Fallen Miss USA to hand over pageant crown

Tara Conner hands over her Miss USA tiara Friday to a new beauty queen after a year of pageant scandals that boosted interest in an industry struggling for 21st-century relevance.

Conner, 21, saved her crown by going to rehab last year after a bout of underage drinking and drug-taking that tarnished the image of the wholesome pageant princess while giving the 55-year-old competition unprecedented publicity.

On Friday, the newly sober Conner hands over her title at the end of a two-hour televised ceremony in Hollywood that will select Miss USA 2007 from 51 finalists who have paraded in swimsuits and ballgowns and confided their dreams and passions to a panel of six judges.

The new Miss USA could have a hard act to follow.

Sex and drugs overshadowed the official mission of Miss USA 2006 to travel the nation as an advocate for breast and ovarian cancer education and research,

In addition to Conner, who has spoken of being abused as a child, of being an alcoholic since her teens and of using cocaine, two other beauty queens have stumbled this year.

Property mogul and Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump fired Miss Nevada, Katie Rees, after racy photos of her surfaced online and Miss New Jersey, Ashley Harder, quit when she became pregnant against Miss USA rules.

Conner, a Kentucky blond, is not expected to whitewash her troubles when she makes the traditional speech summing up her year.

She told "Access Hollywood" this week she thought the pageant would benefit from her experience.

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"I think it is going to bring out a whole different era of people. The new girl will bring a new flavor to the title, just like I brought a very strange flavor to the title," Conner told the television show.

She may also reveal some of the six tattoos that she was told by pageant officials to cover up. "It's me. They're cute. That is the great thing even now. They (pageant officials) are so accepting of me and it is like this huge family," she added.

Beauty contests have tried for years to reinvent themselves in the face of sagging TV audience ratings, competition from racy reality TV shows and attacks by feminists who see them as demeaning.

But Trump's decision in December to give the tearful Conner a second chance made headlines around the world. News outlets competed for a first interview when she emerged from treatment in January.

Reuters/Nielsen