SHORT TAKES : Miss D.C. Show in Trouble Again

This year’s Washington, D.C., qualifying contest for the Miss America Pageant is likely to be scrapped, a pageant executive said Wednesday amid reports that the pageant franchise in the nation’s capital is deep in debt.

Miss America Administrator Karen Aarons declined to discuss a Washington Post report that the District of Columbia pageant, one of 51 nationwide that annually qualify contestants for the national contest in Atlantic City, was $200,000 in debt.

Scholarship prizes worth $36,000, money that should have been placed in escrow, are due to be paid to 22 of last year’s Miss D.C. contestants in four months, the report said.

Aarons confirmed the national pageant had not renewed the District of Columbia franchise, which expired in September.

“At this time, there is not going to be a District of Columbia pageant,” Aarons said.

Potential District of Columbia contestants interested in vying for Miss America’s rhinestone-studded tiara are being advised to compete in the Maryland or Virginia pageants, Aarons said. Miss America Pageant Chairman Leonard Horn could not be reached for comment.

This is not the first time the District of Columbia pageant has had a brush with controversy.

The pageant was discontinued from 1964 to 1987, and in 1988 there were allegations of racism and violations of judging regulations after a black contestant won. That pageant was restaged and Tricia Morrin, who is white, was crowned.