UPDATE: I’ve seen the photos, and they’re not particularly lewd and not really offensive. They’re essentially pictures of her drinking with friends and making suggestive (but fully clothed) poses. I can see why Miss NJ thought they were embarrassing and didn’t want them revealed.

Someone has taken copies of photos from a private website belonging to Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo, and has sent them to Miss America pageant officials. The blackmailer was trying to get Amy to drop out of the Miss America contest, in exchange for keeping the photos a secret. Amy says that the photos are not lewd or questionable in any way, and simply represent pictures taken of a college student with friends.

This is not the first time someone in the public eye has been blackmailed by third parties. It is not uncommon in this internet age for people to take perfectly legal and moral situations, and use them to try to force those public figures to remove themselves from the limelight.

Amy says that the photos do not violate the Miss America pageant rules, including the character clause. But that doesn’t necessarily stop internet blackmailers, who will sometimes stop at nothing to ruin a person’s reputation.

Amy says she doesn’t know who might have sent the photos, as they were on a protected Facebook site only accessible by her friends and family. The case is being investigated by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.