Miss New Jersey Keeps Her Crown

An anxious nation breathes a collective sigh and the lovely young Miss New Jersey, Amy Polumbo, gets to keep her crown.

Miss New Jersey can keep her crown despite photos that show her acting "not in a ladylike manner."

Hours after a nervous Amy Polumbo went public Thursday with photos of herself that had been sent anonymously to pageant officials, those officials decided the pictures did not merit stripping her of the title.

"I'm very happy about this decision, and I look forward to resuming my agenda as Miss New Jersey," said a smiling Polumbo, who blew kisses to audience members during the announcement.

The beauty pageant winner apologized for the trouble the pictures had caused and thanked the pageant board for its support.

"I want to thank the public," Polumbo said. "I also want to thank God for getting me through this."

The pictures include one showing what Polumbo said was her boyfriend apparently biting her breast through her shirt, another of Polumbo in a limousine wearing jeans with her legs spread in the air and another of her in what appears to be a Halloween costume dress holding two small pumpkins up to her breasts.

"It's not in a ladylike manner. I'm not a robot. I'm a human being," Polumbo said.

A nice parting gift:


More photos here.

Miss New Jersey Being Blackmailed

It never ends with these wacky pageant girls.

A mysterious blackmailer has threatened to make public a series of personal Web photo graphs of Miss New Jer sey Amy Polumbo un less she surrenders the crown.

But Polumbo, a blond beauty from Howell who won her crown last month on a campaign to protect children from In ternet predators, vowed to fight the anonymous on line scoundrel.

"Ironically, I am now being victimized by the very threat to which I have committed myself to seek out and expose," said Polumbo, a senior at Wagner College on Staten Island.

"I will work even harder now to show our youth by my example that the Internet can be used as a weapon or a tool."

Polumbo's lawyer, Anthony Caruso, said the photos came from her page on Facebook, a social-networking site. The page was designated as private, which means the only people allowed access to the page are invited friends.

See also Model Behavior and Gawker.