‘Vanessa: welcome back!' Miss America CEO apologizes to star ... 32 years later

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/14/miss-america-ceo-apology-vanessa-williams

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She wore the crown – briefly – 32 years ago, but Vanessa Williams got her moment of Miss America redemption on Sunday night.

Sam Haskell, executive chairman of the Miss America pageant, apologized to the entertainer for the way the pageant’s predecessors handled a controversy involving nude photos of Williams.

The photographs were published in Penthouse several months after she became the first African American Miss America. Williams resigned the title in 1984.

Haskell, who was not involved with the pageant at the time, said, “I want to apologize for anything that was said or done” during the photo scandal. “Vanessa: Welcome back!”

Williams, who went on to become a famous singer and stage and TV actress, said from the stage she “did the best I could” during the scandal.

Meeting with reporters after the pageant, Williams lavishly praised the new Miss America, Miss Georgia Betty Cantrell, then reflected briefly on her own short reign as Miss America.

“I want to thank everyone who has come up to me over the past 32 years and said, ‘You’ll always be MY Miss America,’”Williams said. “I got a chance to be on the stage and represent what I represented back in 1984. Thank you so much for being so welcoming to me.”

Since her 1988 debut album, The Right Stuff, Williams has sold more than 7m records worldwide and has scored No 1 and Top 10 hits on various Billboard album and singles charts, including pop, dance, R&B, adult contemporary, holiday, Latin, gospel and jazz.

Her work has been honored by four Emmy nominations; 17 Grammy nominations (of which 11 were for her individually); a Tony nomination, three Screen Actors Guild award nominations; seven NAACP Image Awards; and a Golden Globe, Grammy and an Oscar for Best Original Song for her platinum single Colors of the Wind, from the Disney film Pocahontas.

She also starred on the TV shows Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives.

Williams co-starred with Cicely Tyson and Cuba Gooding Jr in Broadway’s The Trip To Bountiful in 2013. She returned to the Great White Way the next year in the musical After Midnight.

Miss Georgia Betty Cantrell won the title on Sunday night.

Cantrell was asked during the question and answer portion of the pageant whether New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady cheated en route to his team’s run to a Super Bowl title last season by using footballs that were improperly deflated. A league-imposed four-game suspension of Brady was recently overturned by a federal judge.

During the pageant, Cantrell said, “I’m not sure” when asked if Brady cheated. “I’d have to see the ball and feel it” she said, before adding, “If there’s any question, then yes, he cheated.”

Asked by the Associated Press to clarify her remarks afterward, Cantrell said: “It was kind of a funky question to ask me if Tom Brady cheated. I’m not a football player and I really wasn’t there to feel that ball. If there was any question as to whether or not he cheated and somebody else felt the ball and decided that it was deflated, then yes, I guess he did cheat.”

Cantrell won a $50,000 scholarship along with her title.