Kitty Hiccup Named Drag-Queen of Queens

ATLANTIC CITY - The top cat at this year's Miss'd America pageant is the leopard print-clad Kitty Hiccups.

Hiccups, also known as 32-year-old David Hyland, was crowned the 2011 Miss'd America on Sunday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

Hiccups walked away with the title after singing a rendition of "I Wanna Be A Rockette" in the talent portion of the irreverent and often hilarious drag-queen pageant, itself a spoof of the famous Miss America Pageant.

The popular fundraiser returned bigger and better last year after a 5-year absence. It takes place on the same runway once used by the "real" beauty queens, who have since moved on to Las Vegas.

This year's pageant, which was organized by the Greater Atlantic City GLBT Alliance and the Schultz-Hill Scholarship Foundation, featured eight contestants.

Within minutes of the show's opening, Miss'd America's celebrity host, comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer, offered her thoughts as to why the satire was better than the original.

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but what happens in Atlantic City matters," Westenhoefer said, The Press of Atlantic City reported on its website.

The theme of the 2011 pageant was "Boardwalk Empress," capitalizing on the fame of the HBO television series "Boardwalk Empire," which premiered in September. Accordingly, the pageant's set and production numbers mimicked a 1920s speakeasy.

The eight contestants competing for the crown sang and danced through various musical numbers in between competing in evening gown, interview, swimsuit and talent competitions.

The newspaper said the contestants brought the crowd of more than 1,200 attendees to their feet several times, with performances by Navaya Shay, whose real name is Thom Gait, doing a Lady Gaga number, and Shi-Queeta-Lee, whose real name is Jerry VanHook, who did an act impersonating Tina Turner.