Las Vegas Weekly

April 14, 2009 · 3:14 PM

Photo Galleries: Miss Nevada USA shines in preliminary competition

By Robin Leach

Miss Nevada USA Georgina Vaughan.

Photo: Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

Our hometown darling and embedded Vegas DeLuxe special correspondent Miss Nevada USA Georgina Vaughan dazzled and shined in last night’s first round of preliminary competition for Sunday’s Miss USA 2009 pageant. Georgina has been filing regular blogs for us since the other 50 contestants arrived in Las Vegas.

Here’s our first photo gallery dedicated just to Georgina!

Contributing photographer Tom Donoghue and I were on duty at the Theatre for the Performing Arts in Planet Hollywood last night when all 51 contestants took part in the swimsuit and evening gown categories of competition.

We also got to see the opening live stage number where the girls are dressed in sequined bra tops and hot shorts after peeling off their short bathrobes from the pre-taped shoot out on the steps of Planet Hollywood’s forecourt. Click HERE for those first photos we posted over the weekend.

There’s no rest now for the glamour girls who face hours of interviews over the next two days. They also have intense rehearsals for the stage portion of their routines. Then Thursday night, it’s the second round of preliminary competition. It’s from the preliminary rounds and the interviews that the Top 15 finalists are selected within the first half-hour of the telecast.

Here’s our second photo gallery of the other contestants who received some of the biggest cheers of the night.

Miss USA 2008 Crystle Stewart described the first night backstage as “very chaotic for all 51 girls.” She told us: “They are frantic making last-minute adjustments to their wardrobe, their makeup, their hair. Do the extensions work? Should they go?

“It’s all very chaotic even though they walk out on stage as cool and calm as could be. Every one of them is beautiful and could be a winner. It is going to be a very tough year for the judges to decide."

Vegas DeLuxe will have full photo coverage each day as each step of the contest continues onward to the big night Sunday live from the Strip on NBC.

Georgina Vaughan’s blog

Georgina has been blogging exclusively for Vegas DeLuxe during the two weeks the Miss USA 2009 contestants have been at Planet Hollywood. Here’s Georgina’s latest installment just hours after last night’s first-round of preliminary competition in the evening gown and swimsuit categories:

Photo: Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

“All I have to say is I am high on life right now! Last night was the prelim competition, and truly it could not have gone any better. I have not seen my family and friends for almost two weeks now, and as I was getting ready in the dressing room knowing over 2,000 people would be watching, all I could think about is how I want to go out there and make my loved ones proud.

“For those of you who don’t know, prelims are the pre-pageant that have a different panel of judges who decide the Top 15. It is almost more important than the telecast because it is what gets you to compete for the crown of Miss USA.

“In the morning, we all got up and had to be ready by 9 a.m. to do what is called a judges’ preview. In this, all the delegates line up in swimsuits and walk one by one into a ballroom and show the judges up close how they look and then in groups of 25. Then it is repeated in evening gown. I always find it to be the funniest portion of competition because the way I see it is, ‘Good morning, strangers, it’s 9 a.m., and I am introducing myself in a bikini.’

“It cracks me up, but I understand because onstage there are lots of tricks to making yourself look more amazing. So they need to see the real deal! Once the preview was over, we went back to our rooms for about 10 minutes to get everything we needed for the night together because we would not be returning until after the show.

Photo: Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

Miss Nevada USA 2009 Georgina Vaughan.

“My roommate Miss Washington and I had rehearsals right up until the show. A lot of people ask me what is going through my head just before I go out on stage, and do I get nervous? The truth is right before I walked out there, I felt like I have never felt before. I gave myself a little pep talk: ‘Georgina, you are at Miss USA. You wanted to get here so badly, and you worked so hard. This is your moment to shine and your moment to make not only Nevada proud, but to make them notice Nevada and to make yourself proud. Make that stage your stage, and be the best you that you can be.’ After that, every nerve I had is gone, and the whole night I felt like I couldn’t have done a better job. I had 10 family and friends there, but every time I stepped out, the hundreds in the audience roared, which means my state is proud of me. Honestly, it was the most amazing feeling in the world!

“Today I have my judges’ interviews and then some time off. I will go over to Michael Boychuck’s Amp Salon at the Palms for some pampering and then visit my family and check up on my dog Winston! Don’t forget to watch NBC on Sunday night to cheer me on as I vie for the title of Miss USA 2009!”

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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