By Emily Cook
The 2010 Miss America Pageant promises to be an exciting event with the announcement of the strikingly diverse panel of national judges. This year’s panel of seven esteemed judges includes a Miss America turned opera singer and philanthropist; an accomplished actress; an Olympic gold medalist; a six-time Grammy nominee; the most listened-to radio talk show host in America; a successful comedian, and an American Idol finalist. They will evaluate the contestants from the preliminaries through the final night of competition, which will be premiering live from Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 8:00PM ET live/PT tape-delayed, exclusively on TLC.
The judges were announced by Sam Haskell, III, Chairman of the Board for the Miss America Organization (MAO), Art McMaster, President and CEO of MAO, and Anthony Eaton, Producer of the 2010 Miss America Pageant. This year’s panel of judges is comprised of experts in each of the fields that a young woman must excel in, in order to be named Miss America. Miss America must be talented, intelligent and well-spoken, a leader, have a commitment to her community, be contemporary in her style and fashion — a relatable and individual ‘it girl’ who can connect with today’s modern woman, as well as being physically fit. To determine who will be Miss America 2010 the following panel of judges has been selected:
From the Field of Beauty - Vivica A. Fox - Fox is an accomplished actress and producer that has appeared on both the small and big screens in every type of genre. She is currently the host of the new reality series, “The Cougar,” and returned for the new 2009 season of Larry David’s HBO hit comedy, Curb Your Enthusiasm as the feisty “Loretta Black.” She is the recipient of numerous awards including the NAACP Spirit Award, the NAACP Image Award and Prism Award, the Trumpet Award for Outstanding Career Achievements in Film, the Lady of Soul Lena Horne Career Achievement Award and an MTV Movie Award. She was also named as one of People Magazine’s fifty most beautiful people.
From the Field of Community Service - Miss America 2002 Katie Harman - Since her year, Harman tours nationally and internationally as an acclaimed classical and operatic vocalist with a myriad of opera and musical theater companies, symphony orchestras, and special events. Also a recording artist and television personality, she can next be seen in a principal role as a singer on HBO’s Big Love (airing March 2010). An active cancer advocate, she serves on numerous boards of cancer organizations and hospitals and is the National Spokesperson for the Touched by Cancer Organization. Additionally, her philanthropic efforts target women’s issues, homelessness, and arts education.
From the Field of Fitness - Shawn Johnson - Johnson is an 2008 Olympic gold medalist for gymnastics. She was named the 79th Amateur Athletic Union Sullivan Award recipient, one of the most prestigious honors in amateur sports and became the youngest ever contestant and season eight champion on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. Johnson is also involved in programs that promote healthy nutrition and exercise and help build good character amongst youth across the country.
From the Field of Talent - Dave Koz - Koz is a six-time Grammy nominee, multi platinum pop instrumentalist. Recently honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Koz hosts an afternoon radio show that’s nationally distributed on the Smooth Jazz Radio Network as well as the syndicated Dave Koz Radio Show, now in its 15th year and airing on weekends in approximately 120 markets. He has served for 17 years as global ambassador for the Starlight Children’s Foundation and is an ongoing member of the Board Of Governors for the Grammy® Foundation.
From the Field of Communications/Interview - Rush Limbaugh - Limbaugh is the outspoken, conservative and ultra-popular host of The Rush Limbaugh Show, an AM/FM radio show about American politics with an audience of 20 million. Limbaugh is involved in charities including the Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation and the Leukemia Lymphoma Foundation. He is a best-selling author and was nominated in 2007 for the Nobel Peace Prize.
From the Field of Entertainment - Paul Rodriguez - Rodriguez is an actor and comedian whose career spans more than two decades and includes starring roles and featured appearances in over 40 films and countless television series and specials. Throughout his career Paul has remained involved with various charitable, civic and educational organizations including the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. As Chairman of the California Latino Water Coalition, Rodriguez was recently honored with a Humanitarian of the Year Award for his work on behalf of water conservation.
From the Field of Creating America’s Rising Talent - Brooke White - White is a singer and songwriter who is most known for her appearance as a finalist on season seven of American Idol. She recently released her debut album, High Hopes & Heartbreak, in which she shares with the world, her love for the music that has shaped her.
Posted by Emily Cook on 12/10 at 07:37 PM
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By Emily Cook
My holiday weekend was wonderful! I really enjoyed having my family here and especially Mr. Tom!
I met with my make up artist for Miss America on Saturday and we worked on my different looks for Miss A. I’m really excited with what we came up with! Make up isn’t the whole thing, but it is an important part!
On a totally different note, I hope you were able to see the space shuttle and international space station go by on Thursday night. It was SOOOO COOL! If you missed it, maybe there are pictures online. I felt like a little kid staring up at the sky watching two bright lights streak by, but man was it awesome! I guess it’s just that human instinct to explore, but to think that there were people orbiting the Earth in those two little dots was awe inspiring!
Hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
And now on to Holiday Season!
Posted by Emily Cook on 12/01 at 06:58 PM
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By Emily Cook
This week has been absolutely crazy! Another bazillion miles added to my car and visited a number of cities across GA. This is really intense and I can only imagine keeping this kind of pace up for months on end! New found respect for Miss America! (Go Katie!)
A definite highpoint of this week was my visit to Reynolds plantation. The entire staff and group of residents made every effort to make me feel like a VIP. I played golf with 6 ladies from the Plantation Ladies Club and one of the female golf pro’s. We only got 12 holes in before it started raining, but we had a great time and I even outdrove the pro a number of times! Miss Georgia has officially gotten street credit for her golf game!!! Later that evening the ladies took me out to dinner and introduced me to the culinary staff. They knew I liked to cook so the chefs prepared a couple of dishes that were figure friendly for me and still incredibly delicious! I stayed the evening in one of the cottages they have there. The cottages are immaculately designed and truly awesome to stay in! I hope I get to go back soon! Wednesday I spoke at the Ladies Luncheon and played my Miss America piece for the first time in public! It went really well and was well received (which is almost more important).
Thursday I was in Albany for the PX grand opening at the Marine Corps Base. My very first appearance as Miss GA was at this base so it was really special to go back there. I saw some of the staff and marines that made my first visit so nice and made new friends too! Mandy Cavanaugh was my chaperone and we had fun until she got stung by a bee! On the head! I did my very best primate grooming impersonation and took the stinger out of her hair! I felt so bad for her, but she told me this morning that the swelling is finally going down.
Last night I went to this really awesome event in Buckhead for a special type of wine from France. It was put on by the French American Chamber of Commerce and I have to say I was really impressed, not only by the scale of the event, but because they asked me to be there. It’s not the normal or usual group that invites Miss Georgia to events, but I think that’s a really good sign. All of the people there now know about Miss America and Miss Georgia so this is a step forward! I hope this is
Posted by Emily Cook on 11/23 at 09:46 PM
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By Emily Cook
So it’s been another busy week of Miss A prep! 70 days and counting!
Earlier this week I went out with the awesome Trivino brothers, as Emily, not Miss Georgia…which, every now and then, is really nice! I did some fabulous networking and a little relaxing!
The rest of the week has been a blur of workouts and oboe practicing, but very productive nonetheless.
Listen for me tomorrow on 101.1 FM in Thomaston. If you can’t pick it up where you are, you can listen live at http://www.Fun101FM.com. I will be a cohost on their morning show starting around 7:30 and going til 8:30 or so.
I have a very busy weekend but I’ll save it for a recap rather than a preview!
Hope you have a good one!
Posted by Emily Cook on 11/11 at 09:09 PM
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By Emily Cook
The past week has been incredibly intense as far as the Miss America prep goes. I started training full time with Roland and I must say, he is TOUGH! I am still enjoying my workouts, it’s just a long and a very strenuous process.
Friday night I was treated like a queen at the Countryside festival in Butler, GA. When I got there, they had a red convertible and two police cars escort me through the town with the sirens blaring! It was so funny! To say it is a big deal when Miss Georgia comes to town in Butler is an understatement!. I heard that Butler has the longest or one of the longest running arrangements with Miss Georgia and has had her come to the Countryside festival for somewhere around 40 years! Once I was there, I signed autographs and posed for pictures then judged the Miss Countryside festival. There were 34 beautiful little girls in 4 categories and I think everyone had fun! My fellow judges were also very familiar to me as they were Ms. Helen Turner from the Miss Georgia Board and my roomie from Miss Georgia, Jessica Scott! I had so much fun with them!
Saturday I had a Christmas photo shoot with two of my favs, Matt and Meredith Boyd. We had a great time goofing off in Santa hats and playing with over-sized ornaments while trying to look regal! Many thanks to the Boyds for volunteering their time and talents for this! I can’t wait to see the results!
Saturday evening I went to the Cattlebarron’s Ball in Peachtree City which raised money for the American Cancer Society. It was western themed so wearing jeans to a fancy ball was a nice change! My friend Sara who also went to UM and now teaches up in Cobb County now was my chaperone and an excellent one at that! Someone even asked if she was my body guard!!! We had such a great time dancing to country music and helping with the auction items. I believe this event, which has been going on for 7 years, crossed the 1,000,000 dollar mark this year so many congratulations to them!!!!
As for today, I just got done exercising and now I’m trying to rest up a little bit before a dinner tonight and a return to Columbus tomorrow. It has been nice seeing my family this weekend and a welcomed diversion for me!
Hope your week is wonderful and isn’t too Rainy!!!
Posted by Emily Cook on 11/10 at 01:51 PM
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