Las Vegas Weekly

March 31, 2009 · 9:14 AM

Miss Nevada USA to travel 4 miles to compete in Miss USA Pageant

By Robin Leach

Miss Nevada USA Georgina Vaughan.

Photo: Miss USA Pageant

Fifty of the 51 Miss USA Pageant contestants are packing their bags today and getting ready for the flight to Las Vegas. They’ll arrive here over the next two to three days and check into Planet Hollywood, which will be their new home for the next two weeks. We’ll get to see them all posed pretty for the first time together Friday, and we’ll have those photos to you Vegas DeLuxe readers by early afternoon!

For Miss Nevada USA Georgina Vaughan, it will simply be a four-mile drive from her home in Summerlin to the hotel, and she’s all packed and ready for the excitement and the challenge.

“The countdown has started,” she told me at her bon voyage party. “I’m really excited. I can’t wait to get this whole thing started. I promise to do my very best to win the title for the first time ever for a Miss Nevada.”

Georgina will be driven by mom and dropped off at the resort Thursday. Then it’s just 17 days to the live NBC telecast of the Donald Trump-owned beauty pageant. Paula Shugart, who is the president of the Miss USA, Miss Universe and Miss Teen USA operations, work with me for seven years when we produced Star Search with Ed McMahon back in the late 1980s and early ’90s! She first joined the Miss Universe Organization in 1998.

Georgina, our local 20-year-old blonde beauty, promises that she’s going to take a risk with her evening gown in that portion of the competition. She told me: “It’s definitely going to be something spectacular and different. I want to be a trendsetter because that’s what Nevada is all about in the first place. It’s going to have a real sparkle to it, but nobody will see it until the actual moment I walk in it for the competition.”

Our local entrant also will wear a bikini from Jessica Simpson’s swimsuit line for that part of the competition. “She is a new sponsor, and we have three options to choose from,” Georgina said.

Her bon voyage and good luck party was held at the fashion showroom, manufacturing and design center of Billionaire Mafia here, where Las Vegas-based designer Lana Fuchs Couture is headquartered. Lana, who designs for the Miss Universe Pageant, is winning raves from Hollywood celebrities for her unique outfits. Paula Abdul just wore one of her striking gowns on American Idol. The Madame Butterfly silk chiffon, hand-pleated wrap dress was from Lana’s 2009 Rhapsody in Bloom collection, all sewn here in Vegas. Since her debut runway show last fall during Fashion Week, Lana’s red carpet gowns have become a favorite of Hollywood stars, including my friend Traci Bingham.

Photo: Lana Fuchs

Paula Abdul wears a Lana Fuchs dress on Season 8 of American Idol.

Lana uses natural stones, crystals and luxurious fabrics for her masterful art of dressmaking and extravagant one-of-a-kind creations -- and her work has turned up in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. Georgina and she designed the cocktail dress Georgina wore for the party.

Said our beauty queen: “We picked out the fabric. We designed it together. We made it from scratch, and I’ll wear it for the cocktail parties and nighttime events. The first week is all appearances. We do a lot of charity work, and at the same time go out to support our Vegas shows and restaurants. The second week is mostly rehearsals. We get those walking patterns and dance routines down right. I’m not that coordinated, so I need that week to learn all the precision moves.

“I’ll meet all the other girls over the next few days. I’ll be happy to play tour guide and tell them about the Vegas they don’t know. It’s not just about the Strip!”

Georgina has agreed to blog for Vegas DeLuxe from behind the scenes of the pageant as the excitement all leads up to the April 19 grand pageant. You’ll also find her on Twitter at MISSNVUSA09. We’ll have daily photo reports, too, starting this Friday.

The winner of Miss USA will go on to represent America in the upcoming Miss Universe Pageant. Next week, we’ll have interviews with Miss USA President Paula Shugart, and then just before the pageant broadcast, with real estate mogul Donald Trump. Stay tuned, as they say in the TV business, and good luck to Georgina from everybody at Vegas DeLuxe.

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.

Share This