The year 2001 was the most tumultuous in PNB history. Terrorism and war haunted the world at large, casting a long shadow on the world of beauty contests.
Because our staffers are professional journalists, they had to honor more serious commitments than pageant coverage. Some found it necessary to reduce their input to PNB. Some ended it altogether. We were forced to reconsider our mission, even our very existence.
But PNB remains. And we dedicate this annual list to all our staffers and readers, past, present and future.
1. Terror in tiara land. The Sept. 11 attacks on America were a major blow to PNB, which canceled its Miss America coverage entirely when its reporters started heading off to war. Some pageants were canceled or delayed. But others went on, with organizers declaring that they would not be intimidated. Still, they were taking no chances. Security became tighter on pageant stages, with guards whisking away newly crowned winners before reporters could reach them. Swimsuit competitors started a fad for red, white and blue bikinis (one stripe, two stars).
2. Miss America and Atlantic City talked about a "divorce." For decades, the idea of the grand old pageant leaving the New Jersey resort seemed about as likely as the pope moving out of Vatican City. But in 2001, pageant officials threatened to take their show elsewhere, while city officials said there was a limit to what they could offer to satisfy the pageant's needs. The contest will remain in Atlantic City in 2002, but talk of an "inevitable" breakup is now being heard.
3. "What a woman HE turned out to be!" That's what you would have heard if the reports swirling at the Miss Universe Pageant had been true. Was the lovely Miss France, Elodie Gossuin, really a former man? Actually, no. It was all a publicity stunt, and a tasteless one at that. But millions of people believed it, and that is the important fact. We all know that medical science is pushing the envelope. Some of those women who used to be men are looking very much like women who have always been women. How long before . . . ?
4. Color in Colombia. The pageant-obsessed South American nation got its first black Miss Colombia, Vanessa Alexandra Mendoza Bustos. It's a milestone, and she's magnificent. (No, she's not formerly white.)
5. A dust storm on the horizon. Or is it a mudslide? Pageant critic Pamela A. Lamont, a sometime contributor to PNB, began work on a project supposedly called "An Outlaw's Guide to Pageants." (It sounds like a book, but even that is murky.) We only know that she intends to "expose everything and everybody" in this industry, and she has made clear that PNB will not be exempt. We don't know about you, but we plan to deny everything.
