Lifestyle
Fallout continues from the Miss USA resignations as a runner-up declines the crown
Noelia Voigt (L) and UmaSofia Srivastava (R) attend a charity event in New York City on May 8, the week that they stepped down as Miss USA and Miss Teen USA.
Rob Kim/Getty Images for Smile Train
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Noelia Voigt (L) and UmaSofia Srivastava (R) attend a charity event in New York City on May 8, the week that they stepped down as Miss USA and Miss Teen USA.
Rob Kim/Getty Images for Smile Train
Days after a pair of resignations rocked the pageant world, organizers have found a successor for Miss USA but appear to be struggling to do the same for Miss Teen USA.
Miss USA Noelia Voigt and Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastava, who were both crowned in 2023, announced their early departures two days apart last week.
Srivastava said her “personal values no longer fully align with the direction of the organization,” while Voigt cited mental health reasons in a statement whose first letters of every sentence spelled “I AM SILENCED.”
A longer resignation letter from Voigt, obtained by the New York Times and NBC News, accuses the Miss USA Organization of “a toxic work environment … that, at best, is poor management and, at worst, is bullying and harassment.”
Social media director Claudia Michelle also resigned right before the two, disavowing “workplace toxicity and bullying” in a public statement of her own, in which she noted she was not bound by an non-disclosure agreement.
Miss Colorado Arianna Lemus resigned in solidarity on Friday, writing that Voigt and Srivastava’s “voices have been stifled by the constraints of a contract that undermines their rights and dignity,” and calling for urgent reform within Miss USA.
The slew of departures and criticisms have refocused a spotlight on the organization, raising questions about its treatment of its two biggest titleholders and practices in general.
The organization wished Voigt and Srivastava well in public Instagram posts, but has not responded to NPR’s requests for comment even as the fallout from their resignations has continued.
In the latest twist, the runner-up from last year’s Miss Teen USA competition says she has turned down the offer to succeed Srivastava.
Miss New York Teen USA Stephanie Skinner, a student at UPenn, wrote on Instagram this week that she had already committed to living in Thailand this summer for a “global research career opportunity.”
The 19-year-old acknowledged that declining the national title was a tough decision, especially since she’d been working towards it since the age of 12. But she also said she believes it is the right move, alluding to the circumstances that led to it.
“Although I do not know exactly what Noelia and Uma went through to led [sic] them to resign, I am sending them immense love and support,” she wrote. “What I do know is that my core values are integrity, honor, kindness, and most importantly I will always stand for female empowerment. I believe we all deserve the power to use our voices.”
Skinner, whose tenure ends in late June, doubled down in an interview with People on Tuesday: “I believe one thing I will never give up is my character.”
The new Miss USA will be crowned on Wednesday
Meanwhile, organizers are preparing to inaugurate the new Miss USA 2023, Miss Hawaii Savannah Gankiewicz.
They announced on Friday that Gankiewicz, last year’s runner-up, will be crowned in a ceremony in her home state on Wednesday.
“Her dedication to empowering women through self-love and confidence is inspiring, and we look forward to her impactful reign as Miss USA,” Laylah Rose, Miss USA Organization CEO and president, said in a statement.
Gankiewicz — who is of Filipina, Polish and Vietnamese descent — is a model, entrepreneur and program director for What Makes You Feel Beautiful, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering women and girls based in Maui, where she was born and raised.
In an Instagram post responding to the news, Gankiewicz said she hopes to use her short time as Miss USA to “bring attention and focus onto the rebuilding of Lahaina on my island of Maui,” which was devastated by a series of wildfires last August.
She said her decision to accept the crown was not made lightly.
“I stand with Noelia and admire her strength to step down and prioritize her mental health,” she wrote. “Noelia, it was the honor of a lifetime to share the stage with you during your crowning moment and I wish you all the best in your next chapter.”
Questions remain about the August pageant
Many Miss USA 2023 state titleholders, including the now-former Miss Colorado, have expressed public support for Voigt by sharing an Instagram statement that asks the organization to release her from the confidentiality clause of her contract “so that she is free to speak on her experiences and time as Miss USA.”
The statement, which says it has the support of the majority of members of the 2023 class, also asks for “full transparency for contestants in the class of 2024 and beyond.”
Gankiewicz — who did not share that statement on her Instagram page — addressed her “fellow Miss USA sisters” in a separate statement, writing, “I believe it’s crucial for us to stand united for the future of the organization and the incoming class of 2024 and beyond.”
States have already begun crowning their respective 2024 titleholders, a process that is slated to continue through early July.
The winners from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., will compete at the Miss USA pageant in Los Angeles from July 27 through August 4. The Miss Teen USA pageant will be held on August 1.
The Miss USA competition is slated to be broadcast live on the CW Network, which announced in late April that it had entered into an “exclusive multi-year broadcast partnership” with both the adult and teen versions of the pageant for the next three years.
It also said the 2023 Miss USA broadcast was the network’s #1 new special of the year, with more than 1.1 million total viewers to see Voigt win the crown.
But the future of the partnership, touted by executives just weeks ago, is suddenly unclear.
“In light of the events of last week, The CW Network is evaluating its relationship with both pageants,” the network told USA Today in a statement on Monday. NPR has reached out to the CW for more information.
Miss USA did nod to the controversy in its statement announcing Gankiewicz last week, as backlash within and beyond the organization continued to grow.
It said “it’s important to remember that every individual connected to such high-profile events is navigating their own personal journey.”
“We are committed to fostering a healthy, communicative and supportive environment for all contestants, state titleholders, national titleholders and staff involved with the Miss USA organization, it’s our mission,” it continued. “We ask for community, empathy and kindness to be restored.”
The Kennedy Center, the facade of which remains covered with a tarp, is seen in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2026. A US federal judge asked on June 24 for an explanation for why a tarpaulin continues to cover the facade of the Kennedy Center where President Donald Trump’s name was recently removed. District Judge Christopher Cooper gave the board of trustees of the performing arts venue until the end of July to explain “the purpose for and status of the tarp and scaffolding that Defendants have erected on the front portico of the Center.”
ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
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More than two weeks ago, President Trump’s name was removed from the Kennedy Center facade though it is still covered by a tarp and the legal battle continues.
On Monday, a U.S. Department of Justice filing on behalf of the Kennedy Center included some surprises. The document was submitted in response to issues raised by lawyers for ex-officio board member Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio who is suing to remove President Trump’s name from the center and stop its closure for renovations.
Among the revelations, the Kennedy Center admitted that, during a board meeting on December 18, 2025, Beatty had been “muted and prevented from speaking.” It was at that meeting that the board voted to add President Trump’s name to the center. The filing later acknowledges the congresswoman was “prevented from voicing her opposition.”
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a living memorial to its namesake. The guidelines for how the theatre complex spends federal dollars are very specific. Among other rules, it states that “no additional memorials or plaques shall be designated or installed.” Beatty argues adding Trump’s name runs afoul of those rules and that any change requires approval from Congress.
According to one of Beatty’s filings, “There was no advance notice in the agenda that the Board would be considering a name change,” a statement the Kennedy Center now does not deny. The center admits that, prior to voting, there was “no discussion about potential risks or downsides of the vote to adopt a secondary name for the Center.” Nor was there a board discussion “about any potential conflict of interest that might result from the vote.”
The center’s lawyers previously contended that if Trump’s name were to be removed, it would “lose money from donors who support” him and “impede the Center’s fundraising efforts.”
Closing for renovations
Earlier this year, Trump announced on social media that the Kennedy Center would close for two years for renovations. He wrote that he made the decision after “a one year review” with “Contractors, Musical Experts, Art Institutions, and other Advisors and Consultants.”
But, according to the center’s lawyers, Trump’s announcement “was made without presenting any plans, analyses, timelines, or funding information to his cotrustees and without any Board vote.”
The Kennedy Center has long denied reporting by The Washington Post that ticket sales plummeted after President Trump became the Center’s board chair. In Monday’s legal filing, the Center admits that, by October 2025, “nearly half of the Center’s tickets were going unsold.”
Paul Tremblay has made a career of pushing the horror genre – and the novel format – in strange and exciting new directions.
In his latest, Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep, the author offers an amalgamation of genre elements that can be best described as psychological-dystopian-science-fiction horror. It’s a mouthful, but the narrative does all of that and more in a way that defies categorization.
Julia Flang is a former semiprofessional gamer working two mediocre jobs she dislikes and living in a modest ranch house in a San Fernando Valley suburb with her retired uncle, whom she calls Uncle Fun. Julia likes movies and gaming but there’s little else going on in her life, so when her estranged mother, the CFO of a large tech company, contacts her with a possible job offer – a “once-in-a-lifetime thing” that pays handsomely just for doing the interview – she hesitantly agrees.
The job is relatively simple and perfect for someone with gaming skills: using a controller built into a phone to get a man, who is stuck in a vegetative state, from California to the East Coast. It will require her to learn how to control his body – walking, moving, sitting, standing, using his arms – so she can maneuver him out of the facility where he is located and into cars and planes and through crowded airports. A fan of movies, Julia decides to call the man Bernie – after the movie Weekend at Bernie’s. When the ethics of the job start to bother her, Julia realizes it’s too late and she must go through with it. However, she’s soon contacted by people interested in sabotaging the whole thing, people who, like her, don’t align with the shady interests of conglomerates and those set to make “gobs of money” from this new, somewhat inhuman technology.
As with every Tremblay novel, any synopsis barely scratches the surface. The novel’s chapters alternate between Julia and you (yes, you). Julia’s chapters are “normal” in the sense that they obey a chronological order and have action, basic descriptions of movement and places, and dialogue. The chapters in second person are like fever dreams from a shadow world; the desperate experiences of a man trapped inside his own body with no control of it, no clue what’s happening to him, and only a few fragmented memories of his life. Also, Tremblay uses a similarly fragmented style of storytelling (including words and sentences trapped in boxes and/or “moving” on the page) to keep things interesting but also confusing and creepy.
This novel operates on several different levels and – planes of existence? Bernie has a head full of AI that controls his body, but his consciousness is still there and struggling to regain control, struggling to remember things. There are monsters, leeches, mysterious rabbits, and eerie shadows in his world, but the true horror comes from the lack of control, from being moved around against his will and having no clue what comes next. Bernie is the embodiment of losing control to AI, and when taken together with the commentary of creativity and AI and the meta interludes in which the author takes a wrecking ball to the fourth wall and addresses readers, this is the best anti-Generative AI story horror has produced so far.
Despite the horror of it, this is a very funny novel. Julia is sarcastic and struggles to keep her comebacks in line, but the conversations she has and messages she writes are always entertaining. However, the humor is far from the crown jewel here. That title belongs to a plethora of big ideas Tremblay juggles. The nature of life, death, and consciousness, the evils of conglomerates, inhuman practices in the name of capitalism, and AI, and even what it means to be human are all explored here: “Is Bernie alive? Is he feeling pain? Is he experiencing everything as a prisoner looking through the bars of his body? Has his consciousness been winnowed to a metaphysical keyhole? Where does consciousness begin or end?” There are no definite answers here, but the way Tremblay infuses humanity, love, the importance of relationships, and humor throughout the narrative provides the kind of answers that can’t and don’t need to be spelled out.
A genre-bender full of big ideas that constantly switches between a world full of real or uncomfortably plausible nightmares and a bizarre hellscape in which loss of self, memory, and autonomy are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep is a horrific and terrifyingly disorienting novel that invites readers to consider a future that already started. Tremblay has always been an innovator, but this beautifully written collection of real and imagined grotesqueries cements him not only as one of the most original and exciting voices in horror but also as one of the smartest, most engaging authors in contemporary fiction.
Gabino Iglesias is an author, book reviewer and professor living in Austin, Texas. Find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @Gabino_Iglesias.
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