Miss Nevada USA Katie Rees is not getting her tiara back after losing it because she appeared in a slew of prurient pictures — and that’s final, pageant officials said Friday in response to speculation stirred up by pageant co-owner Donald Trump.
“The Miss Universe Organization has thoroughly considered the request of Ms. Katie Rees to be reinstated as Miss Nevada USA 2007,” Paula M. Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization, said in a statement released to The Associated Press. “In light of the serious nature of the circumstances, there is no recourse but to stand by our decision.”
Trump told the television show “Extra” in a segment broadcast Thursday that he was looking at the Dec. 21 decision to fire Rees, fueling buzz that the beauty queen might be reinstated.
Rees was stripped of her title after racy photos of her appeared on the Internet. Some of the photos showed Rees, 22, kissing other young women, exposing one of her breasts and pulling down her pants to show her thong underwear at a party in Tampa, Fla.
Rees’ lawyer had also asked that his client be given a second chance similar to the one recently given to Miss USA Tara Conner, who was caught drinking in New York bars when she was still underage.
Trump decided to allow Conner to remain Miss USA after she agreed to go into rehab and undergo drug testing.