IF THERE IS ONE WORD to describe the state of pageantry in 2007, it would be "scandalous." Oh, wait a minute!
Wasn't that the same word that described the state of pageantry in 2006 as well? Okay, never mind! The word that should
describe 2007 pageantry is "outrageous." Why? Because much of it caused outrage, as it went beyond all standards of what
is right or decent. It was a year that revealed the inner ugliness of physically attractive women. Far from being utopian, pageantry
became unbearable to breathe, especially when we saw beauty queens - supposed symbols of refinement and elegance - degrade
themselves or fall prey to self-absorption and false humility. It was also a year filled with much sadness, as beauty queens
became victims of tragedy - an indication that life is not always a bed of roses for the prettiest heads. But there is hope.
And though crowns may be tarnished, tattered or taken away, the spirit of pageantry prevails.
BEAUTY QUEENS AS VICTIMS
LEILA SCHUSTER, right, who represented Brazil in Miss Universe 1993, was a victim of a brutal crime during the second week
of January. The former beauty queen had to be hospitalized after having received stab wounds on her right hand during an
assault that took place before she was about to attend a fashion show by designer Alessa Migani. Schuster was getting
out of her car when two men on a motorcycle grabbed her purse which was flung on her shoulder. Schuster fell on the ground
and was dragged by several meters while being stabbed on her right hand with a knife. At the hospital in Rio de Janeiro,
Schuster underwent surgery for several hours to reconstruct three of her fingers that suffered severe lesions.
NATALIE SACCO, Miss Peru 1996, had the scare of her life when her 3-year-old daughter Romina was kidnapped on January 18th
by a group of delinquents who kept the girl for seven hours and demanded forty thousand dollars as ransom money. According
to initial investigation, the criminals barged in Sacco's residence in Trujillo and took away the girl and her nanny.
However, the girl's frantic cries were too much for the kidnappers to handle, so they decided to free the girl and the
nanny by abandoning them in another neighborhood. Authorities suspect that the nanny might have been an accomplice to
the kidnapping.
ANGELINA FARES, 17, left, who would have been the first contestant from the Druze religion to compete in Miss Israel 2007,
decided to withdraw from the competition in March following death threats from extremist members of her religion.
She said, "My life is much more important than a contest, but it's very difficult for me to give up my dream."
Fares had hope to become the first Miss Israel from the conservation Druze Arab minority.
In June, the battered body of SARANNA BUCHAN, a Scottish teenage beauty queen, was found in a squalid flat next to the
corpse of James Logan, a drug dealer and local crime lord who habitually slept with a machete next to his bed.
Murder-squad detectives believe Logan, 41, bludgeoned the former schoolgirl to death before
killing himself with a fatal overdose. It is thought the 20-year-old may have been beaten over the course of several
days before she finally died in agony in Logan's harbour-front lair.
In June, right-wing activists stopped cinemas in India's Jammu region from showing a film based on the experiences of a
former teen beauty queen accused by police of being a porn star. ANARA GUPTA, now a 21-year-old law student and aspiring
Bollywood actress, alleged that she and her family members were tortured during 11 days in police custody in 2004. At the
time she confessed to police that she had starred in the pornographic film, but later retracted the confession saying she
was forced to do so.
"The film's goal was to show how a confession was forced from me that I was on a pornographic CD," Gupta,
who was Miss Jammu at the age of 15 in 2001, told AFP from the Bollywood hub Mumbai.
During the Miss Universe pageant in Mexico in May, RACHEL SMITH, Miss USA, was booed by the predominantly Mexican
audience during the national costume show and all throughout the finals on May 28th. And if Smith's misfortunes were not
enough, she slipped and fell on her buttocks during the evening gown competition. The boos escalated when Smith was
called as one of the five finalists.
In July, Miss New Jersey, 22-year-old AMY POLUMBO, right, announced that someone was trying to blackmail her with
old photographs and a demand that she give up her crown. The Miss New Jersey pageant committee gave its full support
to Polumbo, saying she had been "forthright" in her decision to reveal the photos, and that "she should continue
in her reign as Miss New Jersey."
In August, ELAINE LOPES, who was Miss Paraná 2003 and semifinalist in Miss Brazil 2003, was tragically killed in
a car crash on August 21st. Lopes was returning to her city Umuarama from the airport where she had dropped off
her husband Jeremias Júnior da Silva. She lost control of her car which smashed a concrete wall, killing her
instantly. She was 24.
Two days after she was crowned Miss Puerto Rico Universe on November 28th, INGRID MARIE RIVERA claimed that her
competition gown and her make-up kit had caused an uncomfortable reaction on her skin. Pageant officials stated
that someone tried to sabotage Rivera's chance for the crown by dousing her personal items with pepper spray.
Initially, skeptics argued that Rivera and the pageant organizers had planned the scandal to get more publicity, but later, exhaustive test results indicated that someone
had indeed doused Rivera's garments with pepper spray.
Two weeks after she was crowned Miss France on December 8, VALERIE BEGUE, 22, risked losing her title after
a male-oriented magazine Entrevue published several photos of her in suggestive poses, including one in which
she appears to be licking condensed milk and another one in which she is posing as the crucified Christ in
a swimming pool. Bčgue stated that the photos were taken several years ago and were published without her
permission. The Miss France Committee, with pressure from Bčgue's strong supporters, decided to allow her to
keep the crown and title, but on the condition that she cannot compete internationally or participate in
regional pageants to select next year's Miss France.
BEAUTY QUEENS BEHAVING BADLY
DANIELLE LLOYD, left, the dethroned Miss Great Britain was alleged to have taken part in racist bullying of a fellow contestant
in "Celebrity Big Brother" The January 15th program attracted a wave of criticism after three contestants, including Lloyd,
were said to have picked on Indian Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. The show featured scenes of Lloyd and fellow housemates
Jade Goody and Jo O'Meara mocking Shetty's attempt to roast a chicken. Lloyd had also called Shetty a 'dog' in a previous episode.
In March, SONIA DE FALCONE, Miss Bolivia International 1988, had been accused by the U.S. government for hiring illegal
immigrants to work for her. Falcone pleaded guilty and agreed to return to Bolivia rather than face criminal charges in
the U.S. Falcone hired a man as her servant and chauffeur, as well as the man's wife to be the housekeeper. The couple's
son was also employed as an errand boy and another woman was hired to be a nanny.
In March, Miss Jamaica World 2006 SARA LAWRENCE announced that she would relinquish her crown after becoming pregnant
rather than have an abortion. Lawrence wrote in a statement, "Having taken a deeply personal decision to face up to my
responsibilities as one who expects to become a mother later this year." She wrote, "I believe with all that is within
me that it is my moral obligation to do what I believe to be ethically correct and follow what I believe in my heart to
be right." Lawrence's decision has sparked a debate over abortion in Jamaica. Jamaica Bureau of Women's Affairs, Faith
Webster, told the paper that the decision is a reflection 
of the success of the "choice" campaign for abortion in that country.
In May, Miss Universe 1987 CECILIA BOLOCCO of Chile, right, was photographed topless alongside an Italian friend, Luciano Marocchino,
on the terrace of her house in Miami where she and her friend were vacationing. The topless photos were taken on April 24th
by a Chilean paparrazo Angel Mora and published by the Chilean magazine SQP. The images caused a big scandal in Chile and
provoked speculations that Bolocco and Marocchino might be having an affair. As soon as she returned to Chile,
she immediately apologized to Menem even though she believes that she did not do anything wrong.
In July, MARINA MORA, ex-Miss Peru World and second runner-up in Miss World 2002, was reportedly dating 56-year-old Mexican
millionaire Jaime Camil Garza. The couple was seen in a five-star hotel in Miraflores, Peru. Mora's friends claimed that
the former beauty queen had not revealed to the press about her sentimental relationship with Garza, and that they think that
Mora is merely a "pastime" for Garza. Mora became controversial three years ago when she married her first cousin Gustavo
Mora against her family's wishes. To this day, Marina and Gustavo are still legally married but separated.
In October, HEDY DI CARLO has been charged with bouncing more than $70,000 worth of check for antique furniture. Di Carlo,
the winner of the Ms. New Jersey pageant in 2005, allegedly began buying the furniture from a store in upstate
New York in June. Detectives have recovered all of the items from her home in Essex Fells.
BEAUTY QUEENS SACKED
In February, ANGELA BUSTILLO, 22, (left with her son), said she would sue the organizers of the Miss Cantabria contest, named after
the region in northern Spain where it was held. She said the rules barring pregnant women, or those who already have
children, from taking part in the contest are discriminatory since no such limitations apply to contestants in the
Mr. Cantabria contest by the same organizers.
TAIZA TOMSEN, Miss Brazil for 2002 who was the subject of an international missing person hunt, was awarded the
equivalent of thousands of dollars in a lawsuit she filed against pageant organizers. Thomsen initially took second place
in the pageant but, toward the end of the year, was declared the winner after Joseane Oliveira was stripped of the
title because it was revealed she was married. Thomsen claimed judges knew about the marriage all along and sued for
damages caused by the delay in her crowning. The former beauty queen was in headlines recently after her parents reported
her missing on January 25, sparking fears she had been kidnapped or fallen victim to a human trafficking ring.
In July, ANGELINA GLASS, who had represented Germany in Miss Universe 2007, resigned for unknown reasons. She had been
replaced by the first runner-up in her national pageant, Alexandra Kuszlik. Kuszlik presumably will not be eligible to
compete for Miss Germany again and therefore will have no opportunity to compete at Miss Universe.
In July, THE WINNER of a Bolivian beauty contest for indigenous women was stripped of her title moments after her
coronation when judges noticed she was wearing false plaits (braided hair). The Miss Cholita Pacena pageant, held
in the Andean city of La Paz late, seeks to instill pride in indigenous women who choose to wear the traditional dress
of wide skirt, bowler hat and long plaited hair. But doubts over whether the winner was a genuine Cholita Pacena -
the name for Indian women from La Paz - led judges to strip her of her victor's sash and call for a rerun, said
pageant organizer Walter Gomez from La Paz's city government. The judges "disqualified the winner because they
realized she didn't have plaits, that the plaits she had were false," he told Reuters.
"Having short hair means
they don't live like Cholitas."
In July, ISABEL LESTAPIER-WINQVIST, right, Miss Sweden 2007 was stripped of her title because she had appeared in FHM,
a men's magazine. "She was our ex-girlfriend of the month in February 2006," said FHM editor Tobias Wickstrom.
After buying the rights to the pageant, Panos Papadopoulos gave it a makeover after allegation were made that the
competition was outdated and sexist. The swimwear segment was removed as part of the overhaul.
Papadopoulos said Lestapier Winqvist's appearance in FHM is out of step with the "new" pageant.
In August, KARGLIS VENEGAS, 22, one of the representatives from Zulia in Miss Venezuela 2007, was eliminated from
the competition. Venegas stated that after she had been training for over a month, she was selected to be part of
the 28 candidates, but after recovering from her illness and gaining two pounds, she was let go. She also accused
the Miss Venezuela pageant as being deceitful and Osmel Sousa a disgrace.
In October, GIANNINA SILVA of Uruguay, who was crowned Miss America Latina last June 15 in Mexico, was
dethroned and replaced by her first runner-up Heidi García Guerrero of Guatemala. Pageant president Acirema
Alayeto stated that Silva accepted to compete in another international pageant in Bolivia during her reign,
which is a violation of her contract. Alayeto explained that the contract explicitly states that the titleholder
cannot participate in public events or accept invitations without the consent of the pageant president.
Silva claimed that it was her decision to give up the crown due to discrepancies with Alayeto's organization.
To strip or not to strip: In December, CHISTINA SILVA was crowned Miss California USA, but several days later,
she was told by pageant organizers that there was gross vote-tabulation error and that her second runner-up,
Raquel Beezley, the rightful winner. Silva was forced to switch places with Beezley, but was able to keep her crown and title.
table test
CHANGING ATTITUDES
In June, the Miss Spain beauty contest has changed its rules to allow transsexuals
and mothers to compete for
the title for the first time in order to avoid any discrimination among candidates, organizers said Friday.
"Transsexuals and mothers will be able to compete in the next edition," an organizer of the Miss and Mister Spain
contest told AFP. The move comes after the contest's decision to dethrone a 22-year-old beauty queen in February when
it emerged she had a young son sparked criticism of the pageant's organizers from the press and the government.
Anna Bustillo, who won the title of Miss Cantabria, a region in northern Spain, in January making her eligible to
go on for Miss Spain, said she was being discriminated against because fathers could compete for Mister Spain.
Pageant organizers justified their rules at the time, arguing that fathers, unlike mothers, "do not undergo
substantial physical changes that would impede them from carrying out duties such as travel and taking part in
parades that are required of pageant winners."
In April in Iceland, a beauty contest was held called 'untamed beauty' for ugly people,
to challenge the notion of what constituted being sexy. The organizers sought candidates who were at least
20 years-old with shapeless boobs, cellulite structure and scary body parts, to participate
in the show. The contestants did not have to undergo weight loss or gain programme for the show.
The show's head, Matthildur Helgadottir said that anyone, irrespective of gender and the flaws in their
body could participate in the contest. Helgadottir added that loose breasts mean that the person has lived
life to its fullest. "You can have one leg, be a man, woman, whoever. Saggy breasts mean you have lived your life,"
The Sun quoted Helgadottir, as saying.
|
