Crystle Stewart Miss USA 2008

Miss Texas Crystle Stewart has just become the 57th woman to be crowned Miss USA. As the pageant changes with the times, so do the winners; credentials are emphasized as much as curves and news reports take note that Crystle Stewart is an entrepreneur as well as a beautiful and talented woman.

A 26-year-old entrepreneur from Texas was named Miss USA on Friday, besting 50 other beauty queens for the coveted crown.

Crystle Stewart, of Missouri City, Texas, runs a party-planning and motivational speaking company, as well as modeling professionally. She says she wants to dedicate her life to international philanthropy.

She edged out first runner-up Leah Laviano of Mississippi and Tiffany Andrade of New Jersey.

Miss USA 2007 Rachel Smith relinquished the crown — and the posh New York apartment that comes with it — in a show aired live by NBC with hosts Donny and Marie Osmond from the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The network co-owns the parent Miss Universe Organization with Donald Trump.

Smith, a former Miss Tennessee USA, said she was headed to Hollywood.

Crystle Stewart is crowned Miss USA 2008

Contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia have been in Las Vegas for nearly three weeks, rehearsing and hyping the 57th annual pageant. After stints in Baltimore and Los Angeles, organizers billed the new venue as a city beloved by the event’s international audience.

The pageant tried to showed off its edge, featuring a grinding live rock performance by the band Finger Eleven, music from Rihanna, and contestants in barely there black bikinis and faux-fur coats.

Donny and Marie kept up a steady stream of sibling banter even while swiftly whittling the field.

Donny Osmond told the losers to “put on a poker face” as he sent them home.

“Or use Botox; then it won’t move,” Marie quipped. (More.)

Beauty pageants do continue to struggle to remain relevant in the 21st century.

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Miss Texas Crystle Stewart Is Crowned Miss USA (Photos)