Fact1: Mount Rose is preparing for annual beauty pageant, Fact2: optimistic teenager signs up to compete in pageant, Fact3: Dunst follow in footsteps of idols and Amber 's mother, Fact4: Amber lives with mother in small trailer near Loretta, Fact5: Lisa drops out of pageant in to give own costume to Amber
Output: In 1995, Mount Rose is preparing for its annual beauty pageant. Amber Atkins Kirsten Dunst is an optimistic teenager who signs up to compete in the pageant so she can follow in the footsteps of her idols, television news reporter Diane Sawyer, and Ambers mother, a former contestant. Amber works after school applying makeup to corpses at the mortuary, and lives with her mother, Annette Atkins Ellen Barkin, in a small trailer near their friend Loretta Allison Janney. This is in stark contrast to fellow contestant Rebecca Becky Leeman Denise Richards, the daughter of the richest man in town and his wife, Gladys Leeman Kirstie Alley, who is the head of the pageant organizing committee and a former winner. Various business connections between the Leeman Furniture Store and the judges of the pageant cause many to speculate that the contest will be rigged or fixed. Many odd events occur around town during the runup to the pageant, including the death of a contestant, the athletic and competitive Tammy Curry, who is killed when her tractor explodes, and the death ruled a hunting accident of a boy who Becky liked, but who showed himself partial to Amber. Amber decides to pull out of the pageant after her mother is injured in an explosion at their mobile home, but reconsiders and decides to compete to follow her dreams and make her mother proud. At the dress rehearsal, fellow contestant Jenelle Betz swaps numbers with Amber. When Jenelle walks on stage at the beginning of rehearsal, a stage light falls and hits her in the head, knocking her unconscious and rendering her deaf. Luckily, Jenelle is a master of sign language so she claims that despite dropping out of the pageant, she has never been happier. At the pageant, Ambers dance costume mysteriously goes missing. Amber blames Becky and the two get into a catfight. Ambers best friend and fellow contestant Lisa Swenson Brittany Murphy pulls them apart. After comforting a crying Amber, Lisa drops out of the pageant in order to give her own costume to Amber. Amber then performs her tapdance number to a standing ovation. Rebecca sings a cringeworthy rendition of Cant Take My Eyes Off Of You as she dances with a lifesize Jesus doll on a crucifix, both amusing and horrifying the audience. During judging, the previous years winner Mary Johanson now hospitalized with anorexia reprises her talent act lipsynching Dont Cry Out Loud while being pushed around the stage in her hospital wheelchair in a reenactment of her dance movements. When the new winner is announced, Amber is named first runnerup to Rebecca. During the victory parade the next day, Rebecca is killed in a freak accident when the elaborate float made in Mexico, to save her father money on which she is riding explodes. The griefstricken Gladys flies into a blind rage and admits to having killed Tammy and to being responsible for all the attempts against Amber in the runup to the pageant, and is immediately arrested. Rebeccas tragic death and Gladyss antics leave Amber as the new pageant winner. At the State Competition, Amber wins the Minnesota American Teen Princess title by default after all the other contestants fall ill with seafoodrelated food poisoning, and Amber gets an allexpensespaid trip to the national Sarah Rose American Teen Princess Pageant. Upon arrival there, Amber and the other state winners are devastated to find that the cosmetics company has been shut down by the IRS for tax evasion. This sends all the contestants except Amber on a rampage, vandalizing and destroying the property. A few years later, Gladys escapes from prison and is sniping from the top of the Mount Rose supermarket, declaring her intent to take revenge on Amber. During the sixhour police standoff, a television reporter doing a live report at the scene is hit by a stray bullet. Amber quickly picks up the reporters microphone and takes over reporting the story, impressing the news station with her poise and confidence. The film closes with a scene showing Amber as coanchor of the evening news for Minneapolis–St. Paul television station WAZBTV, thus living her dream of possibly becoming the next Diane Sawyer.