Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Mallory Hagan, a former Miss America whose appearance and sex life were ridiculed in email messages sent by officials of the Miss America Organization, said the group’s request to enlist former pageant winners in the search for new leaders is “laughable” and insulting. Hagan said Thursday that the offer made Wednesday night by the remaining members of the group’s board is insulting to anyone who ever competed or volunteered in the pageant. The CEO, president and board chairman resigned Saturday. She and other former Miss Americas are renewing their call for the entire board to step down. “Implying that the complicit members of the current board will now choose the new leadership for the forward movement of the Miss America Organization is laughable,” she said. Hagan started a petition Wednesday on change.org seeking the removal of all remaining Miss America board members that had garnered thousands of signatures within 24 hours. “I will not stop until Miss America is led by the people who embody the morals and values that the organization holds dear,” Hagan said.
■ Vanity Fair magazine apologized after receiving blowback on social media for a satirical video suggesting new year’s resolutions to Hillary Clinton. But, President Donald Trump followed with his own critique of the publication, saying on Twitter that it wasn’t harsh enough on his former political opponent. “Vanity Fair, which looks like it is on its last legs, is bending over backward in apologizing for the minor hit they took at Crooked H,” Trump tweeted Thursday morning, using one of his regular derogatory nicknames for Clinton. Trump went on to add that Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue and artistic director for all Conde Nast, which publishes Vanity Fair, was “a big fundraiser” for Clinton and had been “all set” to be ambassador to the Court of St. James’ (the formal title used in the United Kingdom for the American ambassador). Trump tweeted that Wintour “is beside herself in grief & begging for forgiveness!” Last week, Vanity Fair’s “The Hive” tweeted a video that offered snarky New Year’s resolution suggestions to Clinton. “Take up a new hobby,” one staff member offered. “Volunteer work, knitting, improv comedy — literally anything to keep you from running again.” The publication produced similar videos for Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Gary Cohn and even Trump. But the Clinton one — particularly the mention of knitting — was criticized as sexist by some prominent social media voices. The publication released a statement Wednesday night: “It was an attempt at humor and we regret that it missed the mark.”