Miss New Jersey Releases Alleged Blackmail Photos

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (July 12, 2007) — Miss New Jersey, trying to keep her crown in the midst of an alleged blackmail attempt, released photos Thursday showing her “not in a ladylike manner.” She said she felt sick to her stomach.

“I want to end this,” Amy Polumbo said on NBC’s “Today” show hours before she was to meet with pageant officials who will decide whether she will represent the Garden State in the Miss America pageant.

The pictures include one showing what Polumbo said was her boyfriend apparently biting her breast through her shirt, another of Polumbo in a limousine wearing jeans with her legs spread in the air, and another of her in what appears to be a Halloween costume dress holding two small pumpkins up to her breasts.

“It’s not in a ladylike manner. I’m not a robot. I’m a human being,” Polumbo said.

There were also photos of Polumbo drinking, but the 22-year-old college student said she was of legal age when they were taken.

Polumbo said she didn’t think the pictures should lead to the loss of her crown but said other people might interpret them differently.

“What I think is OK, someone else’s eyebrows could be raised,” she said.

Polumbo’s lawyer, Anthony Caruso, said that a person or persons claiming to be The Committee to Save Miss America threatened to make the photos public unless she resigned her title.

“Amy and I are very optimistic that the pageant committee will take the proper course and support her,” Caruso said.

The photos were taken from Polumbo’s former Facebook Web page, which has since been taken offline.

Polumbo described many of the photos as they were shown. Of the shot of her boyfriend appearing to bite her breast through her shirt, she said, “He’s being silly and immature. This was meant to be private. It was not accessible to the general public. It was supposed to be between my friends and I.”

At least two of the board’s five directors said this week they don’t consider the photos to be a big problem. One board member, Mark Soifer, described the photos as “kids having a good time at a party.”