The New Miss California….NOT!
ESCANDALO!!!
Last week, my darling sister, Rita (of Survivor: Fiji fame) was in Los Angeles training the lovely contestants vying for the Miss California USA and Miss California Teen USA 2008 titles. She invited David and I to attend the finals, which were held at the historic Orpheum Theater in Downtown Los Angeles.

I wanted to attend the finals to support my sister, who looked absolutely stunning wearing one my NIKOLAKI gowns as she handed the bouquets to the Final 5. It was a nice surprise to see the beautiful Meagan Tandy, last year’s Miss California USA, wearing the gown we designed for her when she competed (and received the 3rd Runner Up Title). Also in attendance were two Rita’s castmates and friends from Survivor:Fiji, Michelle Yi and Alex Angarita. It was fun to watch all those girls whom Rita trained and to see her “stamp” of excellence in their walk, posture and presentation.

The pageant itself was actually an exciting one. Everything seem fine and normal. There were over 100 girls competing for both titles. I had my favorites including Miss LA who was a spunky Latina with a walk and a personality that could be seen from the nose-bleed seats at the theater. Miss Barstow and Miss Greater San Diego were gorgeous, the former being a dead ringer for Carmen Electra and Lauren Conrad of MTV’s The Hills and the latter, a beautiful California blond who had “Miss USA” written all over her. These last two were the obvious favorites of the capacity audience at the Orpheum, as well.

It came as a shock then when neither of their names got called as the winner. This is went things got “pageant ugly”. All one could hear were shouts of “Boo” and hisses from the entire theater when Miss Barstow was not named the winner. The sassy Miss LA, Christina Silva had been crowned the new Miss California. We happened to be seated directly behind the judges, which included last year’s controversial Miss Teen USA, Katie Blair (from MTV’s Pageant Place) who looked at the other judges with wonderment. There was some shuffling that had occurred right before the naming of the winners, by the judges’ reps who were tabulating their scores. So there was obvious confusion, but besides this, everything seemed to be going according to a normal pageant script. I met the newly crowned Miss California USA as well as her family backstage and she was such a doll. She confided that she was a fan of Project Runway and loved the gown I designed for last year’s winner and couldn’t wait for me to design hers.

Cut to today. My sister calls me and tells me to go to ExtraTV.com to see the new pageant scandal: It has just been discovered that the judges scores were somehow “misread” by the accounting firm overseeing it and the winner was not the Miss LA, but in fact Miss Barstow, Raquel Beezley (the Carmen Electra/Lauren Conrad doppelganger) . At least this pageant scandal did not involve pepper spray or drug addiction. The lovely Christina Silva, Miss LA, was asked to give up the crown she just had for only 5 days and the crowd favorite, Miss Barstow now has been crowned the new Miss California USA. I am sure this is not the way she envisioned to be crowned the most beautiful woman in California. But, as they say, any publicity is good publicity. More eyes will be on her when she competes in next year’s Miss USA and she will already be on the pageant radar.

Posted by Nick Verreos at 3:44 PM 0 comments

Labels: Beauty Pageants, Meagan Tandy, Miss California, Rita Verreos, Survivor:Fiji

Most of the people who are mad have never even done a pageant. Raquel has lots of pageant experience and the title should always go to the one who SHOWS experience in the pageant industry, So unless you have held more than 10 titles dont pretend like you know who should have won.

Did anyone ask if Beezly’s jaw was sore after the pageant? You don’t have to pay money to win “off” jugdes. The outcome should just be done with. There should be no changes. And mis-count? c’mon… How hard is it? There are only 5 judges. Anyway, having Christina represent is a good change. No need for anymore “cookie-cutter whities.”

This is such a racial situation. Also, to bring it up a week after? Seriously… Weak-sauce.

I was back stage with Raquel was not a nice person to all the people in the back talk about having class. she need to look at her self. she was not nice at all and when she walk off stage when she was 2nd runner up she was not good with the people when were back stage I WAS THERE!

Raquel! is lame and should not be the winner she need to step down and she looks like she has done work on her self at the DR. office. talk about being real.

my daughter competed in this event, and while it’s sad to say it was horribly set up and the outcome was not as professional as it should have been, Raquel and Christina were too total opposites. they are both beautiful but Christina is not in any way ready to go to the miss USA pageant. she needs plenty of practicing, she needs to hit the gym for this next year, and if she takes this as seriously as Raquel has, then she too, will eventually have the title of Miss California. Racism is not an encounter here. There were many races crowned Miss California in the past and also, Raquel was determined to win from start to finish she never once slipped. if there was any part of her that was nervous she did and excellent job covering it up and she went full force the whole time. she did great in EVERY part of this event and she will be amazing in the miss USA. Good luck Raquel, i’m very sorry you have to go through all this and you were not properly crowned Miss California. I would be upset as a mother of one of the competitors.

whatever you guys all think it’s not going to change so get over it and let the best Miss California USA do the best she can. The Latina looked like a man anyway. she didn’t even know how the walk. you could tell she did NOT know what she was doing and Raquel looked like a natural. she needs to represent California for uss so it will be at least competition. Christina looks like a dude and you can’t have someone who doesn’t even look like they’re from california represent it. no this is not racism. it is facts.

Dear Keith Lewis and K2 Productions as a supporter of my state and all our activities it is very disappointing to see such mickey mouse behavior. I am also very disturbed by the notes regarding photographers taking pictures of the girls while dressing. I hope we don’t see another scandal with the Miss USA contestants appearing on YouTube in the raw. This would be a parents worse nightmare. In addition it can truly destroy our young women who are trying to launch careers.

Raquel Beezley is an amazing person. She does not deserve to be gossipped about through all of this. She works hard and struggles to pay for the competition alone. How could she have payed for all of this to cheat her way to the top? It is the most ridiculous thing i have read so far. All of these people are amazing. Blurting out ASSUMPTIONS such as her having LIPO? come on. Raquel has been a model for years, and all throughout high school was a cheerleader. she has always been in shape.. She does not and never has needed lipo. It’s incredible how all these rumors are flying. I cannot wait to see Raquel take this to the top. I have complete faith in her. All of you, who don’t know what you are even saying, give her a chance to prove she is real. She has wanted this for so long. And it is not her fault that everyone hired to do the job failed to do it RIGHT. She is innocent through all of this and she will bypass everyones WRONG judgements and assumptions.

and also, for the ones who think that it was announced that Raquel won this BEFORE the event started, it WAS. many times for all of her fans having the most faith in her. she is full of determination and everyone knew that she would win. she is that GREAT.

K2 productions should refund the $1500 entry fee which each contestants paid. This was a disaster and a disgrace.

Interesting Raquel’s Director openly stated during preliminaries that Raquel was going to win and that it was her year…….hum this is interesting. No wonder she was shocked on Sunday when they announced the winner. So I imagine she made a fuss just like the one she made at preliminaries over seating.

Maybe it is K2 productions which should step down. This is extremely unprofessional and unethical given the amount of time, preparation and money which these girls and their families spend. So let’s not blame the young women and put the blame where it belongs.
I hope Christina was shown written proof of the votes.

Raquel could not afford to pay off the judges lol!!! Hello she is a full time student and waitress… Give her a break.. She didnt asked for all this drama . She just wants to be MISS CA.2008 and make us proud.. I am sure she was shocked to get the call from Christina Silva.. It wasnt planned

YEAH! that’s it! Raquel PAYS them! leave it up to the bitter parents to start such stupid rumors. you are right. Raquel has been in this competition for more than this year, and she is great. she has learned what it takes. take the loss and go down with dignity. her not giving up proves to everyone that she is DETERMINED. she’s not someone who just jumps in and expect to win just on beauty. she has everything all around. and as for MISS SAN DIEGO? she was NOT robbed. if she had fairly won, then she would have been contacted. don’t hate Raquel because of this mistake. let her be the best she can (which by FAR, blows everyone else out of the water) and make you all choke on your words because she is not the one at fault! Even if they DID happen to change their mind after the competition, they made a GREAT choice. Christina was a HORRIBLE mistake.

It was not the judges who make the mistake. It was the auditor.

Greater San Diego was robbed. Not only would she win Miss USA but she would win Miss Universe. Miss Barstow should give up the crown to her. There were also a few women who did not make top 15 who were prettier than girls who made 15!

I think raquel is just friends with the producers of Miss California esp Keith. She has been competing for 3 years and hundreds of pageants. she has connections and that’s all this pageant is about. How distasteful to break a poor girls heart. she pays the judges. she is lame

I was there all weekend watching my sister compete and the show along with the Hosts were TERRIBLE! It was not the contestants fault at all and they all looked beautiful (christina, raquel and so on…) I along with many others believed Los Angeles should not have even been in the top15! She was way too over the top and the judges need to keep in my ind who will take it home at USA Finals. I feel a bunch of girls got the shaft- I was really surprised that Miss Folsom and Miss Coronado weren’t in there; those 2 along with Barstow blew me (along with my friends) away on friday. Stunning! We thought it was between them three…

we “know” that miss “san diego” is not the 1st RU because they RE COUNTED.. that’s how they caught the mistake.