Teresa Scanlan, Miss Nebraska (Photos, Video)

Miss America 2011 Winner: Teresa Scanlan, Miss Nebraska (Photos, Video)

Miss Nebraska, Teresa Scanlan is the Miss America 2011 Winner; photos and video are below. She was crowned on Sat. Jan. 15, at the 90th annual pageant at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas and chosen from the 53 contestants. The program hots were Chris Harrison of The Bachelor and Brooke Burke of Dancing With the Stars.

Details, pictures, and video are below after the jump.
Miss America 2010 Caressa Cameron (Miss Virginia) relinquished her crown to the 2011 winner. According to her official biography, Teresa Scanlan is 17 years old, and is from Gering, Nebraska. She is the youngest contestant in the pageant’s history to win. She graduated from Scottsbluff High School and will attend Patrick Henry College in the fall of 2011. For her talent competition she performed on piano. During her year long tenure, her issue of focus will be “Eating disorders: A generation at risk.”

For more on the winner see: Gering teenager crowned Miss Nebraska

More photos, video and high quality images of all of the winners and finalists can be seen here: Miss America 2011 Winner and Finalists, including evening gown, swim-suit competition pictures.

Here is the full list of the Miss America 2011 Finalists

Winner: Miss Nebraska – Teresa Scanlan
1st Runner Up: Miss Arkansas – Alyse Eady
2nd Runner Up: Miss Hawaii – Jalee Fuselier
3rd Runner Up: Miss Washington – Jacquie Brown
4th runner up: Miss Oklahoma – Emoly West

Semi-Finalists

***Judges’ Choice

Miss Oklahoma – Emoly West
Miss Nebraska – Teresa Scanlan
Miss Texas – Ashley Melnick
Miss Rhode Island – Deborah Saint-Vil
Miss Utah – Christina Lowe
Miss Washington – Jacquie Brown
Miss Arizona – Kathryn Bulkley
Miss Hawaii – Jalee Fuselier
Miss Virginia – Caitlin Uze
Miss Arkansas – Alyse Eady
Miss California – Arianna Afsar

***America’s Choice
Miss New York – Claire Buffie
Miss Delaware – Kayla Martell

***Contestants’ Choice
Miss Kentucky – Djuan Trent
Miss Oregon – Stephenie Steers

Preliminary Winners

Night One
Miss Hawaii – Jalee Fuselier, Lifestyle & Fitness
Miss North Carolina – Adrienne Core, Talent

Night Two
Miss Rhode Island – Deborah Saint-Vil, Talent
Miss Alabama – Ashley Davis, Lifestyle & Fitness

Night Three
Miss Nebraska – Teresa Scanlan, Talent
Miss Oklahoma – Emoly West, Lifestyle & Fitness

For more images as well as complete list of competitors see: Miss America 2011 Contestants

Watch video below.

There were 53 contestants representing the 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Colombia and the Virgin Islands who were whittled down to 15 semi-finalists and 7 finalists. The 2011 judges were Joy Behar, Dr. Debbye Turner Bell (Miss America 1990); Marc Cherry, Tony Dovolani, Marilu Henner,Taryn Rose and Mark Wills.

The duties of the newly crowned winner, according to the Miss America Organization’s Web site, are spend the year on a national speaking tour, traveling some 20,000 per month, to a different city every other day, as an advocate for her chosen issue, or platform, as it is officially known. Platforms which previous winners have advocated include homelessness, domestic violence, and literacy.

The beauty pageant sponsored yearly by the Miss America Organization is comprised of talent competition, swimsuit and evening gown competition. Every year, the organization awards more than $45 million in scholarships at local, state and national levels, making it, internationally, the largest provider of scholarship assistance exclusively for young women.

New Miss America Winner 2011

Miss America 2011: Top Picks for New Miss America Winner

The Miss America 2011 competition ends tonight! After a heated preliminary competition, a new Miss America for 2011 will be crowned tonight, with coverage beginning at 9 p.m. on ABC. So who’s going to be Miss America 2011? Hard to crown a new winner right now, as the competition so far has been tight.

Miss Oklahoma has been impressive so far, capturing the Lifestyle and Fitness competition, otherwise known as the swimsuit contest. Meanwhile, Miss Nebraska proved to be a skillful piano player, for which she won the talent portion. Other top challengers for Miss America 2011 include Miss North Carolina, Miss Alabama and Miss Rhode Island.

Earlier in the day, the Miss America 2011 contestants took part in a parade through Las Vegas showing off fashions inspired by their home states. This is the 90th year of the Miss America competition.

Holly Lahti Mega Millions Winner

Holly Lahti: Mega Millions Winner is the Single Mom of Two

If I could hand-pick someone to win a bunch of money, it would probably be a nice, mild-mannered, humble person who could really use some extra cash. Not a flamboyant loud-mouth who would seek fame alongside the millions, but, instead, someone who would put the money to good use and continue to live their normal lives. Someone young, too. Someone with their whole life ahead of them.

Given that, I couldn’t have picked a better Mega Millions winner than the woman who actually won the jackpot on Tuesday if I tried.

And that person is Holly Lahti. That’s right, folks. Holly Lahti just won herself a whole(l) lot(ty) of money. (That was just horrible. So sorry…) ABC reports that the woman is believed to be the single mom of two and is approximately 30 years of age. Her pull? $190 million. There was another winning ticket or else Lahti would have won twice that amount. (Quick quiz — what’s two multiplied by infinity?)

But here’s the best part. Lahti is shunning the spotlight. In fact, she wouldn’t even let lottery officials disclose her hometown. All that is known is that she hails from somewhere in northern Idaho. She stands in stark contrast to co-winner, Jim McCullar, who soaked up the limelight in a 30 minute press conference. In fact, Lahti declined the opportunity of a press conference altogether.

Lahti is used to handling a bunch of cash. She works as a bank teller. Well, worked as a bank teller. Sources tell a local ABC affiliate that she quit her job upon hearing the news.

Brad Wilde, the manager of Ady’s Convenience and Car Wash where Lahti purchased the winning ticket, was very complimentary of the suddenly wealthy woman. “She’s very sweet. Very down to earth. Just a really nice person. Good head on her shoulders. I think she’ll do very well.”

I hope he’s right. I know all about single moms. I fell in love with one and married her. And during our courtship, I saw firsthand how difficult her job was. Don’t get me wrong. Money will not make all of Lahti’s problems go away. But if she’s as down to earth as she seems to be, it sure won’t hurt her cause to have a few extra Benjamins lining the ol’ pocketbook.

But something tells me she won’t be a single mom for long. And given how low-key she’s chosen to make her life changing event, I’d be willing to bet one thing for sure: show me the man who ends up marrying her, and I’ll show you one lucky son-of-a-gun.

And it has nothing to do with his bride’s bounty.

Congratulations, Holly. Use the extra cash wisely!

American Idol Judge Randy Jackson

American Idol Judge Randy Jackson Predicts Female Winner

Like late, lamented couple Jake Gyllenhaal and Taylor Swift, the new judges on "American Idol" are being forced to develop their relationship in public and in front of the cameras.

But unlike that blink-and-you-missed-it Hollywood romance, the "Idol" judges think they've figured out the secret to a lasting relationship and seem confident that their unique rapport will help steady the ship as they head into season 10 on the heels of the biggest shakeups in the show's history.

In a sit-down with Entertainment Weekly for the cover of the magazine's new issue, sole returning judge Randy Jackson, newbies Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler and host Ryan Seacrest dished on life after Simon Cowell and reacted to the criticism they've already weathered.

The roundtable "Idol" cover comes the same week as news that season-nine runner-up Crystal Bowersox surpassed the sales totals to date for winner Lee DeWyze, whose major-label debut has already nearly slipped out of the top 200 after selling just over 102,000 copies, making it by far the weakest debut by a winner in "Idol" history.

Lopez rejected the notion that the show — which saw a 9 percent ratings dip last year and increased competition from "Dancing With the Stars" — has lost some of its luster, considering few of the champs since season five have attained the superstar status of early winners Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson and finalist Chris Daughtry.

"I don't know that that is such a fair statement," Lopez said. "You named three [superstars] in nine years — that's pretty amazing. That's 33 percent. We all know that in this business, a 1 percent chance is huge, so I think this show is doing pretty well in that arena."

As for what the judges are looking for this year, she said, "We're looking for a recording artist, a pop star, someone who's a real artist. You can tell that when they walk in, the ones that have that special thing."

The article portrays the new judging panel as being nicer and more optimistic with even the worst auditioners and quickly developing an easy rapport with each other. Both Lopez and Tyler said they want to bring their combined decades of experience in the music biz to bear on the show. "I want to show who I am as a person, as an artist, what I love about music, what I love about other artists, and have all that come out when judging," Lopez said. "You get to share all of the experience that you have with these kids who are just starting out."

Tyler added that after all the ups and downs he's gone through with his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Aerosmith, he wants to show off how proud he was to be a part of something and pass it along. "This is the perfect way to pass the torch."

The iconic frontman also answered to the criticism he's gotten from both his pal Kid Rock and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, who questioned the logic of his decision to join the cast of the reality singing competition. "I just went with my heart," Tyler said of the choice Rock called the "stupidest" one Tyler's ever made. "Kid Rock — he has an album coming out [Born Free, released in November]. He's a good friend of mine. I went to a picnic with him, and he taught me how to fry a turkey. I only hope that he's not frying his own turkey [with that comment]. It's his opinion."

He also deflected Perry's jibes, joking that Joe wishes he could have landed the gig. "All I'm doing here is being a musician and reflecting what my career has been," Tyler responded.

It was genial host Ryan Seacrest who did not hold his fire, however. After years of constant taunting and tense on-air put-downs at the hands of Cowell on the show, Seacrest said he's not worried about developing that same kind of unique spark with his new co-workers. "I think the reason that Simon and I had that dynamic is that he was just so jealous of me," Seacrest said, with no indication from the EW writer that he was being sarcastic. "From day one, he was envious of my career at such a young age. So I tried to make it as fun as possible and as lighthearted as possible ... but with all of us, we have very good senses of humor; we don't take ourselves too seriously. We like to wind each other up."

And while Lopez and Tyler were a bit coy about whether they would be performing on the show, Randy was not shy about making a bold prediction about this year's winner. "I think a girl's going to win the show," he said, echoing comments he's made over the past few seasons, the last three of which have been topped by male winners and runners-up.

With the age limit dropped to 15 this year, Lopez also had a bold prediction. "You may have the youngest winner ever," she said.