Miss Universe at this week’s amFAR benefit.Photo: Patrick McMillan
Has disgraced-Miss-USA-gone-wild Tara Conner — who entered rehab to curb her crazy ways, including cocaine use, underage drinking, and kissing Miss Teen USA Katie Blair in public — completely given up her partying ways? Not entirely, according to her roommate, Miss Universe Zuleyka Rivera. “We still party, yeah. Sometimes. We’re just trying to be careful about what we do,” she said at Wednesday night’s benefit gala for amFAR. Besides, pageant owner Donald Trump “trusts us,” Rivera says. “I’m a person who shows my real self. If I like to go party, like a young girl do, I do it. Why not? I can’t drink. I’m 19. At least not in the United States.” Rivera is from Puerto Rico, and “In Puerto Rico I can.” And she does get treated better with the sash on. “If I compare when I was in Puerto Rico as a student in college, it’s different. Very different. I get into clubs, yes.” —Jada Yuan
Update: Miss Universe and her flack call us to deny everything!
The phone rang around 1:30 this afternoon. “You have to understand that English is not my first language,” Miss Universe said. She had a flack on the line with her. “And the other thing is, we are young. The issue that we are title holders and we are beauty queens, it doesn’t matter. We can hang out or go out. We can do what we want. People get this big issue because we go out. Every young girl does that.” “They go out,” the flack seconded. “Tara is of age. She’s 21.” The flack then accused us of lying. “Zuleyka claims that she never said [that Connor has hit the town since rehab] to you. You say one thing, she says another. So either it’s a misunderstanding or someone’s not telling the truth, and I have to defer to Zuleyka, because she’s never lied to us yet.” We have Rivera’s comments on tape, but never mind that, apparently. “Since Tara got back in New York, we haven’t gone out. We really don’t have the time,” said Rivera, contradicting the earlier taped comment. “I can tell you for a fact that Tara has not gone out,” the flack concurred. “And she has no desire to. She’s constantly saying she’s never had a legal drink. She turned 21 and is sober since the day of her birthday.” Uh-huh.
