News

Before they were film and TV stars, Halle Berry and Bethenny Frankel were teenagers vying for the crown in the pageant world.

On Thursday, Frankel shared a throwback photo from her young days in the pageant world alongside Berry, who also vied for the same winning sash.

“Hi @halleberry #missteenlongisland #tbt,” Frankel, 45, captioned an Instagram photo of her standing next to Berry in the Miss Teen Long Island pageant from decades ago.

Although the Real Housewives of New York star has since abandoned her pixie cut that she sported during her beauty pageant days for a longer hairdo, Berry is...

Before coming out as a transgender man, Ashton Colby was a fixture on the beauty pageant circuit. "I started doing pageants when I was 16," Colby, now 23, tells People. "I was struggling with my self-esteem at the time, and I wanted to break out of my shell. I thought pageants would fill the void in myself." Colby hoped participating in pageants would appease his friends and family as well. "I though if I did the pageant thing - which [represents] the ideal femininity - and was successful at that, then I would be happy because everyone around me was telling me, 'It's...

We’ve got questions, and you’ve (maybe) got answers! With another week of TV gone by, we’re lobbing queries left and right about shows including Doctor Who, Finding Carter, The Mindy Project and The Mysteries of Laura!

1 | Couldn’t Bill Maher have gotten literally anyone else to introduce his Live From D.C. stand-up special, instead of subjecting us to Keith Olbermann and Michael Moore’s clunky commentary?

2 | On a scale of 1-to-“Blink,” was Doctor Who‘s “Listen” episode the sci-fi series’ best installment in years?

Related Fall TV Spectacular: Exclusive Scoop and Photos on 42 Returning Favorites!

Welcome back to the Rolling Stone "Everything Index," where we rank the week's pop-culture power players, based solely on their proximity to unlimited breadsticks.

Yes, there's plenty happening in the pop-o-sphere this week – the NFL is falling apart, Scotland is voting for independence, Rihanna is pissed and the Olive Garden is under assault. Luckily, we're here with our advanced algorithms to put them all in proper order. Let's get Indexing.

1. The Wrath of Rihanna: CBS feels the fury of Rihanna's Navy after it pulls "Run This Town" from Thursday Night Football.

Miss New York's Pitch Perfect-inspired performance of "Happy" may have helped her secure her Miss America win, but Miss Ohio's talent performance was really something to behold. Contestant Mackenzie Bart strayed from the typical pageant-type talent performances to do a delightfully zany ventriloquist rendition of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" with Roxy, her sassy Dolly Parton-esque puppet. Unfortunately, Mackenzie's impressive show didn't help her move on to the top five, but we can still relive her (and Roxy's) magical stage show above.

On the night of Sept. 14, some Americans expressed their patriotism by cheering as the Chicago Bears mauled the San Francisco 49ers. More refined types took in the first episode of Ken Burns’ The Roosevelts: An Intimate History on PBS. The classiest nationalists of all forewent TV entirely, choosing instead to read the Constitution by candlelight while listening to the collected works of John Philip Sousa and supping on a freshly roasted bald eagle.

But those of us who really know what these United States are all about spent the evening watching the unique ridiculosity that is the Miss America pageant on ABC.

While Miss America hasn’t bred any headline-stealing celebrities recently, beauty pageants were once a place where future stars got their start. Oprah was Miss Black Tennessee; Halle Berry was Miss Ohio. Vanessa Williams made it all the way to the top, nabbing the Miss America title in 1984.

With Miss America’s 88th annual pageant airing Sunday on ABC at 9 p.m. Et, EW took a look at the most famous Oscar winners and television icons who once won crowns and sashes:

Cloris Leachman

Leachman represented Chicago in 1946’s Miss America pageant and, though she didn’t win the ultimate crown,...

Miss Ohio is no dummy. But her performance partner, Roxy? That's an entirely different story. Roxy is a boisterous, Dolly Parton look-alike doll that contestant Mackenzie Bart will use to showcase her ventriloquism talent in Sunday's Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The two have worked in tandem for the past five years, and despite Roxy's "diva personality," Bart calls her the perfect partner. "I wanted someone opposite from me," Bart, 22, tells People. "She has this huge blonde hair and is so sassy. She even likes to flirt with the judges!" So how did a brunette beauty from Columbus,...

Miss Ohio is no dummy. But her performance partner, Roxy? That's an entirely different story. Roxy is a boisterous, Dolly Parton look-alike doll that contestant Mackenzie Bart will use to showcase her ventriloquism talent in Sunday's Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The two have worked in tandem for the past five years, and despite Roxy's "diva personality," Bart calls her the perfect partner. "I wanted someone opposite from me," Bart, 22, tells People. "She has this huge blonde hair and is so sassy. She even likes to flirt with the judges!" So how did a brunette beauty from Columbus,...

Who says the Miss America pageant can't keep up with the times?!

On Tuesday's preliminary competition for the 2015 crown, Miss Ohio Mackenzie Bart won the talent portion for her ventriloquism act. Bart took home a $2,000 prize for not just single-handedly making single guys across America suddenly very interested in the lost art, but because she also sang a duet of...

Read More >...