Miss New Jersey blackmailed over Facebook photos
Jealousy and competitiveness can lead to some pretty ugly situations: Wanda Holloway hired a hit-man to bump off the mother of her daughters' cheerleading rival; Tonya Harding's husband tried to break Nancy Kerrigan's knee before the Olympics; and someone has been threatening a Miss America contestant.
The recently-crowned Miss New Jersey, Amy Polumbo, appeared on the TODAY show to discuss what she called a blackmail attempt. She described how over the past two weeks, pageant officials had received two packages containing photos of Polumbo taken from her prior, deleted Facebook page. A letter from the anonymous sender stated if Polumbo didn't give up her crown, the photos would be made public.
Polumbo shared some of the photos on the air with Matt Lauer and as someone who lives in a college town, I didn't see what the big deal was. It looked like typical weekend drunken college goofiness, not the Girls Gone Wild episode I was expecting. While it was stupid of her to have ever posted the photos on her Facebook page for relatives and future employers to come across, it's not like it was a nude photo shoot in Playboy.
Pageant officials rule that Polumbo can retain her title and crown, but if she doesn't make internet safety her platform , I think she deserves to have it taken away. She's in an excellent position to educate younger kids on internet stranger danger as well as reminding older kids/young adults that the internet is a web that's as wide as the world and you should be cautious what sorts of things you throw out in it.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Anji 7-13-2007 @ 10:49AM
"While it was stupid of her to have ever posted the photos on her Facebook page for relatives and future employers to come across,"
I've said it before and I'll say it again: any employer who A) searches the internet for 'incriminating' photographs of me and B) uses them against me, is not the sort of employer I, or anyone else, should be wanting to work for.
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Karen 7-13-2007 @ 12:19PM
She had her page set to private which means that someone she trusted betrayed her.
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Scotty 7-13-2007 @ 3:05PM
I think that she should choose internet safety to be her platform. It is an issue that should be addressed everyday! She would be a great spokesperson and role model for younger children to help keep them safer online. I use NetSmartz411.org as a resource for internet safety, I think everyone should so they can learn how to be safer online!
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Parker Donham 7-25-2007 @ 7:54AM
If you think she should lose her crown if she doesn't follow some remedial action of your choosing (like making Internet safety her platform), then you are condoning blackmail.
She did the right thing by going public. It showed courage and intelligence. She doesn't deserve penance. She deserves our admiration.
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