People: Sep. 29, 1986

It is getting so that the Miss America Pageant is not such a pretty sight anymore. All that controversy: feminists rapping the contest as a meat rack on a runway; Vanessa Williams' 1984 Penthouse revelations; her 1985 successor, Sharlene Wells, getting razzed by some for being squeaky clean to the opposite extreme. And this year, a very unladylike catfight breaks out in the press after the crown goes to Tennessee's Kellye Cash. At last count, Miss Florida, Molly Pesce, had been quoted as calling the new Miss America the "least-liked girl" in the pageant; Miss Ohio, Mary Zilba, had complained about being "robbed" by not making the final ten; and Miss New York, Dawen McPeak, had blasted the judges for being biased. Were that not enough to make one's mascara run, Pesce also observed that it had not hurt Miss Tennessee that her great-uncle happens to be Singer Johnny Cash. Meanwhile, Cash, 21, a devout Southern Baptist who aspires to be a talk-show host, was turning the other cheek and explaining her victory in terms of positive thinking. "I thought I was going to win, because I don't think you can win if you don't think you can win," she said last week. "That's why I didn't cry. I was prepared to win. It's part of the psych-out you play." But who's playing?