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BB of MontanaBrigitte Bardot, the stunning French blonde, burst onto the entertainment scene in the early 1950s and quickly made "BB" the most exciting pairing of letters in the alphabet. Today, with Ms. Bardot living quietly in retirement, there's a new BB in the pantheon of glamour, Brandi Bjorklund of Montana. But while Ms. Bardot had the image of a naughty playgirl, Ms. Bjorklund is as irresistibly wholesome as a freshly baked pie out of grandma's wood stove. |  |
| She's a modest young woman. "My whole life I was being sent pageant applications," she says, but she admits that she never dared to fill any of them out. "I didn't have much self-confidence." It took an old friend and mentor to put her on the path to a title. Reno Wittman, whom pageant fans will remember as Miss Montana USA 1998, had met Ms. Bjorklund through high school cheerleading circles, and she knew a winner when she saw one. After a little persuasion, young BB stepped into competition. |
| Ms. Bjorklund gained a lot of self-confidence at the 1999 Miss Montana USA Pageant, finishing as second runner-up. The next year she won the state title. She expects the Miss USA competition to be unlike anything she's ever done, "like a Hollywood beauty pageant," but by now she's ready for anything. |
Ms. Bjorklund's life has not been easy. There was a suicide in her family a few years ago, and she became active in an adult suicide support group, as well as facilitating a teen suicide support group at her high school. Her poetry on the subject will soon be part of a book about children coping with death. Today she's working on a degree at the University of Montana, majoring in psychology, hoping to make life better for children and families. But if a show business career comes calling, "I'd consider it," she says. That's all we can ask. Photos courtesy of Brandi Bjorklund |
One fair ladyYears before Patti Dunn was born, her parents fell in love . . . with Georgia. "They're originally from Oklahoma," says Miss Georgia USA, "and they came here because my dad was transferred by his company." But a few years later, when the company planned to transfer her father again, from the Peach State to the Midwest, he and his wife decided they weren't going. They were home. That's why Ms. Dunn, 24, is a native Atlantan. But she would she be a standout on any stage, anywhere, and in fact she is. |  |
| She has modeled all over the United States and Europe. "I've done everything print, runway, TV commercials, magazine covers." Not only has she worked as a model, she has even owned her own modeling agency, acquired in her early 20s. It was a lot of work, but she insists it was just as much fun as being in front of the camera. She took a career gamble and sold the agency while she was preparing for the Miss Georgia USA competition. "I couldn't do both things at once," she says. The gamble paid off. |
| Ms. Dunn's busy modeling schedule has kept her from being a pageant regular for the past few years, but she represented Georgia at Miss Teen All American in 1992, and she finished as second runner-up. She decided to go for the Miss USA crown because she sees it as a steppingstone to a film career. "I always adored Audrey Hepburn in 'My Fair Lady,' and I idolize Meryl Streep. I finally admitted to myself that I really want to be a movie star." If Ms. Dunn wins the national title, she will be living in New York for a year. If she doesn't, she will be moving straight to L.A., her ultimate destination. |  |
She won't be lonely in Tinseltown. Little sister Heather, another well-known Georgia model, is there already. Can there be two stars from one state, from one family? There's no law against it. Top photo by The Image Box; pageant photo by Ken Dunn |
A woman of lettersRhode Island is the smallest state in the nation. Some would even call it tiny. (Alaska, the biggest state, is more than 500 times as large.) But Heidi St. Pierre doesn't think of Rhode Island as small. She thinks of it as cozy. In such a compact but diverse place, says Miss Rhode Island USA, you are never far from anywhere you want to go. Ms. St. Pierre lives in the state's back country, a picturesque corner of rural New England that seems to belong in a Robert Frost poem. |  |
| But she can drive to the Atlantic Coast in an hour, sometimes less, and she's very much at home on the beach. Ms. St. Pierre attends the University of Rhode Island, majoring in education and minoring in exercise physiology. She also teaches preschool and is a mentor in an after-school kindergarten. She has been modeling for a decade, and some assignments have taken her far beyond New England. She's occasionally tempted to try a career as an actress, but leaving the classroom would be hard, because "I love the kids." |
 | Her biggest professional passion is writing, both journalism and fiction. She's at work on a romance novel, but she says it's proceeding slowly because she's a perfectionist, like most schoolteachers. Though Ms. St. Pierre would prefer to do a historical or even Gothic novel, she's keeping her first effort "mostly contemporary, because with historical fiction you have to have all your terms just right." |
| Ms. St. Pierre represented her state in the Miss Teen All American Pageant, but it was competing for the Miss Rhode Island USA crown that really made her a pageant veteran. She tried four times before winning. Her philosophy is simple "Start and keep trying till you get what you want." Copy that off the blackboard, young ladies. More Miss USA 2000 coverage: |
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