Please, Lauren Nelson, don’t make us take back the props we recently handed out to you.

Our celebrity gossip staff just complimented this year’s Miss America for not following in the troubled footsteps of past beauty contestants. Yes, we’re looking at you, Tara Conner.

What impressed us so much about Nelson? She actually participated in a sting to catch online pedophiles, posing as a 14-year old and helping America’s Most Wanted nab some dirty, dirty old men.

Controversy has arisen around Nelson now, however. No, it’s nothing like that surrounding former pageant queen Katie Rees. At least we don’t think anyone has caught Lauren involved in any girl-on-girl action. But rumors are swirling that she won’t actually testify at the trials of these predators.

The producers of America’s Most Wanted say this isn’t the case, though.

“Despite information to the contrary that appears in… Newsday, according to the Miss America Organization neither Lauren Nelson nor her representatives have told the Suffolk County District Attorney â?” or anyone else â that she would refuse to testify in any of the cases in which she participated,” the show said in a statement.
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Good. We hope that settles the issue. We’d prefer to look at Nelson in an admirable (or nude) light, similar to that of another beauty queen, Helen Salas.