In the Final Vote, Great Looks Did Count
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; Page C03
Miss Texas had the sizzling stage presence and big voice, Miss Georgia the crowd-pleasing tap dancing and quick wit. So how did Oklahoma -- whose song was a little pitchy and interview a little blah -- seize the Miss America crown in Las Vegas?
"She is truly stunning," first-time pageant judge Chris Matthews explained. "Every time she walked onto the stage she stood out. And I think all of the contestants backstage knew it."
  "Stunning" Miss America Lauren Nelson and Miss Texas Shilah Phillips. (Ethan Miller - Getty Images) |
Shoulda seen it coming: Last week the TV pundit griped to us about how, back in the day, the judges always went for the brunette girl-next-door type while placing the blond bombshell second. (Ms. A is the quasi-wholesome "scholarship" contest, no relation to Donald Trump's sexy scandal-tarred Miss USA.) "This time," Matthews said after flying back to Washington yesterday, "the knockout won."
MSNBC host Matthews helped interview all 52 contestants -- asking Mississippi whether Gov. Haley Barbour's Katrina recovery efforts were working and why Faulkner never used commas.
"My job was to look for trouble" -- and weed out incompetence. "Don't you think some snarky reporter from Agence France-Presse would love to catch Miss America saying something stupid?"
A New Party Planner For the White House
Laura Bush has selected a new White House social secretary: Amy Swartz Zantzinger, a former staffer for George H.W. Bush who worked in the White House Visitors Office planning holiday activities and arrival ceremonies, then coordinated daily campaign activities for the Bush family during the 1992 presidential race.
Zantzinger, 40, is married to architect Richard Zantzinger and has two children, 6-year-old Audrey and 5-year-old Richard.
For the past few years, she's been running a small interior decorating business out of her Chevy Chase home; now she'll be in charge of all the formal entertaining at the White House.
She replaces the outgoing Lea Berman, who is leaving the $95,000-a-year job at the end of next month.
Zantzinger was not available for comment yesterday.
No Room for Alfalfa on Fenty's Plate
Mayor Adrian Fenty raised a few high-profile eyebrows for his no-show at Saturday's Alfalfa Club dinner at the Capital Hilton. The annual event, which brings together Washington's political and business elite, is considered a command performance for top-level networking, and former mayor Tony Williams (now a member) made a point of attending. Fenty was slated to sit at the head table with President Bush and Laura Bush, former president George H.W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Sandra Day O'Connor, John Roberts and most of the Cabinet.
Another snub? Fenty declined an invitation to sit with the first lady during last week's State of the Union address because of the administration's stance against D.C. voting rights. But this looks more like crossed wires: The Alfalfans thought the mayor was coming, but Fenty's spokeswoman Mafara Hobson told us he sent regrets last month and spent the night at a Ward 1 thank-you reception and a Ward 4 fundraiser for Muriel Bowser.
THIS JUST IN . . .
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz was a Fashion Don't in Turkey last weekend, when he slipped off his shoes during a mosque visit and revealed that both socks had holes. "I guess it just shows that I am not a typical banker," he told a Turkish reporter. Would you take fiscal advice from a man who won't spend $3 for new socks?
Naysayers said it would never happen, but the Police will reunite at this year's Grammys, performing publicly for only the second time since the bitter 1984 breakup. (The band got together briefly at its Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2003.) The famed members -- singer Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers -- will open the Feb. 11 broadcast and are expected to announce a concert tour later this year.
THIS JUST IN . . .
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| Wolfowitz, a bit too well ventilated in Turkey.(AFP/Getty Images) |
Naysayers said it would never happen, but the Police will reunite at this year's Grammys, performing publicly for only the second time since the bitter 1984 breakup. (The band got together briefly at its Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2003.) The famed members -- singer Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers -- will open the Feb. 11 broadcast and are expected to announce a concert tour later this year.
