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On 7 Dec 2007, Remember? wrote: I feel the rightful winner has finally been crowned. Let’s refresh our memories with a very eloquently made observation that was posted right after Christina was mistakenly crowned……………. Here’s my take on the CA pageant. I am neither a disgruntled contestant nor the family of one. I am a “disinterested party” - had no “horse in the race,” so to speak. I just attend for fun and to appreciate the beautiful girls, and I have done so off-and-on for many years. I have met a number of the girls personally, and I am usually a strong CA supporter. For example, I thought Brittany Hogan, Stephanie Brink, and Tamiko Nash all had a great shot at winning their national events, and I also thought Meagan Tandy and Kylee Lin were strong choices for ’07. I thought Ellen Chapman had one of the most beautiful faces in ’04, and so on back through the years. The point being: I am not a chronic complainer or a sore loser. I will try to be as fair as possible in my report. BUT, if you don’t want to hear anything negative, please don’t read this post. I am going to tell you what I saw and heard – I was at both prelims and finals. Finals night was strange indeed, and I found the outcome of Miss absolutely incomprehensible. But let me start with Teen. The Teen field seemed both small and relatively weak to me, a little over 30 girls. I didn’t see anyone that had the whole package. I came up with only a top 10, and I was pretty close. 4 of my 10 made the top 5. Conspicuously absent from my list was Ventura, the eventual winner. So I was surprised. My original choice was Greater San Diego (Kelly Snyder), but I think she lost it in SS. After that my choice would have been Beaumont, as I think she had the best face for a possible placement at TUSA, followed by Temecula. Nevertheless, the winner seemed likeable, humble, articulate, & cute – very teen looking. I am not optimistic she will place at the next level, but there are 4 months to re-style & prepare. Since there really wasn’t an all-around obvious choice, I can live with this one and I wish her the best! I must say that the interviews at teen were probably the best final ro u nd interviews I have ever heard – and that includes interviews at the miss level too! All 5 had good to fantastic interviews and made their families proud, I am sure! Great job! The winner was radiant. I liked her blue EG. Now for the Miss competition. In fairness to the judges, I suggested in a previous post that, after looking at pictures and after attending prelims, I did not see an obvious winner. So I agreed with Max and B that it was a competitive year, but only in the sense that there was not one clear front-runner - as there was in Tamiko’s year (IMHO). But despite a large field of 90 women, I respectfully disagreed with them (Max & B) about there being lots of prospects for a top placement at Miss USA. I didn’t see it, though I do think there were a handful that were already in Miss USA shape physically – among them Carrie Prejean, Raquel Beezley, Sara Chapman, and Amber Coffman. The lack of an obvious front-runner is why I posted earlier that it would no t surprise me if an unknown candidate swooped in to win. But never in my wildest dreams (er, nightmares) did I expect what happened. Miss Los Angeles, the eventual winner, first caught my eye on Finals night during the opening dance number, but not in a good way. With 80 girls on stage, my gaze was drawn to her because she was gyrating provocatively, unlike any of the other girls. She was grinding her hips and pelvis, trying (unsuccessfully) to act sexy – using her hands and lips, as well as her body movements, to exude raw sexuality - like some kind of “hoochie-mama.” I heard the man seated in front of me laugh out loud and say to his companion, “She looks like a pole dancer.” Honestly, I am guessing the Scott Grossman, if he could see it, must have been mortified. She looked like a stripper alright, and someone else nearby said: “Get that girl off the stage.” It was, shall we say, not classy. At prelims, I use a little scoring routine. I give a “3” (excellent ) , a “2” (pretty good), or a “1” (no chance) to each girl in SS and in EG. Then I see which girls have a total of “4” or higher. Usually I’m pretty close on top 15. Even this year, with all the surprises, I got 9 out of 15 right, plus 2 more were on my list of 4 bubblers. But this girl who won - I had her for a “1” in SS and a “1” in EG. At no time was she ever on my radar for top 15. The biggest surprises of the first round were 1) the inclusion of the eventual winner, and 2) the exclusion of Amber Coffman (Brentwood), Nana Meriwether (Malibu), and Carol Chen (San Francisco). Amber was very toned and fit; I thought she was a shoo-in for top 15 and top 10, especially considering her interviewing skills. As for Nana Meriwether, I thought she took prelims by storm. An African-American woman, at least 6’1” – a UCLA student and volleyball player (someone said she may go to Olympics). She was athletic, trim, and well-proportioned. Although not facially stunning, she was cla s sy, well-styled and seemed very comfortable in her skin and on stage. I thought she might be the newcomer to steal the crown, and I would not have been disappointed. She had a fabulous gown – people gasped at prelims! And Carol Chen – I found her the loveliest of the Asian girls, and she won the EG award with a stunning gown. I was not surprised by the exclusion of Cassandra Jean or Megan Bushell, nor by the earlier-than-expected exits of Lacey Wilson and Sara Chapman. I don’t want to be unnecessarily negative however, so you’ll have to ask me if you want to know more. From that point on, the biggest surprises of the night (perhaps of the entire history of the CA USA pageants) were the inexplicable inclusion of Miss Los Angeles, Cristina Silva, at each round. It was such a “WTH” phenomenon. Just unbelievable! As she stood on the stage in top 5, she was obviously trying to move her body in a sensuous manner – hips, pursing her lips in a kiss, etc. It was ludicrous, no c lass at all, like an animated cartoon, like a joke. I halfway expected the hosts of “You’ve been punked” to come on stage any minute. It was ridiculous, and an offense to all those girls who came prepared to present themselves as physically fit and as beautiful women of distinction. The ultimate was her interview. She was asked if she is a leader or a follower (which, in fairness to her and in criticism of the judge, is a bad question, cuz there’s really only one “right” choice). Though I can’t quote her exactly, she said in a loud, aggressive, almost defiant manner: “I am a leader. Oh yeh, I do what I want to do when I want to do it. I am up front and on top!” Like I say, I can’t remember the exact words, but I know the last sentence is an exact quote. Yikes! It exuded class alright – low class. She scared me, and I can only imagine what Keith Lewis is thinking now and what kind of year he has in store. You’d probably have to see it on video to get the impact. After the top 5 was assembled, I still had hope of redemption and thought the bizarre nightmare would soon come to an end. My rating would have been: 1. Winner: Carrie Prejean. Not a great interview, but not bad either. I would have picked her cuz her face has a classical, sculpted, almost mysterious beauty – she had the best chance IMO to place at MUSA. Plus her body was great, stage ready for USA, and she’s got great, full-bodied hair. EG also fabulous IMO. 2. 1RU: Nicole Chiu. She was not on my radar screen at all coming into finals night, but she grew on me as the evening progressed. A classy, Chinese-American girl, articulate and poised in interview; had a great red EG. Though not my choice, I thought she might have a chance to place at USA cuz of her unique ethnic look. 3. 2RU: Raquel Beezley. Very cute, sweet, seems very likeable – and loads of people were pulling for her! Her body was the best I’ve ever seen it – kudos to her! She was USA ready physically, and I l oved the SS she wore. I was not as fond of her EG, and I thought she was just a little timid in her presentation, especially in EG. Not sure her facial beauty would make the cut at USA, but I would not have been at all disappointed if she won. 4. 3RU: Woodland Hills. Really pretty face. Her EG, however, was one of my least favorite. 5. 4RU: Cristina Silva. This girl was a hot mess all night. Unbelievable to think she could make 4RU, let alone win this darn thing. Plain EG that did not reach the floor. Body completely out of shape with no chance of redemption – short of stature, no curves, no waist, no muscle tone. Odd pasture and movement all night. Ridiculous, over-the-top, obnoxious presentation. No class. An embarrassment from start to finish. Never saw anything like it before. Hope to never see anything like it again. Well, needless to say, when they read the results I thought they must have mistakenly read them in reverse order. The whole place fell silent . In shock. “There must be a mistake,” I thought. And indeed there was. A tragic mistake. My opinion, BTW, has nothing to do with race; I had no idea she was a Latina until interview, and I (and everyone else) was completely turned off long before that. Many of the non-Anglo women were beautiful and classy and among my favorites. But this girl was crass, tactless, obnoxious. She has absolutely no chance whatsoever at MUSA unless The Donald is preparing the way for more in-your-face, low class controversy on Pageant Place. From this point of view, and in light of what has happened in MUO in the last year, I thought it was a very sad day for pageantry. I went home feeling sick, even though I am just a fan and have no stake in this. This kind of result really hurts pageantry IMO. It discourages contestants from competing, and obviously inhibits viewers (unless, of course, you want to see pole dancing, mud wrestling, burping girls, or other reality show garbage). As for th e judges, I cannot imagine what happened or what they were thinking. It’s not rational. I mean, doesn’t a director instruct his or her judges to “find me a winner who can excel at or win MUSA - and that means her face needs to be gorgeous, she needs to be classy and distinguished, and her body needs to be smokin’ (or close enough to be transformed into such in 2 to 3 months).” I do not want to be mean-spirited, but nobody in their right mind would pick Miss Silva as fitting this description. In fact, none of those things are remotely true of her. So I blame her for her bad behavior, but I blame the judges for picking her, unless they received bad instructions from the director, or he from MUO. Anyway, on a happier note, a number of formers were present and looked great, for the most part. Meagan looked good. Kylee had an adorable pink & black dress at prelims and looked great all weekend. They did a great job as MCs at prelims. In fact, as good as Kylee was on sta g e this weekend, it’s hard to figure how she didn’t place at TUSA. Not sure what went wrong – maybe confidence, as she was very young. Brittany Hogan did a good job as co-MC at Finals, and she looked fabulous! She did a good job of thinking on her feet and playing off of the other co-host – Sam. I could see her in acting or hosting a show. Very natural and likeable. Stephanie Brink was in the crowd Finals night with a mega-watt “presence,” gorgeous and wearing a hot red dress – looked like she could’ve hopped on stage and competed on the spot (and in retrospect I wish she had). Saw Candace Sanders at prelims, very thin but exotic looking, though I wish those sheep-dog bangs would go out of style. And obviously Ellen Chapman was in the house too, though I didn’t talk to her or get too close. And Katie Blair - saw her close up in the foyer. I liked her when she won, but was less impressed up close, perhaps in part because she’s got about 3-4 inches of dark roots showing in her h air. That’s a no-no in my book. Anyway, that’s who I saw. I had never been to the Orpheum Theater before; it’s a nice old theater in a not very nice part of downtown L.A. Just a block away there was a huge billboard advertising YMI jeans, with a picture of Riyo, Rachel, & Hilary. I thought that was cool; wonder if it was planned. Well, that’s my report; and, like pretty much everyone else, I’m still scratching my head. Quit whining

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