Smile Please! 25 Celebrities Who Wear The Beauty Queen Crown

Forget Honey Boo Boo! Hollywood is littered with celebrities who once tottered across a stage wearing high-heels, a sash and a tiara. Here is a look back at some of those well-known faces and big names who were once beauty queens.

Oscar-winner Halle Berry was so successful at being a beauty queen that she was Miss Teen Ohio, Miss Teen All-American and a 1986 Miss World hopeful.

Vanessa Williams’ reign as Miss America began with a celebration and ended in shame. In 1983 she became the first African-American woman to take home the title. And in1984 – just as she was set to pass the crown on to her successor – she stepped down from her position after Penthouse magazine published nude photos of her.

Little Britney Spears did the pageant rounds when she was a child back in Louisiana and has a number of trophies to her name.

Back in 1998 Desperate Housewife Eva Longoria was crowned Miss Corpus Christie, Texas.

Disney, beauty pageants and pop stars seem to go hand in hand. Like her fellow former Disney star Britney Spears, Demi Lovato also did the kiddie beauty contest circuit before she became famous.

If John McCain had won the 2008 election, his running mate Sarah Palin would have become the first VP to be in a beauty pageant contest. The former governor rocked a bathing suit to compete in 1984’s Miss Alaska competition.

Ali Landry has quite a few beauty queen titles under her belt, including Miss Louisiana Teen USA, Miss Teen USA and Miss USA. She also competed in the Miss Universe competition in 1996.

Vanessa Lachey once told Seventeen magazine: “My boyfriend’s dad said, ‘You should try out for Miss South Carolina Teen USA. I think my son will really appreciate you if you’re a beauty queen and win a pageant.’” She followed his advice, won and ended up being crowned Miss Teen USA in 1998.

Way before she was an actress, Debra Messing was crowned Rhode Island’s Junior Miss in 1986.

Oprah Winfrey was Miss Fire Prevention and Miss Black Tennessee back in the early 1970s. Asked by the judges what she would do with a million dollars, the future billionaire reportedly said she would be a “spending fool!”

Let’s face it. With her brilliant smile and glitzy evening gowns, Vanna White is still really a beauty queen posing as a game show co-host every night. But back in 1978, the future Wheel Of Fortune star was the fourth runner-up in the Miss Georgia Universe Beauty Pageant.

Before she burst on to our screens in Saved By The Bell, Tiffani Thiessen participated in the child beauty pageant circuit and actually took home the Miss Junior America title in 1987.

Former One Tree Hill star Sophia Bush is also the former Tournament of Roses Parade queen. The actress walked away with that crown when she was 17.

She is known for her beauty as well as her talent so it’s no surprise that Michelle Pfeiffer was Miss Orange County 1978.

Long before she flashed her lady bits in Basic Instinct, Sharon Stone was a beauty pageant winner who was crowned Miss Crawford County, Pennsylvania.

Diane Sawyer has brains and beauty. In 1963 the former ABC World News anchor won first place in America’s Junior Miss scholarship pageant.

With her curvaceous figure, perfect white smile, cornflower blue eyes and bouncy hair, is it a surprise that the original Wonder Woman Lynda Carter is a former Miss USA winner who went on to compete in the Miss World pageant?

Gal Gadot may not be the first Wonder Woman to have been a beauty queen. But the former Miss Israel is the first one to have served her country in the army.

Veteran actress Cloris Leachman wowed a whole new generation when she competed on Dancing With the Stars.  But back in the 1940s, at the start of her entertainment career, she won the Miss Chicago title and went on to compete in the Miss America beauty pageant.

Back in the 1960s – long before she became a model, an actress and Elvis Presley’s date – Cybill Shepherd was crowned Miss Teenage Memphis.

Yes, Xena: Warrior Princess was a beauty queen. Or rather, the actress who played her, Lucy Lawless, was. The brunette beauty was crowned Mrs. New Zealand in 1989.

At the age of 17, TODAY show’s Kathie Lee Gifford represented Maryland in America’s Junior Miss pageant.

Designing Women star Delta Burke began her career as a beauty queen, and a successful one at that. In the 1970s she was named Miss Flame for both Orlando and Florida and, as Miss Florida, she represented her state in the Miss America pageant.

What do you call a woman who has won the following titles – Miss Photogenic, Miss La Jolla, Miss Contour, Miss Fairest of the Fair and Miss San Diego? Raquel Welch.

He’s no beauty queen but that doesn’t mean that Justin Timberlake wasn’t a pageant winner when he was a child. In 1992, a doe-eyed Justin was named International Supreme King in Nashville.