lost its relevance.
Smith, a 21-year-old brunette, was chosen from 51 contestants at the end of a two-hour televised show that embraced Conner’s fall from grace and presented her recovery and honesty as a new kind of role model for young women.
Conner, now 21, saved her crown in December by tearfully agreeing to go to rehab – a move that tarnished the image of the wholesome pageant princess but gave the 55-year-old competition unprecedented publicity.
Without detailing Conner’s other admissions of using cocaine and being abused as a child, Friday’s show opened with clips of the December news conference when Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump said he was giving her a second chance.
Conner, a Kentucky blonde, then appeared alone on stage and said, to loud cheers and applause: “It has been the most unforgettable year of my life, and I am back and better than ever.”
“Now I can live my life positively and move forward,” said Conner, adding that she now had a new cause – sobriety – to champion to young people.
Presenter Tim Vincent called her a “courageous title-holder.”
“I don’t think there’s been a story like this ever in the history of Miss USA,” he said.
Beauty contests have tried for years to reinvent themselves in the face of sagging audience ratings, competition from racy TV reality shows and attacks by feminists who see the pageants as demeaning.
Friday’s show seemed to revel in the challenge. In the style of reality TV, backstage clips of the contestants getting ready and rehearsing their runway walks were shown in between the parades of ball gowns and bikinis.
Co-presenter Nancy O’Dell, six months pregnant, became the first woman to host Miss USA while expecting a baby.
Smith, who comes from a military family and has a journalism degree, worked as a volunteer in South Africa with Oprah Winfrey’s new school for girls.
Asked what she had learned from Conner’s reign, Smith told reporters: “To be honest and open.”
Scandals involving Conner and two other pageant princesses overshadowed the official mission of Miss USA 2006 to travel the nation as an advocate for breast and ovarian cancer education and research.
Trump fired Miss Nevada, Katie Rees, after racy photos of her surfaced on the Internet. Miss New Jersey, Ashley Harder, quit when she became pregnant, which is against the rules.
Conner told the Access Hollywood TV show this week she thought the pageant would benefit from her experience.
“I think it is going to bring out a whole different era of people,” she said. “The new girl will bring a new flavor to the title, just like I brought a very strange flavor to the title.” – Reuters

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