What would Bess say, today, as Miss America finally cancels its swimsuit competition?
Carson Kressley, style expert on the original 2003 “Queer Eye,” said during the Miss USA pageant that choosing a finalist was like “Sophie’s Choice.”
“When you are silent for a very long time, it comes back and bites you in the ass” Alan Cumming Tony Award winning actor-producer-activist told the guests at Safe Horizon’s April 28 Champion Awards Dinner at New York’s Grand Hyatt. The largest victims’ services agency in the United States, Safe Horizon presented “Great Scot” Cumming with its Humanitarian Award. Lauded for his role as the Emcee in the Broadway revival of “Cabaret,” Jewish political maverick Eli Gold on CBS’ “The Good Wife,” author of best-seller “Not My Father’s Son,” an emotional Cumming informed: “I was abused regularly and severely by my father — physically, emotionally, mentally. Being around him was like navigating a minefield. I could never relax. I wrote [my book] to expunge him from my life… I had no idea how much it would affect other people. I cannot advocate enough about talking, sharing…the experience of being safe. ” He choked up.
Bess Myerson’s victory as Miss America in 1945 gave American Jews hope and joy post World War II. They would soon return the favor.
Bess Myerson was more than just a leggy, musically talented performer. Masha Leon remembers a woman who never forgot her Yiddish roots.
Bess Myerson was a Bronx beauty - and so much more.
Three cheers for Miss America as it showcases our nation’s diversity. But why does the pageant have a Christian emphasis — and why is it held during the Jewish High Holidays?
FORWARD EDITORIAL: The new Miss America is getting a very different reception from her trailblazing Israeli counterpart. Maybe beauty pageants can teach us something after all.
The Anti-Defamation League has issued a statement denouncing the negative reactions to the crowning of New York’s Nina Davuluri, an American of Indian origin, as the New Miss America.