Pageant News Bureau

Taylor Reid, a 13-year-old Christian competitor from Monroe, Ga., will perform on the USA World Showcase competition on PAX-i TV, which will be broadcast on Jan. 2, 2006. She is the only contestant from Georgia selected to compete for the TV Viewer Award in the "Idol-style" singing competition.

April Tyler has become director for the Mrs. Maryland United States
Pageant. She promises major changes for the event.

Some beauty queens gain fame thanks to silicone, but the "Kandy Girl" is into wax. Miss New York (America), Kandice Pelletier, who is also one of the Radio City Rockettes, is being measured as a model for a wax figure to be displayed by Madame Tussauds and Radio City as part of the Christmas season.

Police in Napa, Calif., announced on Sept. 28, 2005, that they had arrested a suspect in the killings of a former South Carolina beauty queen and a roommate in 2004. Authorities indicated suspect Eric Matthew Copple, 26, of Napa had some acquaintance with either Leslie Mazzara or Adriane Insogna, who were both 26 when they were killed by an intruder. The slaying took place in the predawn hours of Nov. 1, 2004, at the women's Napa residence. A third roommate was able to escape. Ms. Mazzara was Miss Williamston and competed for the Miss South Carolina (America) title in summer 2002.

Sofia Elizabeth Mocek was born to Alicia Hall Mocek and Guy Mocek on Sept. 23, 2005. It is the first child for the couple. Before her marriage, Mrs. Mocek gained fame as a swimsuit model, PNB cover girl and former Miss Resaca Beach.

TV alert

The Mrs. America Pageant will air on the WE cable channel on Sept. 17, 2005, at 8 p.m. and again at 10 p.m. EDT. It will also air on Sept. 18, 2005, at 4 p.m. EDT. Check local listings.
The Miss Venezuela Pageant will air Sept. 18, 2005, at 2 pm on Univision. Check local listings.

Ms. New York American Queen 2004, Kelly Platt, has organized a clothing drive for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Ashley Huff, who represented Nevada in both the Miss America and Miss USA pageants, has married. Her new husband is Russell Rawcliffe, an Army officer and helicopter pilot. The couple will live at his current duty station, Fort Rucker, Ala.

Model-actress-TV host Brooke Burke, a bikini star who first made a splash in Venus Swimwear competitions, and Dr. Garth Fisher, a celebrity plastic surgeon, are divorcing. The couple, who have been together seven years and have two children, separated some time ago. Ms. Burke, 33, is one of the most successful pinups of the present day: She is featured on her own calendar, designs her own line of swimwear in association with Venus and has appeared twice in Playboy magazine. Dr. Fisher was a practitioner on the program "Extreme Makeover" and has worked on some of the world's most beautiful women. The couple have said in the past that he has never done any surgical work on Ms. Burke.

Antonella Lama, who was Miss Suisse Romande 2005 and got into controversy over her selection, died in a car accident on July 16, 2005, in Italy, along with a 19-year-old brother. Her crowning as Miss Suisse Romande, queen of the French-speaking area of Switzerland, sparked claims of unfairness early in the year and led to her exclusion from the Miss Switzerland 2005-2006 Pageant.

PNB offstage archive