Second chances

I hadn’t been following this Miss America fiasco, but I saw a headline on MSN yesterday that said “Miss USA going to rehab, will keep crown,” and I immediately thought to myself, “WTF?”

I believe second chances are a good thing. No one is perfect and we all make mistakes so it’s only fair that we be given the opportunity to redeem ourselves once we screw up. We’ve had actresses run over people and flee the scene and we’ve had an impeached president go on to become a best-selling author. But one thing I’ve noticed about public figures (and even non-public figures) who mess up, if the mistake involves illegal drugs of any sort, they must pay the price before a second chance is even considered. Case in point, Kate Moss.

When the pictures of Cocaine Kate surfaced showing her looking pretty damn fabulous in preparation to snort a line of coke, she lost just about every contract she had. H&M dropped her, Burberry gave her the boot, Chanel quietly dismissed her, and then jewelry behemoth H. Stern told Kate to keep it moving. She lost millions and became the topic of much debate and scandal. But Kate bounced back. After “going to rehab” (I firmly believe the chick still gets high, how else can you explain her continued relationship with Pete Dougherty?) a new and improved Kate scored new, lucrative deals and was soon making more money than she was before her cocaine bust. After she was fired, kicked around and tossed aside, she was given a second chance and came back with a vengeance.

The story seems to be a little different with Tara Conner.

After winning the Miss America title 8 months ago, Tara moved to New York where she is sharing an apartment in Trump Plaza with the winner of the Miss Teen USA pageant. Both girls were seen all over NYC barhopping until the wee hours of the morning, getting completely wasted despite being underage, making out with each other at clubs, dancing on table tops and inviting all kinds of men back to their apartment. Tara was constantly criticized in the NY tabloids about her party animal behavior and amid speculation of drug use she was given a drug test and failed. Turns out that small-town Tara is a bonafide coke-head.

So now that we know the true character of the woman attending all of these charity events as the face of all that’s good in America and inadvertently serving as a role-model for young girls who are forced into pageantry by their mothers, isn’t it only fair she be fired, kicked around and tossed aside just like Kate Moss?

Maybe I’m being too harsh, but as much as I believe in second chances, I also believe that when a precedent is set it’s only fair that everyone suffer the same fate. When pictures of Vanessa Williams surfaced in Playboy shortly after she won the Miss America crown, her title was promptly stripped and given to the first runner-up. Vanessa took those pictures way before she even participated in the pageant, but nonetheless her crown was still taken away. And she didn’t even snort or hit the pipe! In 2002, Miss Universe was stripped of her crown for not showing up to photo shoots and charity events. Once again, no nose candy or pipe to speak of; just an attendance problem. So here we have a woman who not only is a drug abusing lush, but also hooks up with Miss Teen USA of all people and this is who we let keep the crown???

I’m sorry, but I don’t care if she’s a country girl who got swept up in the big city, I don’t care that she’s barely legal and made poor juvenile decisions, and I don’t care if she gives a press conference crying her eyes out about how she won’t let anyone down. A precedent was set – you f*ck up, you’re out. Plain and simple. As a friend of mine likes to say, “you knew what it was from the beginning.” When you make the decision to become a representation of the US, you make the decision to live your life (or at least your reign) under a microscope. So stop your crying! Tara should just count her lucky stars that her only punishment is a little bit of embarrassment because she could have easily been sent back to the backwoods of Kentucky; good thing for her The Donald is a sucker for pretty young things.