Author: Amy Kuperinsky / Source: NJ.com
As Atlantic City celebrated the arrival of 51 Miss America contestants on Thursday, a band played the classic Bell Biv DeVoe song “Poison.”
“It’s oh so beautiful / relationships they seem from the start,” a singer crooned, echoing Ricky Bell’s famous line. “It’s all so deadly / when love is not together from the heart.
”The lyrics had the unintended effect of highlighting the rift that has torn the pageant apart.
In one camp sat Miss America 2018, Cara Mund, and her mother, Delora Kautzmann-Mund, who made the trip from North Dakota.
In another stood Gretchen Carlson, chairwoman of the Miss America board of trustees, and Regina Hopper, CEO of the Miss America Organization. Both executives — Carlson, a former Fox News host, is Miss America 1989 and Hopper is a former Miss Arkansas — are architects of the pageant’s controversial decision to nix the Miss America swimsuit competition.
But the swimsuits haven’t been the only sore point for critics of the decision.
Earlier this month, Mund, 24, sent a detailed letter to a group of former Miss Americas that alleged Carlson, Hopper and the Miss America leadership had bullied, silenced and disregarded her for months. Carlson denied her claims.
The new contestants, including Miss New Jersey, Jaime Gialloreto, filtered into Kennedy Plaza on the boardwalk wearing no crowns but sporting new black-and-white sashes designed to match a “Miss America 2.0” rebranding effort. As the 95-degree heat melted her makeup, the chestnut-haired Mund, her crown glinting in the punishing sun, flashed her vibrant smile.
“There she is,” Carlson said, addressing the crowd with the pageant’s “vision” statement. “Miss neurosurgeon. Miss social activist. Miss jet pilot. Miss investigative journalist. Miss expert coder. Miss CEO. Miss whatever she wants to be.”
Hopper buzzed about the new stage design.
“It is incredible,” she said. “It is different and you’re going to love it.”
Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam spoke like a true pageant fan.
“Atlantic City is not a city without Miss America,” he said.
But under that shiny surface, the tension only continued to build.
Just before the scheduled ceremony on Thursday, an attorney for Mund sent a letter to an attorney for the pageant firing the latest shot in the Miss America feud that has threatened…
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