Miss New Jersey Won't Give In To Blackmail

(AP)  Miss New Jersey says she won't give in to an anonymous threat that personal photographs of her will be made public if she refuses to relinquish her crown.

"It would certainly be easier for me to simply succumb to these unlawful and immoral threats, and quietly disappear," Amy Polumbo said Thursday at a news conference in Asbury Park.

Polumbo's lawyer, Anthony Caruso, said that starting last week, Polumbo, her family and officials in the Miss New Jersey Education Foundation received packages with pictures of her and the demand that she resign by Friday.

Caruso said the pictures show her with some friends and some may have been photos that she posted years ago on a private Internet site.

Did they reveal more skin than a pageant-sanctioned swimsuit? College students behaving badly, perhaps? Caruso would not say.

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Photos: There She Is, Miss America!

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"I don't think the photos are that bad," Caruso said. "The people posting this blackmail scheme are trying to make these photos out to be worse than I think they are."

He said he couldn't comment further because more photos could arrive and change everything.

The 22-year-old Polumbo won the Miss New Jersey competition last month, giving her the right to compete in the next Miss America competition — wherever and whenever it may be held.

Miss America Organization officials said they were aware of the situation, but it was up to the New Jersey pageant officials to deal with. The local affiliate did not immediately return a message Thursday from The Associated Press. But Caruso said the state competition officials were on board with her trying to fight back.

[cmp271]

Stand up against these blackmailers...they should be prosecuted. Everyone has the right to have had a life. We all do things at one time or another we don't want the world to see or know. Nothing shocks anyone anymore.

Keep her crown on.

[traveler-me]

Regardless of the nature of the alleged photos, I believe it is imperative that the blackmailer(s) be identified(FBI)and prosecuted to the absolute greatest extent of the law. The issue of "be careful what you post on the net" is a fact that has just recently become widely understood. Those who attempt to exploit that as a tool to make money or ruin peoples' lives, or maybe win pageants have some heavy restitution to make. Travel-ME

[cpaide]

I'm guessing they are photos of her and Rosie O'Donnell displaying their puffy parts. Either that or her and Donald Trump wearing each other's "rugs." Disgusting either way.

[aaabee-2009]

Thass right, girrl. Don't let them knock your crown off. It is only your external beauty that should be judged.

Lesson to future beauty queens: Don't let folks take naughty pictures of you to begin with. :)

And when, may I ask, does the beauty king pageants start? This is 2007!!!

[wiccantexan]

You go, girlfriend! These days, the worst that could happen would be that you end up with a career like Vanessa Williams'. And I don't mean that in a bad way - Vanessa took her natural talent and rose above it.

[mennowoman]

That's one good reason NOT to post personal pictures on the internet with identifying information. Private pictures of friends at a party can come back many years later to haunt you.

I've heard that the pictures show Miss NJ doing some underage beer-drinking. Although that is a serious problem, I doubt it would shock anyone.

Just be careful what you post on the internet, because everything you post can be seen by potential employers, your grandmother, the police and blackmailers.

[singerchic1]

I know Miss Polumbo personally and I can tell you that she is a true class act. She is beautiful and talented and people cannot handle their own jelousy so they need to start a scandal. I have seen most of her online photos and I can tell you there is nothing anywhere that could be misconstrued as distastful. She is a kind and caring women with a heart of gold and the person who did this is a jelous bag of nothing.