It’s a Beauty of a Blackout

The news blackout surrounding the disqualification of an El Toro girl from the Miss Teen USA pageant continued Tuesday, with both pageant organizers and her family adamantly refusing comment.

A publicist for the pageant had said Monday night that Alison Jo Moreno, 16, of El Toro, the California entrant, was disqualified because of a curfew violation, but he declined to elaborate.

The remark was made by publicist Les Schecter to a reporter for the Riverside Press-Enterprise before the news blackout.

Entrants, who are 15 to 18 years old, are chaperoned while attending the pageant and are subject to the pageant’s rules of conduct. According to contestants, curfew was 10 p.m.

“The reason we don’t want to elaborate is (that) it’s really between the contestant and pageant officials,” Martha Keyser, a pageant spokeswoman, said Tuesday.

‘Good Business Practice’

The decision was made “on advice of legal counsel and other pageant executives. We just feel it’s good business practice not to elaborate,” Keyser said.

Family members contacted at their home in El Toro also refused comment.

Pageant officials declined to specify their rules of conduct for entrants, but one of the contestants, Jill Vasquez, 18, of Albuquerque, N.M., described them as “just your average stuff. It was no big deal.” She said the curfew was simple: “We had to be in our rooms by 10 p.m.”

Keyser, asked whether pageant officials were reticent about discussing the disqualification because they feared a lawsuit over the incident, replied, “Things are possible.”

At stake was cash, a Jeep, furs, jewelry and other merchandise worth a total of $150,000 for the pageant winner. They were awarded Monday to the new Miss Teen USA, Mindy Duncan of Newberg, Ore.

The pageant was televised nationally from San Bernardino Monday night. Alison was informed that evening that she had been disqualified, and a brief announcement of her disqualification preceded the telecast. She was permitted to appear in the show, however.

Alison, a junior at El Toro High School, is the daughter of land developer Alban M. Moreno, according to pageant officials. She earned a place in the pageant by winning the Miss Teen California title in Palm Springs last April.