Las Vegas Weekly

January 21, 2009 · 6:30 AM

Morning Call Photo Gallery: Miss Delaware and Miss Indiana win scholarships on first night of Miss America preliminary competition

By Robin Leach

Miss Indiana Katie Stam and Miss Delaware Galen Giaccone won scholarships during the first night of preliminary competition.

Photo: Miss America Organization

The first two Miss America Pageant awards were presented last night to Miss Delaware and Miss Indiana. Galen Giaccone of Delaware received a $2,000 scholarship for her piano performance of “ El Cubanchero,” and Katie Stam of Indiana received a $1,000 scholarship as the Lifestyle & Fitness winner. Katie wore a black Winnwear swimsuit trimmed in gold.

The audience at Planet Hollywood’s Theatre for the Performing Arts got their first look at all 52 contestants and their opening number dance moves and as they introduced themselves. Miss Alaska received the biggest laugh when she said, “Alaska may be the coldest state, but we do have the hottest governor,” a reference to Sarah Palin, who represented Alaska in the 1988 Miss America pageant and was the GOP vice presidential candidate last year. The second-largest laugh went to our Miss Nevada, Julianna Erdesz, who reminded everybody that there are three slot machines for every resident in the Silver State!

Television personality Lee Merriweather led the first parade of former Miss Americas on stage. This year, the stage is a wide-open, four-level, stepped, high-tech area with horizontal and vertical neon stripes of ever-changing multicolored lights.

Photo: Miss America Organization

Miss Delaware Galen Giaccone won a scholarship in the talent competition.

In the talent contest, our Miss Nevada sang “One Rock and Roll Song Too Many” and received great applause from audience members from her hometown of Reno, including her mom Ildi and her high school dance theater teacher Gina Hill. In the swimsuit competition, all the contestants wore bikinis except for Miss Utah, who selected the only one-piece of the night -- which, judging from the people sitting around me, was far more flattering than the two-piece numbers!

Vegas DeLuxe will be back later today with our interview with Miss Nevada and an advance peek at Saturday’s live telecast surprises, plus the exciting news that the pageant is here to stay in Las Vegas!

The final episode of Countdown to the Crown airs Friday, and, for the first time, TV viewers will select their four favorites to be in the final 15. The new Miss America will be crowned on TLC on Saturday.

Photo: Miss America Organization

Miss Indiana Katie Stam won a scholarship in the fitness and lifestyle competition on the first night of preliminary competition in the 2009 Miss America Pageant.

The hosts last night reminded everyone that Miss America is the world’s largest provider of scholarships for young women and one of the nation’s leading achievement programs. The organization made available more than $45 million in assistance last year.

Later today, we also have the first and exclusive interview -- and, hopefully, her personal photos -- with reigning 2008 Miss America Kirsten Haglund. She returns to Vegas at 11 a.m. after her whirlwind, 48-hour round trip to Washington, D.C., where she rode in the Inauguration Day parade and sang the national anthem at two of last night’s presidential balls. Without catching her breath or unpacking, Kirsten will race to Planet Hollywood for rehearsals and then sit with me at 2 p.m. We’ll post those Inauguration Day highlights as soon as possible thereafter.

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