Women Affairs

In a way, Sueanne Winn has already won Saturday night’s Miss America pageant. In fact, she’s all the runnersup — or at least on them. Winn’s custom-swimsuit company, Winnwear Designs at 9242 S. Sheridan Road, is the national swimsuit sponsor for Miss America 2008. And you can see her suits for yourself during “Miss America Live 2008,” which is broadcast from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday on TLC, cable channel 56. Winn has a history with pageants, she told us recently before leaving for Las Vegas, where the new Miss America will be crowned at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. She’s been designing swimsuits for 13 years, she said, but her background in fashion goes back farther than that. While a student at the University of Tulsa, she competed in pageants and, of course, wore the required swimsuits for each one she competed in. For 10 years, she operated her own store, specializing in pageantry attire, prom and special occasions. During that time, she developed her own line of s...

A Miss Teen USA contestant is receiving a lot of attention for her confused, mangled response to a pageant question about Americans' knowledge of geography. Lauren Caitlin Upton, 18, got a chance to redeem herself Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show when she was again asked why one-fifth of Americans cannot locate the United States on a map. "I would love to re-answer that question," the Miss Teen South Carolina said. "Well personally, my friends and I, we know exactly where the United States is on our map. I don't know anyone else who doesn't. And if the statistics are correct, I believe there should be more emphasis on geography." That was much better than her previous response, a rambling answer that included references to "U.S. Americans" and mentions of South Africa and "the Iraq." See The Interview Here A YouTube video of the Friday pageant has drawn a couple million hits and thousands of comments, many of them ...