Friday, July 04, 2003

One of the 24 women set to compete in the upcoming Miss Pennsylvania Scholarship Pageant has withdrawn from the competition and will instead appear on a network TV reality series.

On Friday, pageant executive director Marlene Wynne announced the resignation of Alison Irwin, Miss Greater Juniata Valley. Irwin, 22, of Meadville, instead will participate as a houseguest on "Big Brother 4," a reality television series premiering Tuesday on CBS.

"Alison Irwin has resigned her title," said Marlene Wynne, executive director of the Miss Pennsylvania Scholarship Pageant Organization. "She is already at the 'Big Brother 4' location."

Irwin, a University of Pittsburgh graduate, won her title in February at the Miss Central Pennsylvania/Miss Greater Juniata Valley Pageant held in Lewistown.

The new Miss Greater Juniata Valley is Darcie Faye Bell, 21, of East Brady. That pageant's director, John Metzger, said there is a procedure for an occurrence such as Irwin's departure.

"The pageant awarded two titles, and two runners-up, both of whom have since won titles of their own," he said. "So we had to go back to the scorecards to find the contestant who had the next highest score. That contestant has accepted the title and will be in Nazareth to compete for the Miss Pennsylvania title."

The original first runner-up is Dana Anderson, now Miss Lehigh Area. The second runner-up is Linda Luong, now serving as Miss Moraine State.

Luong, of Bethlehem, is one of three local women competing for the Miss Pennsylvania title July 10 to 12 at Nazareth Area High School.

Irwin will be one of 13 houseguests appearing on the live broadcasts of "Big Brother 4." They will live together, confined to a house fitted with 42 cameras and 56 microphones recording their every move 24 hours a day. They will have no contact with the outside world for the run of the show, during which one houseguest will be evicted weekly. The last remaining houseguest wins $500,000.

1/3/à='' 1/3/à=''