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Miss America hails from Michigan

Miss Michigan Kirsten Haglund, a 19-year-old aspiring Broadway star, was crowned Miss America 2008 on Saturday in a live show billed as the unveiling of the 87-year-old pageant's new, hipper look.

Haglund, of Farmington Hills, Mich., sang Over the Rainbow to clinch the title. She beat Miss Indiana Nicole Elizabeth Rash, the first runner-up, and Miss Washington Elyse Umemoto, the second runner-up for the $50,000 scholarship and year of travel that comes with the crown.

The crowning at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip was aired for the first time on TLC. It capped a four-week reality series, Miss America: Reality Check, which followed the contestants as they were pushed to shed the dated look of Miss Americas past and adopt a more updated style.

REDFORD TAKES A HIKE

With the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, nearly over, Robert Redford is going for A Walk in the Woods.

Redford said that his next film project is an adaptation of the best-selling 1998 Bill Bryson book about hiking the Appalachian Trail. He will produce the film and star as Bryson, and Barry Levinson is expected to direct it.

"It'll be fun. I don't know when I've read a book that I laughed so loud," Redford said. "Also it's a chance to take a look at the country. ... The backdrop is pretty terrific, if you stop to think of all the visuals that are possible as they go along that trail."

GORE CAN BE A PAIN

Irish-rocker-turned-activist-and-global-savior Bono tells the New York Daily News that sometimes it gets painful to be around his pal, Southern-politician-turned-conservationist-and-global-savior Al Gore.

"It's like being with an Irish priest," quips Bono. "You start to confess your sins: 'Father Al, I am not just a noise polluter. I am a noise-polluting, diesel-soaking, Gulfstream-flying rock star.'"

Bono says he feels compelled to be good when Al's around. "I'm going to kick the habit. I'm trying, Father Al, but oil has been very good for me."