Crystle Stewart Wins Miss USA Pageant

Crystle Stewart is the new Miss USA.

The 26-year-old Miss Texas conquered 50 other aspiring beauty queens in the pageant televised live from Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

Almost immediately, the contestants were narrowed down from 50 to 15. The finalists included Miss Missouri - and sister of Chace Crawford - Candice Crawford. But even her sibling’s star power was not enough to deny Stewart from her destiny.

At the end of the night, Crystle overcame runner-up Leah Laviano and second runner-up Tiffany Andrade to succeed Rachel Smith as Miss USA.

Congratulations to the new Miss USA, Crystle Stewart.

This evening, during one of the year's most exciting live television events, a star-studded panel of judges chose Miss Texas USA, Crystle Stewart, as MISS USA 2008. Donny and Marie Osmond hosted the 57th Annual MISS USA Pageant from the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in one of the world’s most electrifying cities, Las Vegas where the judges crawned Crystle Stewart as Miss USA.

Miss. USA 2008 Crystle Stewart completed her degree in Consumer Science and Merchandising at the University of Houston. She founded and runs her business "Inside/Out" which aids young women in building self-esteem and volunteers with many organizations in the community. She won a silver medal in the relay at Jr. Olympics and is a fourth generation educator.

The judging panel for the 2008 Miss USA® Pageant included: Heather Mills, contestant on season four of "Dancing With the Stars"; Rob Schneider, star of "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry"; Joey Fatone, host of "The Singing Bee"; Kristian Alfonso, entrepreneur and star of NBC's "Days of our Lives"; Olympic gold-medal swimmer Amanda Beard; Christian Siriano, this season's winner of Bravo's hit show "Project Runway"; San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne "Lights Out" Merriman; celebrity hairstylist Ken Paves; Kelly Carlson, star of "Nip/Tuck"; founder and CEO of Planet Hollywood International, Inc. Robert Earl and Vanity Fair's celebrity journalist George Wayne.

Throughout the two-hour event, the contestants competed in three categories: swimsuit, evening gown and interview. During these competitions, the "Top Five" finalists were selected before the crowning.

Rachel Smith, MISS USA 2007, crowned her successor at the conclusion of the two-hour primetime telecast, where rock band Finger Eleven performed their hit song "Paralyzer" before an estimated worldwide viewing audience of more than 250 million.

During her reign, Crystle Stewart will work with the official causes of Miss USA, which include breast and ovarian cancer education, research, and legislation. She will travel nationwide as an advocate for organizations such as the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, the National Breast Cancer Coalition, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Gilda's Club, among others.

The Miss Universe Organization, producers of the Miss UNIVERSE®, MISS USA® and MISS TEEN USA® Pageants, is a Donald J. Trump and National Broadcasting Company, Inc. (NBC) partnership.

Source: By Miss USA.com

The Third Angel: A Novel (Hardcover)

The Third Angel: A Novel (Hardcover)

This title will be released on April 8, 2008. Pre-order now!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this elegant and stunning novel, veteran heartstring-puller Hoffman (Here on Earth; Seventh Heaven) examines the lives of three women at different crossroads in their lives, tying their London-centered stories together in devastating retrospect. High powered New York attorney Maddy Heller arrives in 1999 London having had an affair with Paul, her sister Allie's fiancé,; she must now cope with the impending marriage, and with Paul's terminal illness—which echoes the girls' mother's cancer during their childhood. Hoffman then shifts to heady 1966 London and to Frieda Lewis, Paul's future mother, who falls for a doomed up-and-coming songwriter knowing he will break her heart. The narrative then shifts further back, to 1952 and to Maddy and Allie's future mother, Lucy Green. A bookish 12-year-old wise beyond her years, Lucy sails with her father and stepmother from New York to London for a wedding. There, she becomes an innocent catalyst to a devastating event involving a love triangle. Hoffman interweaves the three stories, gazing unerringly into forces that cause some people to self-destruct (There was no such thing as too much for a girl who thought she was second best) and others to find inner strength to last a lifetime. (Apr.)

Review

“Alice Hoffman is my favorite writer.” —Jodi Picoult

“A reader is in good hands with Alice Hoffman, able to count on many pleasures. She is one of our quirkiest and most interesting novelists, and her skills increase with every new book.”
—Jane Smiley, USA Today

"In this elegant and stunning novel, veteran heartstring-puller Hoffman (Here on Earth; Seventh Heaven) examines the lives of three women at different crossroads in their lives, tying their London-centered stories together in devastating retrospect. High powered New York attorney Maddy Heller arrives in 1999 London having had an affair with Paul, her sister Allie’s fiancé,; she must now cope with the impending marriage, and with Paul’s terminal illness–which echoes the girls’ mother’s cancer during their childhood. Hoffman then shifts to heady 1966 London and to Frieda Lewis, Paul’s future mother, who falls for a doomed up-and-coming songwriter knowing he will break her heart. The narrative then shifts further back, to 1952 and to Maddy and Allie’s future mother, Lucy Green. A bookish 12-year-old wise beyond her years, Lucy sails with her father and stepmother from New York to London for a wedding. There, she becomes an innocent catalyst to a devastating event involving a love triangle. Hoffman interweaves the three stories, gazing unerringly into forces that cause some people to self-destruct ("There was no such thing as too much for a girl who thought she was second best") and others to find inner strength to last a lifetime."
—Publishers Weekly *starred* review

Over the course of writing more than two dozen works of fiction, Hoffman has created her very own form, the heartbreak fairy tale. Her latest and one of her best is an exceptionally well-structured, beguiling, and affecting triptych of catastrophic love stories, each laced with patterns of three and anchored to a haunted London hotel. In the first and most contemporary tale, Maddy stays at the hotel while visiting her soon-to-be-married sister and falling for her sister’s fiancé. Set in 1966, the middle tale features rebellious young Frieda, a college dropout working as a maid at the hotel who tries to rescue a junkie rock musician. Finally, the tragic story of the hotel’s ghost revolves around precocious young Lucy, whose inadvertent role in a fatal love triangle wounds her very soul. A kind doctor repeats the novel’s mantra when he says that we are accompanied by the Angel of Life, the Angel of Death, and the Third Angel, “the one who walks among us,” and, like us, needs compassion. Not only is Hoffman spellbinding in this incandescent fusion of dark romance and penetrating psychic insight, she also opens diverse and compelling worlds, dramatizes the shocks and revelations that forge the self, and reveals the necessity and toll of empathy and kindness. Hoffman has transcended her own genre.
—Booklist, *starred* review

“The Third Angel is brilliantly crafted, deeply moving, and utterly enchanting. I loved these characters for their complexity, their unpredictability and for the way they showed subtle and shifting nuance in human nature. One of the best things about Alice Hoffman's writing is that she grounds you in detail and also frees your imagination to soar to places it has never been--often simultaneously. Reading her is immensely satisfying--and addictive!”
–Elizabeth Berg, author of The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted

“With her glorious prose and extraordinary eyes . . . Alice Hoffman seems to know what it means to be a human being.”
—Susan Isaacs, Newsday

“Alice Hoffman takes seemingly ordinary lives and lets us see and feel
extraordinary things.”
—Amy Tan

“Hoffman’s characters, male and female, tend to be defined by the restless, lonely ache of what’s missing in their lives, which becomes clear only when they fill the void with something either unexpectedly right or horribly
wrong. Along the way, Hoffman seems to wriggle into their skin, breathe their air, and think their thoughts.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“A mesmerizing tale of the human condition, this latest novel is sure to please Hoffman's fans and win over new readers. Recommended for all public library fiction collections.”
—Library Journal

“Hoffman makes vivid and new the realization that grace, beauty, and forgiveness can arise out of the most devastating situations.”
—Megan Deem, Elle

“Alice Hoffman’s richly layered novel, The Third Angel, is one of her best.”
—Susan Straight, More