newsmakers

newsmakers

Miss America pageant contestants arrive

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.

Miss America is back in Atlantic City, just in time to brighten the mood in this dazed gambling city licking its wounds from the closure of a third of its casinos.

The 53 contestants met the public Wednesday afternoon on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Entrants from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands appeared at the traditional welcoming ceremony across from Boardwalk Hall.

Preliminary competition will begin next Tuesday. This is the second year that the pageant, which began in Atlantic City, has returned to its roots after six years in Las Vegas.

The ceremony came hours after the first of 5,000 casino workers who lost their jobs over the holiday weekend began filing for unemployment, health insurance and food stamps. The Showboat and Revel shut down over the weekend; Trump Plaza, next door to Boardwalk Hall, where the winner will be crowned Sept. 14, is shutting down two days after that. And the Atlantic Club closed in January.

Record-tying 9 CMA noms for Lambert

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

Miranda Lambert released the most ambitious album of her career earlier this year, and Country Music Association voters responded by giving her a record-tying load of nominations.

Lambert has nine nominations for the 48th annual CMA Awards, tying her own mark for the most nods to a female nominee, and nearly doubling her nearest competitor when the list was announced Wednesday in New York. Dierks Bentley is next with five nominations and Eric Church and Keith Urban have four apiece.

The 30-year-old Lambert is up for top honor entertainer of the year along with husband Blake Shelton and has nominations for major categories album of the year for “Platinum,” song and single of the year for “Automatic,” and is vying for her fifth straight female vocalist of the year trophy. She’s been among the top CMA nominees and winners since “Revolution” won album of the year in 2010 and now has 34 CMA nominations — behind Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn among women.

Urban, George Strait and Luke Bryan round out the entertainer of the year category where Lambert and Bryan are seeking their first win in that category. Bryan and Urban also are up for album of the year. Bryan’s “Crash My Party” and Urban’s “Fuse” join Bentley’s “Riser” and Church’s “The Outsiders” in the category.

New artist of the year nominees are Brandy Clark, Brett Eldredge, Kip Moore, Thomas Rhett and Cole Swindell.

Bryan and Shelton are tied with Kacey Musgraves and Carrie Underwood with three nominations apiece. The nominations were announced on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and at a news conference by Darius Rucker and Little Big Town. Underwood and Brad Paisley host the show live Nov. 5 from Nashville, Tenn.

‘Cinderella’ closing on Broadway

NEW YORK

The fairy tale for “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” on Broadway is over. The musical will close in January after nearly two years.

Producers said Wednesday the show will end after the Jan. 3 performance at the Broadway Theatre. It will have had 41 previews and 770 regular performances.

The traditional tale was given a sly and witty makeover by Douglas Carter Beane, who updated the story but kept the songs by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II which include “In My Own Little Corner” and “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful?”

Producers also said that NeNe Leakes from “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” will replace TV star Sherri Shepherd in the role of the stepmother from Nov. 25 to Jan. 3. Keke Palmer is about to star as Cinderella.

Associated Press