Miss North Carolina USA crowned Miss USA 2009

Miss North Carolina USA Kristen Dalton was crowned Miss USA 2009 on Sunday, beating out 50 other beauty queens in the live pageant televised from Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The 22-year-old aspiring motivational speaker and entertainer from Wilmington edged out first runner-up Miss California USA Carrie Prejean, of San Diego, and second runner-up Miss Arizona USA Alicia-Monique Blanco, of Phoenix.

The pageant featured musical performances; Kevin Rudolf performing his chart-topping single “Let It Rock” during the swimsuit competition and The Veronicas performing their hit single “Untouched” during the evening gown competition.

Miss USA 2009 Top 5 Swimsuits Kristen Dalton



Miss USA 2009 Swimsuit Photo Shoot



Miss USA 2009 - Crowning Moment

The father of the adorable child actress in "Slumdog Millionaire" denies a shocking report that he tried to sell his 9-year-old daughter for nearly $300,000.

The News of the World claims that Rafiq Qureshi and his second wife put young Rubina Ali, who starred as little Latika in the Oscar-winning film, on the shopping block. Qureshi reportedly said he "got nothing" from the film, which followed a Mumbai orphan’s rags-to-riches story. Staffers at the British tabloid posing as a wealthy Arab Sheikh couple said they wanted to adopt Rubina and take her to live in Dubai. Qureshi demanded 200,000 pounds, roughly $296,000 — which the dad’s brother said was a bargain because Ali is not an ordinary girl, but "an Oscar child."

Following the shocking News of the World report, Qureshi spoke with the BBC News website on Monday and said, "my daughter is not for sale."

Qureshi, in a lengthy interview, said he had been trapped into a situation of "great temptation," but he firmly denied accepting any deal to sell his daughter or give her up for adoption. Rubina and her father reportedly met three times with two people posing as a wealthy Arab couple from Thursday to Saturday.
After meeting with the couple twice at a Mumbai hotel, both parties met a final time in Qureshi’s hut. It was there when Qureshi says he denied their generous offer. "At this time they went to the memsaab and came back to us with an offer of 500,000 rupees as an advance. We refused, but they kept saying if we accepted the offer the money can be arranged in five minutes."

He also tells the BBC that he now feels deceived by the media.

"They played dirty with us, but we didn’t accept any money from them. My daughter is not for sale."

While Qureshi says he felt the couple pitied him and their poor situation, according to reports published in February, Rubina and her young co-star Azharuddin Ismail, 10, were both given homes by the Indian government for bringing "laurels to the country."

Ethiopia's Deriba Merga overcame the disappointment of his Olympic fade to win the Boston Marathon on Monday, and Kenya's Salina Kosgei won the closest women's race in the 113-year history of the event while Americans took third in both races for the best U.S. finish since 1985.

Merga, who was passed in the last quarter-mile and finished fourth in Beijing, pulled away before Heartbreak Hill and won in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 42 seconds — almost a full minute ahead of Kenya's Daniel Rono and American Ryan Hall.

Kosgei won a sprint with defending champion Dire Tune, trading the lead several times in the final blocks of Boylston Street before hitting the tape less than a stride ahead of the Ethiopian in 2:32:16. American Kara Goucher led the three as they crossed the MassPike into Kenmore Square with one mile to go, but she was outkicked down the stretch and finished 9 seconds back.

The winners will take home $150,000, but Merga had to wait for his traditional laurel wreath: The women's pace was so slow and the men finished so fast that he crossed the finish line before Kosgei had a chance to climb the champion's podium.

Kosgei said the weather conditions made for a difficult finish.

"The wind was a bit stronger. ... So, it was very hard," Kosgei said. "I decided I must try. So, I tried."

No American has won in Boston since Lisa Larsen-Weidenbach in 1985, when the U.S. women swept the top three and the men came in second and third. The 2009 race was the slowest since then, a pace that had the men's leaders passing the female stragglers and approaching the final mile as the women were hitting the tape.

Goucher burst into tears and was consoled by her husband, and Tune fell to the pavement for several minutes after the final sprint. Race spokesman Jack Fleming said Tune would not be available because she was receiving medical attention; he did not elaborate.

Goucher's voice cracked repeatedly in the postrace news conference.

"I just wanted it for everybody that wanted it for me," she said. "I'm proud of how I did. I just wanted to be the one that won for everybody."

Kal Penn is leaving the show "House" to work in the White House (or at least, in the Old Executive Office building next door). The actor, best known for his role in "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," tells Entertainment Weekly.

I understand it was your decision to leave House. True? KAL PENN: Yes. I was incredibly honored a couple of months ago to get the opportunity to go work in the White House. I got to know the President and some of the staff during the campaign and had expressed interest in working there, so I'm going to be the associate director in the White House office of public liaison. They do outreach with the American public and with different organizations. They're basically the front door of the White House. They take out all of the red tape that falls between the general public and the White House. It's similar to what I was doing on the campaign.

Will you actually be working in the White House?
PENN: This particular office is in the executive building. The White House has two buildings: the actual White House and an old Navy building called the Old Executive Office.

Are you there as long as Obama's in office?
PENN: A lot of that stuff is up in the air. This is a relatively recent development.

Safe to say you're taking a huge pay cut?
PENN: Oh, yeah. There's not a lot of financial reward in these jobs. But, obviously, the opportunity to serve in a capacity like this is an incredible honor.

How long has this been in the works?
PENN: I've been thinking about [moving into politics] for a while. I love what I do as an actor. I couldn't love it more. But probably from the time I was a kid, I really enjoyed that balance between the arts and public service. I went to a performing arts high school, but I still took a bunch of those dorky political science classes. It's probably because of the value system my grandparents instilled in me. They marched with Gandhi in the Indian independence movement, and that was always in the back of my head. So the past couple of years I thought about it a little more. And in '06 I started this international studies program at Stanford, where they actually let you do most of the course work online. So it was something I could do while I was acting. And I thought this might be the right time to go off and do something else.

Penn's character on "House" committed suicide. Read the rest of the interview here.

Penn urged two undeclared college superdelegates to support Obama in an open letter published on The Huffington Post in May. He was a floor whip at the Democratic National Convention, and starred in a pro-Obama online ad: