Word: pageants
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...smattering of cousins and relations, plus Carol Pellegrino, Gray’s music teacher, who remembers her as a first-grade violin prodigy, and beams with pride at the fact that her pupil won the preliminary talent competition. Everyone cheers when Laurie arrives, still in her pageant makeup, but having traded in her black and white gown for a gray sweatshirt...
...chatter turns serious. “Where I’m from, three-miles-from-nowhere middle America, being in the Miss America pageant is astronomical. It’s your only chance out,” says Eric B. Hart ’03. “At Harvard people are so matter of fact about these things. Maybe we’re just used to people doing these huge things all the time...
...Miss America pageant is the type of event where middle-aged women in prom dresses line up to buy cheese fries. The tension and excitement in the air are palpable, since most people attending are directly connected to a contestant. Only the top 15 will enjoy anything but ensemble status, so ultimately the friends and families of 36 contestants might travel thousands of miles only to have their girl get cut in the first round...
...press box, the regional reporters are all pageant vets. Many of them are betting on Redd, but during the numerous commercial breaks, the conversation wanders a bit. I announce my absolute horror at child beauty pageants; my neighbor replies that she has judged a few. She doesn’t get offended, because she’s too busy looking for her friends, ardent Clay Aiken fans who call themselves “The Claymates.” The American Idol runner-up is an audience draw for the telecast...
Miss Maryland is an audience favorite, so when her name is called as a runner-up, the audience reverberates in boos. The selection of Miss Florida Ericka Dunlap comes as a total surprise to pageant watchers. Her enormous eyes widen to massive dimensions as she jumps up and down in ecstasy. Perhaps as proof that the pageant is no longer tainted by racial politics, three African-Americans have made the top 10 (including Redd), two last into the top five, and Miss America is a black woman with a platform of cultural diversity...