Still under pressure from her blackmailers, Miss New Jersey, Amy Polumbo, decided to release the pictures herself. She said pictures of other people claiming to be here were being put on the internet, and she wanted to put a stop to that by releasing her photos. The photos were shown on Thursday morning on the Today show. Though she didn’t say it in as many words, theoretically this pulls the rug out from under the blackmailers. The pictures were all around very tame, as far as scandalous pictures go. Polumbo is fully clothed in all of them. There’s one where she’s wearing jeans, with her legs spread in the air in a manner that is more goofy than dirty. In another photo she’s holding small pumpkins up to her chest. She explained that her friend teased her about having a flat chest and that’s how she reacted. She said that the photos showed her behaving in a way that is not “ladylike” but certainly not foul or inappropriate.

Frankly I think this all sounds pretty legitimate, and it’s really gutsy to take a stand in such a public forum. Polumbo will find out today if she can keep her crown. Her attorney, Anthony Caruso said , “Amy and I are very optimistic that the pageant committee will take the proper course and support her.” All of the photos were originally on her Facebook page, access to which was restricted to her friends. Newsday reported that, “At least two of the board’s five directors said this week they do not 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.’”

Polumbo noted that she felt “’sick to my stomach,’” about the whole affair. There were a few photos in the bunch which showed her drinking, though she insisted that she was of legal age in all of them. Considering what a big deal this blackmailing group made out of her photos, they all seem pretty tame. Miss New Jersey has conducted herself with a great deal of dignity during the whole debacle, and she should be commended for that. There’s nothing unseemly or abnormal in her pictures, just the same goofy ones we all have. The only difference is that she’s famous (now). People keep saying she shouldn’t have put the photos on her Facebook site, but I disagree. She wasn’t Miss New Jersey or Miss Anything when she had a profile on the site, and she’d taken it down long before any of this. Facebook is pretty private, you’re supposed to put photos up, and hers were completely normal. They were goofy, not disgusting, which makes me feel badly for her. I’ve never once cared about pageants, but I think she’s conducted herself with such dignity that she should win.

Thanks to MSNBC for these pictures.

Note by Celebitchy: This sounds like a publicity stunt to me. The worst picture is the boob biting one, and that’s still pretty tame.

Amy Polumbo, Miss New Jersey, was on the Today show on Monday in an attempt to continue to put pressure on whoever is blackmailing her. She revealed that the blackmailer(s) call themselves “The Committee to Save Miss America.” It sounds nicely patriotic too. Of course this “Committee” could be made up of just one crazy person alone in their basement.

Whoever these people are, they’ve already sent another batch of pictures to Miss New Jersey organizers. They claim to have 24 more sets ready to go, though it’s unclear if they mean sets of new pictures, or 24 more sets of the same pictures that they’ll distribute to new people. Apparently, it’s not the pictures themselves that are so terrible, it’s the captions the “Committee” has put on the photos. Sounds like the work of Perez Hilton to me. I tease, I tease. When asked to explain the photos, Miss New Jersey was a little vague.

“A 22-year-old senior at Wagner College in Staten Island, Polumbo says the photos were lifted from her private Facebook Web page - and are less revealing than the red bikini she wore in the Miss New Jersey competition. She said captions were added to make them seem lewd.

“I am not doing anything illegal” in the pictures, Polumbo said on the “Today” show. “They’re not bad. I’m a normal college girl.”

Polumbo said it never occurred to her that someone could try to use the images to derail her Miss America bid - and did not rule out the possibility another contestant was behind this.

“Whoever this is, I think they’re a very miserable person and I really feel bad for them,” she said.

Polumbo had difficulty explaining to NBC’s Matt Lauer how she could be blackmailed with photos that don’t show her drinking, taking drugs or showing skin.

“It’s still being investigated,” she said.

[From the Daily News]

The world has to wonder, how exactly can you be blackmailed by photographs that don’t contain nudity, drinking, or drugs? Even with inappropriate things added, won’t most people able to say, hey the pictures isn’t the problem, it’s these nutcases that are sending them out? Maybe I’m giving to much credit here. Miss New Jersey told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly that prior to the blackmailing, her mother saw the pictures and “was mad at me for maybe 10 minutes. She said, maybe you might want to remove them because someone will look at them a different way.”

Is anyone else noticing some shades of “Miss Congeniality” here? I say get Sandra Bullock and a big poofy dress and it’ll all be okay. Well, if the movie had any truth to it. My best friend in second grade was Playboy’s Miss May last year. I’m sure I’ve got some photos of her somewhere that I can use for money. There’s the one with us holding the class hamster… the one with us reciting a poem in front of the class… ohh, the one with her holding her pet rabbit! Jackpot!