NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Ruling: Beauty queen defamed pageant

NEW YORK

A beauty queen who claimed this year’s Miss USA contest was fixed has been ordered to pay the pageant organization $5 million for defamation.

In a decision signed last week, an arbitrator found that the comments from Miss Pennsylvania USA Sheena Monnin were false, harmful and malicious. Monnin had alleged that the five finalists had been selected in advance of the pageant’s live telecast.

The arbitrator, Theodore Katz, said Monnin had two motives: “She was a disgruntled contestant who failed to make it past the preliminary competition” and she objected to the pageant’s decision to allow transgender contestants. He wrote that the way the contest is judged “precludes any reasonable possibility that the judging was rigged.”

Monnin, of Cranberry, Pa., resigned her state title after the pageant. Her allegations on Facebook and NBC’s “Today” show cost the pageant a $5 million fee from a potential 2013 sponsor, Katz said.

‘Scarface’ actor faces accusation

MIAMI

“Scarface” actor Steven Bauer has been arrested in the Miami area, accused of driving with a suspended license.

The 52-year-old Bauer’s real name is Steven Ernest Echevarria, and he was booked into the Miami-Dade County Jail early Tuesday. It was not immediately known if he has an attorney.

His arrest report shows Bauer was stopped in Sweetwater for an improper left turn late Monday night. He was given a warning, but the officer ran his driver’s license and found an open 12-year-old warrant.

Bauer played Manny Ribera in the 1983 movie “Scarface” starring Al Pacino. Bauer also starred on the bilingual PBS show “Qui Pasa, USA.” He played the teenage son of a Cuban exile family in Miami from 1977-79.

‘Les Miz’ star has ties to author of novel

LOS ANGELES

Helena Bonham Carter apparently shares more with Victor Hugo than just a role in the film based on his novel.

A study by genealogy website Ancestry.com reveals Victor Hugo was a political colleague of a cousin of the 46-year-old actress. Carter stars as Madame Thenardier in the upcoming musical “Les Miserables.” The film is an adaptation of the stage musical based on Hugo’s 1862 book.

Ancestry.com says French financier and politician Achille Fould was Carter’s first cousin five times removed. He served with Hugo in the post-revolutionary French government in the 1840s. Fould was minister of finance; Hugo was in the constitutional and legislative assembly.

Fould was a staunch supporter of Louis Napoleon III when he seized power of the French empire in 1851, while Hugo declared him a traitor.

Carter’s ancestor moved up in power and authority in the new regime. Hugo left the country and wrote scathing letters and poetry about the treachery of his former colleagues, including Fould. In one publication, Hugo called Fould a “chameleon” with “blood on his hands.” It was during this time that Hugo wrote “Les Miserables.”

Vindicator wire services