Pageant Place: Three Crowns Sharing One Apartment

hiake · Oct 10, 2007

Three Crowns Sharing One Apartment

As the co-owner of the Miss Universe, Miss America and Miss Teen USA pageants, Donald Trump is no stranger to what happens backstage. In the worst moments there, he said, he witnessed monumental catfights, jealousy, anger and hostility. He was, in a word, inspired.

“Boy, would this make a great TV show,” Mr. Trump said he mused one day about his front seat at the Olympics of beauty and poise, where, he added, he also saw plenty of good along with the bad. “I think that history has proven that people watch beautiful women.”

“Pageant Place,” which begins tonight at 10:30 on MTV, is the show that ran with Mr. Trump’s idea. The eight-part series hopes to give viewers a multidimensional look at life after the crown. It shows the winners of Mr. Trump’s three pageants living together in a three-bedroom Midtown Manhattan high-rise and performing their year of queenly duties. Trump Productions and the Miss Universe Organization are producing the show, along with Evolution Film & Tape Inc.

The cameras follow Katie Blair, Miss Teen USA 2006, and her successor, Hilary Cruz; Riyo Mori, this year’s Miss Universe; and Rachel Smith, this year’s Miss USA as they handle photo shoots, travel the world and visit philanthropies. (Only three live in the apartment at a time.) The promotions for the series promise that it will reveal the sisterly outings as well as the occasional high-level squabbles, like the time Ms. Smith sniped, “You are a teeny-bopper,” and Ms. Blair fired back: “You’re Miss USA. I’m Miss Teen USA.”

“Pageant Place” also stirs the pot with occasional visits from Mr. Trump, the star of “The Apprentice” on NBC and a man who knows his way around a camera. On screen more frequently is Tara Conner, Miss USA 2006, fresh from rehabilitation for alcoholism and drug addiction, now an unofficial beauty queen adviser with tips on makeup and the news media. Think of it as a reality TV gumbo of public relations, soap and therapy.

“I thought part of it would be therapeutic,” Ms. Conner said of her return to public life. It was a chance to mend some fences and show off after conquering addiction and multiple snark attacks, she said. It was also a nod to Mr. Trump, she said, because he gave her “a huge blessing” last year.

In December Mr. Trump decreed that Ms. Conner, now 21, could keep her title — despite her underage drinking and other follies — after she decided to undergo treatment. Ms. Blair also hit some behavioral snags, incurring the wrath of groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Given those beauty pageant black marks and the current obsession with “girls gone wild” — Lindsay, Britney, Paris — the current crop of winners looks pretty antiseptic. Paula M. Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization, which produces all three pageants, said that putting them on television for a youthful audience was part of an effort to signal transparency after weathering a bad spell.

“It’s a good way to show what these young women’s lives are like,” Ms. Shugart said, mentioning the challenges of stepping from anonymity into the limelight. “We’re not pretending these girls are perfect.”

The shared apartment is not a new twist for a television show, she said, but an arrangement the 56-year-old organization has employed for a few years.

In an interview the three current title holders — glamorous even in casual clothes — said they liked the idea of being able to be seen as more than gossip column fodder and examples of good bone structure. They guessed that the backstage bickering Mr. Trump witnessed might have been instances of last-minute nerves.

They travel a lot, they said, serving as spokeswomen for causes like cancer and AIDS research and youth programs. What little downtime they have is spent ordering vegetables and fruit from Fresh Direct, getting their nails done together and helping Ms. Mori, who is Japanese, with her English.

“We talk about boys,” Ms. Smith, a 22-year-old from Clarksville, Tenn., said. They also chat about big plans: Ms. Smith wants to start a philanthropic organization and be a journalist; Ms. Mori, 20, is seriously interested in ballet; and Ms. Cruz favors theater.

“The girls have become my sisters,” said Ms. Cruz, who is 18 and from Louisville, Colo. “There’s no fighting. We all know who we are as individuals.”

“We want America to see there is so much substance to us,” she continued. “They see the pretty girl being crowned and at the end of the year giving the crown to someone else.”

Like anyone, they have their moments. “Pageant Place” reveals some. Ms. Smith is still remembered for falling during the Miss Universe pageant in Mexico City in May, and that tape rolls. Also, she is seen reacting badly to the news that Mr. Trump has asked her predecessor, Ms. Conner, to come aboard.

“Why?” she pleads. “Why do you have to do this?” All the women have now come to appreciate Ms. Conner, Ms. Smith said.

Tony DiSanto, executive vice president of series development and programming at MTV, said the network loved the inherent drama of three women with crowns living together. He hinted that Episode 1 would reveal a previously undisclosed history between Ms. O’Connor and Ms. Blair.

“Katie and Tara were close, then something happened, partially involving Katie’s boyfriend,” he said.

Mr. Trump said he brought Ms. Conner into the mix because she is popular with the public at a time when celebrities talk openly about their struggles with depression and addiction.

“She’s a very compelling figure in terms of television and ratings,” Mr. Trump said. “Tara is like the protector — she’s been through it for a year. She’s really beautiful, and it’s proven that people like her.”

With cameras there much of the time, the women of “Pageant Place” said they expected viewers would come to regard them more like the girls next door. “You’re going to see us with bad hair days,” Ms. Cruz said with a grin.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/arts/television/10trum.html?ref=television
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I am sure there are a lot of sex drugs and rock'n'roll in that household...

On second thought, there may not be, since it has to be a viewer friendly show -sweat

Pageant Place: Three Crowns Sharing One Apartment

hiake Vardøgr of da E.Twin