From an article on TODAY’s website:

“Photo Courtesy of the Miss Universe L.P., LLP”

In a first for any U.S.-based pageant organization, the Miss Universe Organization has taken the unusual step of releasing topless photos of its outgoing Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela, to Maxim for the magazine’s September issue.

As you may recall, the Miss Universe Organization (which owns and operates the Miss USA pageant) treated the “topless” photo of former Miss California Carrie Prejean’s somewhat differently: (more…)

It has been 29 years since I created the role of Starbuck, 25 since breathing life into dear old Templeton Peck, aka Faceman. During the past decade I have, on occasion, attended conventions where one has the opportunity to meet, in person, those dear people, who watched both characters as they gambled and flirted and huffed and puffed and fought the bad guys and seduced the good girls. This experience has been enlightening. To wit:

At my very first convention, I was coming out of an elevator as a fan was entering. She glanced at me, gasped and said, “My God, what happened to you?” It took me a couple minutes to understand her statement. What she was gasping about and referring to was the all too visual fact that I no longer looked the same. I had changed! AGED! She found this fact surprising. Stunning, perhaps, from the size of her gasp. This gave me pause. (more…)