Beauty Queens Gone Wild

It's been a rough few days for some beauty queens affiliated with the Miss USA pageant. First the reigning Miss USA, Tara Conner, seems to have been channeling Edie Sedgwick as she burned a coke-and-alcohol fueled swath across New York. Donald Trump, the paterfamilias of Miss USA, deemed to pardon her. He had no such sympathy for Katie Rees, the former Miss Nevada USA. Some photos of her, a few years old, have surfaced of her engaging in intoxicated behavior (that's Katie in Red), and well, the Donald let the axe fall.

I'm not sure what to make of all this. First of all, I'm disgusted by the hypocrisy of beauty pageants. Women are paraded around like beef on the hoof, and yet they are supposed to be some kind of moral guidepost for girls of America? They are just one notch below nude models, and lately more of them have made that leap. Frankly, I have more respect for the demimonde of centerfolds and adult film actresses, because at least they aren't pretending to be pillars of society. Is there anything more nauseating that a woman sashaying across a stage in a bikini like a hooker, at the same time proselytizing for conservative, Christian values?

I feel bad for both of these girls. For Tara, I'll buy that she's a Kentucky girl who got caught up by associating with New York City douchebags, although I'll bet she didn't have her first whiskey or first bit of blow in the Big Apple. Than having to look to Donald Trump for help, well, god bless her. As for Katie, the photos were taken before she was Miss Nevada. As far as I'm concerned, that's water under the bridge, and shame on them for making a girl pay for a youthful indiscretion. I felt the same way about Vanessa Williams.

Katie, I'm sure the phone is ringing with offers from Playboy and Penthouse. Cash in and don't look back.