Da Kine
Star-Bulletin staff
and wire services
|
COURTESY ADRIENNE MURODA
First Priority high school drill team members, front row from left: Laurie Sasaki, Mikki Tsuchida, Kimi Lung, Jenna Kamei, Jennifer Takushi, Bethany Au, coach Mia Town; center, Sasha Dee Dayoan; back row, from left, Chelsey Muroda, Noelani Nagamine, Kim Takinami, Jena Inouye, Angela Inouye, Kelsey Ramirez, Cheri Amas, Rachel Lee. CLICK FOR LARGE
|
|
Isle drill team gets 2 firsts in Florida
Drill Team Hawaii's First Priority high-school team took two first-place awards in the 2007 Contest of Champions Nationals School Dance Competition in Orlando, Fla.
Directed by Penny Young and based at St. Andrew's Priory School for Girls, the team competed against 120 teams from around the country, placing in five group categories. Soloist Sasha Dee Dayoan, age 14, tied for first place in the Junior Solos division.
Drill Team Hawaii first place awards were for duos/trios performances and for performance using pom-pons.
Help soldier moms land photos of kids
Two female soldiers who can't be home on Mother's Day will receive portraits of their children through a contest run by Island Style Images Portrait Studio.
Through April 6, Island Style is accepting letters from family members and friends nominating a soldier from Hawaii to win a portrait session for her kids, 5-by-7 portraits and a DVD slide show, to be sent to her wherever she is stationed.
Letters should explain the soldier's story and why she should receive the prize. Mail them to Island Style Images, P.O. Box 240291, Honolulu 96824 or e-mail Joanne@IslandStyleImages.com. Include the entrant's name, phone number, mailing address, e-mail address, soldier's name, rank, mailing information, number of children and ages.
Japanese women offer scholarship
The Japanese Women's Society Foundation will award a $5,000 scholarship to a graduate student enrolled in the fields of medicine, nursing, public health, social work or the arts and sciences focusing on gerontology or geriatrics. Applicants need to be local residents with financial need. Visit
www.jwsf.org for application forms. Deadline for submissions is March 31.
MISS USA
Hawaii's Miss USA hopeful Chanel Wise competed in the evening gown portion of the Miss USA preliminary competition yesterday in Los Angeles.
|
|
Miss USA pageant to confront controversy
LOS ANGELES » The Miss USA pageant gears up to name a new queen this week in a live televised competition that organizers say will spotlight how reigning titleholder
Tara Conner nearly lost her crown and ended up in rehab.
"Certainly, our reigning Miss USA is going to be on television and we're certainly not going to shy away from referring to what happened," executive producer Phil Gurin said yesterday Monday. "Why shy away from what's part of our family? We embrace our family."
While not a centerpiece of the show, Conner will be "all over our telecast," Gurin added. Viewers will be able to see Conner and "make their own determinations by seeing how she presents herself, what she has to say about what happened this past year," Gurin said.
Published accounts last fall suggested that Conner, a native of Kentucky, was boozing it up at New York clubs -- not exactly the kind of public behavior expected of a role model tapped to represent the United States in the Miss Universe pageant.
Donald Trump, who owns the Miss Universe and Miss USA contests, decided to let her keep her crown and she underwent a stint in rehab in Pennsylvania. The decision sparked a war of words between The Donald and "The View" co-host Rosie O'Donnell.
Preliminary competition began Sunday and the pageant airs Friday on NBC, hosted by Nancy O'Dell of "Access Hollywood."
Gurin said he doesn't think the Conner flap has hurt the pageant's reputation.
"I think there's been more focus on the pageant, perhaps, than there might have been otherwise, but I don't think it's tarnished anything," he said.
[ MOVIE PREVIEW ]
SONY PICTURES
Don Cheadle, left, and Adam Sandler stars in "Reign Over Me" as former roommates.
|
|
Movies opening Friday:
"The Hills Have Eyes 2": A unit of National Guard soldiers is attacked by cannibalistic mutants during a training mission in the New Mexico desert. (R)
"The Last Mimzy": Two young siblings exhibit remarkably high intelligence and abilities when they discover a mysterious box filled with sophisticated toys that come from the future. (PG)
"Pride": Terrence Howard stars in the true-life story of Jim Ellis, who turned a group of troubled teens into Philadelphia's first African-American swim team in 1973. Bernie Mac co-stars. (PG)
"Reign Over Me": Two former college teammates rekindle their friendship when one of them loses his family in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle star. (R)
"Shooter": Mark Wahlberg stars as a former Marine Corps sniper who is lured out of retirement only to be double-crossed in a government conspiracy. Antoine Fuqua directs. (R)
"TMNT": The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back on the big screen, this time in CGI animation. The team reunites when tech-industrialist Max Winters amasses an army of ancient monsters to apparently take over the world. (PG)