Pageant News Bureau - Miss USA 2004

Such a life

First, let's mention an amazing coincidence. New York is a big state, and it may have the most diverse population in the world. But for the second year in a row, it is being represented at Miss USA by an Arab girl from Brooklyn. Last year, the girl was Nadia Behette. This year, it's our good friend Jaclyn Nesheiwat.

That's probably the last time you will ever see us compare Ms. Nesheiwat to anybody else, because she is unique. Her life is more interesting than most people's dreams.

She was born to Jordanian immigrant parents, and raised from age 9 by her widowed mother. Now, at age 23, she has already won a major pageant, been a spokesmodel for a major soft drink, played Princess Jasmine at Walt Disney World and had a role on "Sex and the City."

She recently got back from Iraq. She met with the country's Governing Council. As a woman of Middle Eastern descent, she was fascinated and inspired by the women who are helping to build a new society there. She also met with her sister, a U.S. Army officer. (Achievement runs in the family.)

Maybe you first heard of her during her college days, when she was on the pageant circuit in Florida. She came close to winning Miss Florida USA. That's when we first met up with her. And that, of course, is when she played Princess Jasmine. If you think the animated version was adorable, you haven't seen a thing.

She wants to win Miss USA, but she has other plans, too. She wants to continue her education, become a major executive, appear on "The Sopranos" and make a movie with Robert De Niro. "But I'll continue modeling for a while," she says, "while I'm still young and intrigued."

We're intrigued.

Photos courtesy of Jaclyn Nesheiwat

Where have you been all my life?

We first caught up with Tara Darby by phone, while she was babysitting back in her hometown in Alabama. "I babysit a lot," she said, sounding very ordinary.

That's her style, so modest and unassuming that you almost forget who she is. Maybe it's a Southern thing. When we asked her about pageants, she seemed not to know where to begin. "I've lost so many," she said.

Photo courtesy of Miss Universe L.P., LLLP

Photo courtesy of Miss Alabama USA

How did a winner like her, a girl whose looks have been compared to Christie Brinkley's, manage to lose any pageants at all? Well, to put it bluntly, she was in the wrong system.

Ms. Darby tried for years to become Miss America, but she never won Miss Alabama. In fact, she never won a preliminary anywhere. She took it in stride, always willing to admit any weaknesses. "I didn't have a very strong talent," she said, "Once I fine-tuned the outfits, I wasn't too bad, but I wasn't phenomenal."

After the pageants, judges used to tell her what she could do better. Some were gentle, some a little more frank. "The hard stuff, with a teaspoon of sugar," is how Ms. Darby remembers it.

Finally, one of these judges said the magic words: "You look like Miss USA." The judge didn't say, "You look like you could be in Miss USA." She said, "You look like Miss USA."

That's what it took to get Ms. Darby to "open another door" in the pageant world. That was the door to success. She won Miss Alabama USA right away.

The moral of the story is: Tara Darby is beautiful.

Angel on wheels

Kimberly Glyn Weible is into cars, not potatoes.

Miss Idaho USA has nothing against her state's most famous crop, but she's just not a farm girl. "I've never seen a potato plant," she admitted.

She's seen plenty of engines, though. She took auto mechanics in high school for two years, and drove a paper route for five years so she could buy her first automobile. "A 94 red Camaro T-top." The loving way she described that car, it was the way some women describe diamonds.

Photo courtesy of Kimberly Glyn Weible

Ms. Weible is a racing fan who has visited tracks in several states. She even explained to us the difference between NASCAR and Indy cars, which is more than any queen has ever done for us.

She has been a dancer and cheerleader for years, and she's also a student of kickboxing and kenpo karate. We asked her if she ever uses her hands or feet to break pieces of wood. She said, "No, we don't fight wood. It has never attacked us." We were wise enough not to ask about potatoes.

With Troy McClain of "The Apprentice"

Photo courtesy of Ladd Photography

She wants to become a neonatal nurse, but so many more modeling opportunities have opened up since she won her state crown, she may have to adjust. "Movies, modeling, print work, I'm up for all of it," she said.

Ms. Weible is a pageant veteran, as you probably know. She was Miss Idaho Teen USA 1999. Her sister Christi was Miss Idaho 2001 in the Miss America system, and is looking at Miss Idaho USA herself. But right now, it's Kimberly who's in the driver's seat.

Where she ought to be

Ashley Puleo of North Carolina was a PNB cover girl a few years ago. (Maybe you remember her. She was the tall blonde stooping gracefully to pick up a rose.)

"That was the start of my career," she told us recently. It was one of the nicest compliments we've ever gotten, but she was too kind.

The picture in question was taken in Georgia. Ms. Puleo is a native North Carolinian, but she went to college in Atlanta for a few years, earning two degrees before returning to study dentistry at the University of North Carolina. While she has she been busy academically, she has been even busier in pageants. "I've competed in the Miss America and Miss USA systems in both states."

Ms. Puleo's parents are both doctors, and they had six children, which makes them overachievers in our book. The same description could apply to her. She was a volleyball and track star in college, volunteered in hospitals as a teenager and danced competitively for 13 years.

When she was in Miss America preliminaries, she became a vocalist for her talent. "I just took my shower singing to a new level," she said. "It wasn't 'Star Search,' but I got better each time. I like a challenge."

She has never made a real try at show business before. "I've only modeled a little bit, and the closest I've come to acting was in a workout video." When she visited L.A., it was to look at colleges, not to look for roles.

But now her big opportunity has come. The rose is at her feet, and all she has to do is pick it up. "Being a famous actress is my secret obsession," she told us, and maybe she meant it.

Photos by Clay Spann