Don’t be surprised if the new Miss America vomits on Mario Lopez when she gets crowned tonight. Not from all the excitement, mind you. I’m told a flu-like sickness has been plaguing the pageant since last week. Three of the beauty contest’s six judges fell ill during the last few days of preliminary competitions. First up was Delta Burke. "She became horribly ill the day after she arrived and didn’t make it through the initial interview process," a source tells me. "She couldn’t continue as a judge for the first night of preliminaries on Thursday." Two nights later, fellow judges Debbie Allen and Michael Feinstein were MIA for the start of that evening’s pageant festivities. "They were ill in their suites and were being checked out by the hotel doctor," my source says. "They finally made it to the backstage door—15 minutes late!—and crawled to their judge positions." Fortunately, at least as of today, fellow judges, Hardball host Chris Matthews, Miss America 1981 Susan Powell and America’s Next Top Model’s Nigel Barker have remained healthy. Barker ended up playing nurse. "Nigel escorted Debbie to her seat [on Saturday]," my source says. "She clutched his arm and walked very slowly." The final night of competition airs live tonight on CMT from the Alladin in Las Vegas. Dancing with the Stars Lopez makes his debut as host. The only thing Lopez may suffer from tonight is too much energy. I’m told the single thing he requested for his dressing room was plenty of cans of sugar-free Red Bull.
Planet Gossip
I had heard about Delta Burke having to pull out, but not about the others. Hopefully they will all be better tonight because nothing would be worse than seeing a whole bunch of beauty queens throwing up on live TV. Scratch that, how cool would that be!
And finally we now know Mario Lopez’s secret for always being so upbeat…sugar-free Red Bulls!
