The 5 top pageant news stories of 2003This list was compiled by the board of PNB, which is composed of professional journalists who have covered pageant stories in the course of their work. (The sole criterion for inclusion on this list is the lasting impact that an event will have on the pageant world. This year, several of the items concerned the profile of the pageant business in the world at large.) 1. Leslie Sale was crowned Miss Pageant.com, becoming the first holder of that title in history. "That's the big story. Hands down," the PNB experts agreed. As 2004 began, some skeptics remained in the general population. "What impact will all this have?" they were asking. But by the end of 2004, there will be no doubters. Just wait.
2. Miss World got its act together. After a debacle in Nigeria in 2002, the long-running pageant went to China in 2003. The international publicity was almost uniformly good, for China and for the pageant, although the world's largest country is not as new to the beauty business as some reports would have had us believe.
3. Media coverage of Miss America turned to the pageant's long-term problems. Most coverage of the annual September event has traditionally been routine, if condescending. But in 2003, reporters started to notice the pageant's continuing dip in TV ratings, and began to quote analysts who wondered about its future. Fortunately for traditionalists, the woman chosen Miss America in September 2003, Ericka Dunlap, showed promise of being a distinctive, engaging personality. She could help turn the whole ship around.
4. Mainstream media, perhaps taking a cue from a controversial PNB feature, began to talk openly about the appeal of pageants to gay people. Much of the non-pageant public may have been surprised to learn that the fan base for beauty competitions is not simply a mob of aging "wolves" and breast-obsessed teenage boys. Perhaps coincidentally, this trend coincided with the apex of "lesbian chic" in the entertainment business.
5. A pageant star, former PNB cover girl Jenna Morasca, almost singlehandedly revived the American reality show. Ms. Morasca won the million-dollar prize on "Survivor: The Amazon" and pushed the show's TV ratings back into the top tier. Showing her versatility, she then negotiated a million-dollar feature in Playboy magazine.
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