Columnist John Katsilometes: The medical aspirations of Miss America

Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2006 | 7:51 a.m.

Fabulous Las Vegas runs Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday in the Las Vegas Sun. Reach John Katsilometes at kats@lasvegassun.com or at (702) 259-2327 or (702) 812-9812.

One day, a proud parent in Alabama can claim, "Junior's doctor is a former Miss America!"

That is the career objective of former Miss Alabama and current Miss America Deidra Downs -- to trade the sash for a smock and become a pediatrician. She has plenty of money to meet that goal, as she noted Sunday during an appearance at Fashion Show mall.

"I earned $110,000 in scholarship money as I became Miss America," she said. "Of that, $75,000 is being used so I can attend medical school at the University of Alabama."

Downs also reminded that the Miss America Organization is the largest scholarship and grant organization in the country -- last year more than $45 million was awarded to pageant contestants -- and now I have a better understanding of what all this competition is about.

More quick shots from Pageant Central:

* The entire wardrobe for each contestant is checked in and under tight security throughout the week. This is necessary as, in the past, some of the participants' clothing has been tampered with and/or somehow sabotaged.

As a pageant veteran told me over the weekend, methods of such sabotage have been the application of red lipstick and a few well-placed snips of the scissors. That's just tiara-ble (ouch).

* Tickets remain available for preliminary competition set for tonight, Wednesday and Thursday at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts. Saturday's finale is sold out. All competition will be televised by CMT; show times are 5 p.m. and the telecast will be shown tape-delayed at 8 p.m. in Las Vegas.

* Former Miss California from 1990, Maria Schellhase, is a Las Vegas resident. Schellhase represented San Diego (and went by her maiden name of Maria Ostapiej) and won the talent award in '90 with her medley from "Phantom of the Opera." Today she's vice president of David Goldwater's lending company, Goldwater Capital Investments.

Schellhase specializes in client relations, and plans to take in Saturday day night's show and the three nights of preliminary competition.

* By happy coincidence, stand-up comic Dena Blizzard, Miss New Jersey 1995, is performing at the Comedy Stop at the Trop during pageant week. Taking in Blizzard's show on Monday night was current Miss New Jersey, Julie Robenhymer.

NoteMart

Hippy hippy shake: The ill-fated Stardust, which is likely to be closed forever by December, is fighting the good fight with a fun promotion: The Hippy Pit. To the backdrop of tunes such as "Three Miles High," and "Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In" dealers wearing tie-dyed shirts and peace-sign necklaces fleece recreational gamblers ...

I want one!: Flamingo Las Vegas headliner George Wallace has announced a deal with the creators of the Welcome to Las Vegas novelty sign. Wallace plans to offer the souvenir -- which is a foot-tall, illuminated replica of the Fabulous Las Vegas sign on the Strip -- as a gift during public appearances (including those with late-night hosts Jay Leno and David Letterman) and to audience members at his Flamingo shows ...

Speaking of celebrity products: Over at the Las Vegas Hilton, Barry Manilow has lent his name to a flip book -- books that create an optical illusion of motion when the images are rapidly flipped through -- to be sold exclusively at the hotel's Manilow Store. The images are of Manilow dancing on one side, and his autograph being scrawled on the other ...

As B.J. Thomas once said, everything is beautiful in its own way: Spotted fastened to a black Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible: A plate reading UGLYGRL.