Embattled beauty queen Miss New Jersey yesterday refused to make her Facebook pictures public – even though releasing them could end a blackmail attempt against her.
Amy Polumbo, 22, revealed last week that an Internet enemy had ripped photos from her personal page on the social-networking Web site and threatened to publish them if she didn’t relinquish her title.
The Miss America wannabe insisted that none of the photos show her drinking or nude.
“I’m not doing anything illegal, like I said, no nudity,” Polumbo said on NBC’s “Today” show.
She didn’t go into any greater detail about the photos.
She declined to make all her Facebook pictures public.
“These pictures were meant to be between my friends and myself,” Polumbo said. “I never could imagine someone would want do this to a another person. Between my friends and I, these pictures were innocuous.”
Polumbo lamented that there are an untold number of blackmail suspects – even a fellow Miss New Jersey contestant.
“It could really be anyone. It’s really disheartening to think it would be a contestant,” she said.
Demeaning and fictitious captions were added to the photos, mailed separately to Miss New Jersey and Miss America pageant officials, Polumbo said.
Private pictures on a Facebook member’s personal page are accessible only to people invited by the member.
Last night, Polumbo told Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor” that the photographs are nothing more than “normal college pictures . . . silly college fun.”
Polumbo added, “I’m also a theater major, and my friends and I, we just really like to have a good time.”
Her lawyer, Anthony Caruso, said he fears pageant officials might take a critical look at Polumbo and the “moral turpitude” clause in her contract.
“It’s really a subjective standard. It depends on who is looking at it,” Caruso said. “We feel it doesn’t come close to a violation.”
Polumbo and Caruso said they hoped Miss America officials would wrap up their probe by the end of next week and give her the green light to compete for the title.
If Polumbo can’t compete, Miss New Jersey runner-up Ronica Licciardello would take the Garden State sash and tiara.
Polumbo, of Howell, N.J., won her crown last month based in part on her vow to battle Internet predators.
Caruso said the blackmail scheme is also being investigated by the New Jersey state Attorney General’s Office, but prosecutors there declined to confirm it.
Additional reporting by Jeane MacIntosh and Jana Winterdavid.li@btc365-futebol.com