Is Miss USA Tainting The Tiara?

Pageant Princess Has Frequented Local Bars, Putting Reign In Jeopardy

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NEW YORK, Dec, 15, 2006 | by Amy Bonawitz

(AP)  As Miss USA, Tara Conner is considered a role model and is expected to act accordingly.

Now pageant organizers are expected to make a decision within a week on whether the 20-year-old Conner has lived up to those expectations.

The Miss Universe Organization said Thursday that it was evaluating Conner's "behavioral and personal issues," but she has not been stripped of her tiara. The organization and the Miss USA pageant are owned by Donald Trump and NBC.

"The Miss Universe Organization and Mr. Donald J. Trump will be evaluating her behavioral and personal issues to see what we can do to work with her and what we will do about her reign going forward," said the organization's president, Paula M. Shugart. "Mr. Trump will make a determination and announcement within the coming week."

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Photos: Miss Universe

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Shugart did not say what Conner had done to prompt the evaluation. But Shugart's statement came on the heels of a report that Conner, a Kentucky native who lives in New York, had been frequenting local bars, putting her reign in jeopardy.

Miss USA is considered an example, and her conduct must reflect that, Miss Universe Organization spokeswoman Lark-Marie Anton said. Behavior such as underage drinking is clearly prohibited, she said.

In an interview, Trump declined to discuss Conner's behavior.

"I can't really talk about it now," Trump said. "But we have to make a decision. There is no question about that."

Trump said if Conner gets the boot, first runner-up Miss California Tamiko Nash would take over as Miss USA.

Trump said he had not spoken with Conner.

A telephone message left for Conner with her grandmother was not immediately returned Thursday.

But her parents and an aunt stood up for Conner in comments published in Friday's editions of The New York Daily News.

"To my knowledge, nothing is going on," Conner's mother, Brenda Johnson, told the newspaper. "I love my daughter and stand beside her."

Added aunt Carol Anderson: "That's not Tara. I don't think she would jeopardize such an honor. To me, it's all hearsay."

Conner, a 5-foot-5 blonde, has been competing in pageants since age 4. She won the title of Young Miss Russell County in Kentucky at a county fair when she was 13, and by 2002 she was second runner-up in Miss Teen USA. She finished fourth in the Miss Universe pageant in July.

Conner's "dream job is to be a television host" and "be the next Kelly Ripa," she told the Miss USA Web site.

If Conner is dethroned, it would not be the first time Trump has dealt with such a scenario. In 2002, Russia's Oxana Fedorova won the Miss Universe pageant but was stripped of her title after violating her contract.

"We had a Miss Universe from Russia that was a total disaster, and we fired her, and Miss Panama took over, and she did great," Trump said.

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