Choking back tears, the 21-year-old Harman said that despite the feelings of her well-meaning parents, she had never been "mistreated" by pageant officials in her role as Miss America 2002. The pageant's chief executive officer, Robert Renneisen, stood by her side.
Harman did say that the contents of the eight-page letter were true and "that the thoughts my parents wrote were valid." But she said the letter, sent to the pageant's board of directors last week, expressed only the feelings of her parents, Glen and Darla Harman.
In the letter, the Harmans said they were billed $750 for alterations to their daughter's size 2 clothing and $2,248 for a post-crowning party at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort.
They also said they had been treated rudely by the pageant's national staff when they made simple requests for information on their daughter's whereabouts. (Miss America's schedule can include up to 20,000 miles of travel per month.) And they complained that the staff had also failed to follow up on requests for bookings - a lucrative part of Miss America's annual earnings that can be as high as $250,000 during her reign.
Harman said yesterday that she is grateful for her chance to be Miss America and that she fears "all this internal squabbling" could prevent her from making an impact on the breast-cancer community, on which she has chosen to concentrate during her tenure.
"My family said, 'We love you but we cannot afford to pay for your college education.' That's why I am here," Harman said. "And I would gratefully do this job without being paid for it because I am passionate about my concern for breast-cancer patients. They don't get paid for what they have to do."
At the news conference, both Renneisen and Miss America Pageant board member David Sparenberg said pageant officials were looking into the complaints made by the Harmans.
Jacqueline L. Urgo's e-mail address is jurgo@phillynews.com.
