American Newsreel

Going on hiatus for the Christmas holidays. See you after New Year’s.

Most people expected Donald Trump to fire Tara Conner, the wild child Miss USA, Tuesday but he gave her a second chance.

Which, of course, puts The Donald in a good light as a compassionate man.

And makes us wonder if the whole damn thing was a setup.

On top of the news that Miss USA Tara Conner is about to lose her crown for excessive partying, drinking and bed-hopping comes additional revelations that Miss TeenUSA, 18-year-old Katie Blair (right) has been out doing pretty much the same thing.

Blair, from Billings, MT, was spotted chugging shots, dancing on the couch and cuddling up to dirty old men (young and old) at a Manhattan night club. Turns out she shared the swanky Trumpa Plaza digs with the 20-year-old Conner and other beauty pageant winners.

Now Donald Trump, who owns all these pageants, wants the girls to clean up their act.

When the Donald wants someone to clean up their act, it must be pretty dirty. Trump is hardly what any of us would call a paragon of virtue and family values and the idea that he might find something offensive means it must be pretty damn bad.

Or incredibly hypocritical.

Tara Conner (right), the 20-year-old Kentuckian who became Miss USA, is about to get the boot because she came to New York and went wild, drinking in bars and having a grand old time in the Big Apple.

We’re trying to grasp the hypocrisy of this. It’s OK for the young girl to put on a skimpy bikini and strut sex appeal all over the stage but God forbid that she go out on the town and have a little fun.

This gets even funnier when you realize the Miss USA franchise is owned by New York real estate speculator Donald Trump, who has all the moral virtue of a junkyard dog.

Trump has scheduled a press conference Tuesday to announce Conner’s fate but news organizations are already reporting that Miss USA officials have called runner-up Tamiko Nash, Miss California, and told her to get ready to take over the crown.

Beauty pageants are, by nature, exercises in hyprocrisy, promoting manufactured sex appeal for television audiences. Firing a beauty queen because she made a human mistake only carries that hyprocrisy to new heights. In an era when pro sports figures get multiple chances for drug abuse or breaking the law, it is ridiculous to fire a 20-year-old kid for acting like one.

You can call the Hooters restaurant chain many things (and opponents of the eatery built on sex appeal have called the company names) but the one tag that fits most appropriately is “successful.”

Reports The Associated Press:

Retired from a long career in medical sales, Roger Toy can be found most days doing the daily crossword puzzle at a local Hooters, the restaurant chain known for its scantily clad waitresses and, oh yes, buffalo wings.

At the restaurant where Toy hangs out, a trio of telecommunications managers dine as often as three times a day.

“The girls are really the reason,” says Toy, 54, who has never been married. “If you come up here a lot, you get to know them. I like coming here because everybody knows me.”

These “girls” are the Hooters Girls, a cadre of more than 17,000 women who work at the Atlanta-based chain’s 438 restaurants across the United States and in 20 countries. Besides their revealing attire of low-cut, tight tank tops and short orange shorts circa the 1980s, these waitresses are known for playful banter and friendly smiles.

“It’s the girls. The girls are what we’re all about,” says Coby Brooks, the company’s president and chief executive officer. “Although we have great food.”

Having a brand image focused on staff wearing less has meant more for the privately held company, which started in 1983 in Pinellas County. It has blossomed into a chain that brings in $900 million in yearly sales and is expected to cross the $1 billion mark for the first time next year.

As they say, sex sells and that’s something to give a hoot about.

Photo: Alexandra Carpanzano, a bartender at Hooters of Cumberland in Atlanta, smiles to the customers as she works at the restaurant. (AP Photo)

Actor Peter Boyle is dead at 71. I remember his breakthrough performance at the violent racist in the independent film Joe in 1970 but he is probably remembered more as the monster in the Mel Brooks spook Young Frankenstein.

Those looking for some soft core T&A at the local bookstore will have one less choice. FHM, one of the slick cheesecake “laddie mags” born around the turn of the century, is shutting down, sending young men, no doubt, scrambling for other places to fulfill their masturbatory fantasies.

Unlike Playboy or raunchier rivals like Penthouse or Hustler, FHM models never took it all off. A wisp of clothing or a strategically placed arm would hide nipples or crotches and the emphasis was more on sexy poses than close ups of shaved vaginas (although the web site recently launched “uncensored” photos that show the goods.

FHM’s British edition is number one over there but never could crack the soft core “laddie” market that is dominated by Maxim on these shores.

From Tonight.Com:

Cameron Diaz relaxes by having sex.

The actress - who is dating pop singer Justin Timberlake - finds lovemaking so therapeutic she believes it could be used as a cure for practically everything.

She is quoted by Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald newspaper as saying: “Sex is the most amazing stress reliever. I actually think it’s the best thing for everything! I think it should be 100 percent part of everyone’s life on
a day-to-day basis. We’d all be a lot happier!”

The 34-year-old star - who gets up close and personal with Hollywood heartthrob Jude Law in new festive movie The Holiday - particularly enjoys energetic romps which get her all hot and sweaty.

She said: “I love being physical, I love to get my heart-rate up and I love sweating. Sex is undoubtedly the best way to do that!”

More proof that morons run the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration.

Reports The Associated Press:

Troy Smith’s Heisman Trophy was shipped home Tuesday to keep it safe and avoid the type of mishap that happened the last time an Ohio State player won the award.

Smith wore a black leather jacket with the Heisman insignia on back when he arrived at the airport from New York, where he was presented college football’s most coveted trophy.

Eddie George, the last Buckeye to win the Heisman in 1995, had his trophy get stuck in an airport X-ray machine, losing the tip of its right index finger and bending the middle finger.

“We decided to have it shipped. That’s much easier. How times have changed. Eddie carried it on the plane and put it in the seat next to him,” sports information director Steve Snapp said.

Smith didn’t mind.

“No, because Eddie’s finger got bent,” he said. “I don’t want that to happen to mine.”

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the corrupt bribe-taker who quit rather than face the music, started a blog today.

But it shut down a few hours later so they could clean off all the comments from people who told DeLay just what they thought of him.

The blog is back up but comments are now moderated but you can find them on another site.

And one other thing. DeLay told Mike Barnicle on MSNBC’s Hardball that he doesn’t write his own blog.

“I’m not a writer,” he said. “I have ideas and others write them for me.”

Hmmmmm.