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OFF WITH THEIR DISHONEST HEADS
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Date Posted: 09:15:26 12/28/17 Thu
NJ.com
Former Miss Americas: All board members should resign to save pageant
Updated on Dec 28, 2017 at 06:45 AM EST
Former Miss Americas Gretchen Carlson, at left, Mallory Hagan and Kate Shindle say the recent resignation of the Miss America CEO, Sam Haskell, and two board members is not enough. They are calling for the resignation of the entire Miss America board of directors in light of the board's reported knowledge of internal email correspondence from Haskell that disparaged former Miss Americas and contained vulgarities and insults about the women.
Former Miss Americas Gretchen Carlson, at left, Mallory Hagan and Kate Shindle say the recent resignation of the Miss America CEO, Sam Haskell, and two board members is not enough. They are calling for the resignation of the entire Miss America board of directors in light of the board's reported knowledge of internal email correspondence from Haskell that disparaged former Miss Americas and contained vulgarities and insults about the women.
(Paul Morigi | Getty Images; Jamie McCarthy | Getty Images; Jordan Strauss | Getty Images )
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By Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
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The Miss America board of directors is looking for new leaders in light of a recent scandal surrounding internal emails from the Atlantic City pageant organization's CEO, Sam Haskell , who resigned alongside other pageant bosses after the messages were made public.
On Wednesday night, the board of the Miss America Organization , in a statement sent by Dan Meyers, interim chairman, announced an open call to former Miss Americas and state executive directors that solicited nominations for members of a seven-person search committee by Jan. 3. The committee would determine a new leadership structure for the pageant, including "current and anticipated board vacancies."
But three former Miss Americas -- Gretchen Carlson (1989), Kate Shindle (1998) and Mallory Hagan (2013) -- who have emerged as organizers of a resistance within the pageant community, say the board has not gone far enough. They continue to call for the resignation of all current board members, saying the board previously knew about Haskell's emails and failed to make any changes to pageant leadership.
Shindle, 40, a singer and actress who is president of the Actors' Equity Association, grew up in Brigantine, where her parents volunteered for the pageant. She referred to the board statement as a "hot mess" on Twitter, issuing a joint statement with Carlson, 51, and Hagan, 29, that called the board's course of action "unacceptable" and accused members of preserving their influence at the cost of the pageant's future.
"In the wake of inexcusable comments by former Executive Chairman Sam Haskell and his cohorts, Miss America is facing the real possibility of losing its television network, major charitable partner, venue, host city, and sponsors," the statement read. "This new tactic pays lip service to groups of stakeholders, while guaranteeing that the majority of the current board will stay on and be able to choose the replacements for those who have resigned."
statement from me, @GretchenCarlson and @ItsMalloryHagan about the hot mess that happened tonight #savemissamerica pic.twitter.com/RIuIyj26GV
-- kate shindle (@kateshindle) December 28, 2017
A Dec. 21 report from HuffPost detailed the content of the offending emails , in which Haskell laughed at or approved of disparaging jokes and comments made by Lewis Friedman, a pageant script writer, about former Miss Americas, including one remark that labeled the women with a derogatory term for female genitalia. Haskell also responded favorably to Friedman's suggestion that Shindle, who had been critical of Haskell's Miss America pay in her 2014 book, "Being Miss America: Behind the Rhinestone Curtain," should have died instead of another Miss America who passed away that year.
Hagan, Miss America 2013, was used as the model for the Miss America statue installed on the boardwalk when the pageant returned to Atlantic City in 2013. But in his emails, Haskell, 62, made negative comments about Hagan's appearance, calling her "gross" and "huge," and fixated on her sexual history. Haskell was reportedly angered when a pageant staffer, Brent Adams, who worked for his production company, began dating Hagan instead of his daughter, Mary Lane Haskell. In the messages, Tammy Haddad, the vice-chairwoman of the board, also suggested that Haskell hire an investigator to dig up dirt on Hagan. And Haddad called Carlson -- the former Fox News host who sued CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment , which led to the toppling of Ailes and others at Fox -- a "snake."
Friedman, the script writer, had already been fired from his post with the pageant when Haddad, a powerful media figure in Washington D.C., became the first in the leadership to resign. After 49 former Miss Americas called for Haskell's resignation, also asking Haddad; Josh Randle, chief operating officer; and Lynn Weidner, chairwoman of the board, to step down, Haskell was suspended by the pageant board on Dec. 22.
But the pageant boss remained defiant.
"My mistake is a mistake of words," Haskell said in a statement , claiming the email messages were edited and calling the HuffPost story "so unkind and untrue." The pageant boss, who makes $500,000 a year, said the story "hurts me, my family, and the stewardship of this non-profit."
In response, a group of Miss Americas that had grown to include 56 women charged Haskell with victim-shaming.
"We are horrified that the board is turning a blind eye," they said in a follow-up letter .
Just a day later, the pageant announced Haskell's immediate resignation, and both Weidner and Randle said they would leave within 90 days.
After Adams, a former employee of Haskell's company, and board member Regina Hopper brought internal emails to the attention of pageant partner Dick Clark Productions in August, the company brought the emails back to the board, reportedly with the hope that the board would enact a change in leadership. But only Friedman was fired. Dick Clark Productions, which had teamed with the pageant several years earlier to raise the pop culture profile of the aging event -- extending awards show appearance contracts to winners -- then severed ties with Miss America.
Shindle, Hagan and Carlson said the board's misstep was in making no change after reviewing Haskell's emails. Only after the emails were made public and former Miss Americas voiced their opposition to Haskell's leadership did the group vote to suspend the CEO . Carlson, Hagan and Shindle also accused the board of handing Haskell "a generous severance package."
The major charitable partner that the former Miss Americas are referring to is Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, a Utah-based nonprofit that raises money for children's hospitals and medical research. Miss America's contract with its TV network, ABC, ends after the September 2018 pageant (Haskell, former head of worldwide TV with the William Morris Agency, had been credited with bringing the pageant back to network television from cable).
Meanwhile, the uncertainty about the pageant's host city -- Atlantic City -- is real. In 2016, the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority subsidized the pageant to the tune of $12.5 million. There is still one year left on that contract, which ends after the next pageant. But after the Haskell emails came to light, Chris Howard, executive director of the CRDA, said the authority would review its contract with the pageant (Miss America maintains its headquarters in Boardwalk Hall, which is also home to the competition).
"The CRDA finds the reports of the Miss America Organization and the behavior of its leadership troubling," Howard said in a statement to the Press of Atlantic City on Dec. 22. "The CRDA is working with our legal counsel to undertake an immediate review of its contract with the Miss America Organization and Dick Clark Productions to assess what steps we may need to take." (The contract with Miss America stipulated that Atlantic City be featured in Dick Clark Productions' "New Year's Rockin' Eve," but that never happened.)
On Sunday, John Palmieri, former executive director of the CRDA, under whose leadership the authority made two deals with the pageant -- including the one that brought the event back to Atlantic City from Las Vegas in 2013 -- said the misogynistic remarks in the emails had irreparably damaged the Miss America brand.
"The CRDA would be well served by severing the funding agreement and finding better ways to invest in community building activities," he said.
Both former Miss Americas and former pageant staffers have described a culture of fear and retaliation within the organization.
Betty Cantrell, Miss America 2016 , took to Instagram on Dec. 22 for a live video in which she tearfully said she was told to "disassociate" from Carlson, Hagan and Shindle during her reign. She also said she had witnessed staffers being pushed out of their jobs or fired after they were critical of leadership. Cantrell, 23, said the pageant organization attempted to underpay her, and that Haskell had prevented her from moving forward with a planned reality show that would've featured the former titleholder and her fiance.
Staying quiet amid all the controversy had been Miss America 2018, Cara Mund . But the 24-year-old former Miss North Dakota broke her silence in a subtle way on Twitter Dec. 23, with small gestures, like using the hashtag #MissAmericaStrong and a pageant pun.
"Do you remember the first time you were asked, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?'" she tweeted. "Since kindergarten my answer has been, and always will be, 'Miss America.' Please remember it is after the heaviest of reigns that we discover the greatest of rainbows. #sisterhood."
In her message, she included a photo of herself wearing a crown that bore the sentiment, "This is for those who refuse to be defined by the limitations set by others."
Do you remember the first time you were asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Since kindergarten my answer has been, and always will be, "Miss America." Please remember it is after the heaviest of reigns that we discover the greatest of rainbows. #sisterhood pic.twitter.com/BNP0SgjYEs
-- Cara Mund (@MissAmerica) December 23, 2017
Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com . Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook .
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