I forced my boyfriend and one of his friends to watch the pageant with me (I don't think they minded too much), and when it got to Miss Serbia's answer, my boyfriend rolled his eyes and said, "That's not an answer! She should have said, 'I would be water because water gives life but fire destroys it.'" His friend and I just looked at him and said, "You thought about that WAY too much." He's like, "No, I didn't . . . that's just the obvious answer."

Yall should watch out for my boyfriend in next year's Miss Universe pageant -- he'd be good at it. :D

http://press.missuniverse.com/cgi-bi...NI20031408.jpg
Yes, there *IS* some truth to that controversy! READ ON......

Here's a blurb from The National Post:
"The controversial "national costume" worn by Miss Canada in this week's Miss Universe competition was a rental inspired by the Brazilian carnaval tradition and originally worn by a drag queen in several gay pride parades.

Ronei Fernandes, a Toronto costume designer, created and wore the costume in 2001. He recently rented it to Denis Davila, national director for Miss Universe Canada, for $600, said Jamie Good, a friend of Mr. Fernandes' who is familiar with the agreement.

In an interview with the Post earlier this week, Mr. Davila said he and two friends designed the costume. It was supposed to symbolize Canada's multiculturalism: The feathers were inspired by costumes seen at Toronto's Caribana festival, he said, and the rest represented the penny.

But Mr. Good said the costume is Mr. Fernandes' creation.

"I just think that whoever made it, designed it, had the idea for it and spent the time and creativity making it should be the one who gets the credit, not someone who just rents it," he said.

The costume's history came to light after several fashion experts expressed disappointment with Miss Canada's choice of costume earlier this week. The Miss Universe competition is underway in Panama.

Reached at his hotel yesterday, Mr. Davila confirmed he had rented Miss Canada's costume from Mr. Fernandes. He stressed it was "very, very, similar" to a design the Miss Canada staff had originally developed for the Miss Universe competition.

Mr. Davila said they had to rent the costume from Mr. Fernandes at the last minute because the people who were supposed to make the costume "couldn't come up with the time to make it.

"The idea that we had fit in with what he had," Mr. Davila said. "Ronei is a good person; he deserves some of the credit."

The costume Leanne Cecile wore in the Monday night competition did change slightly since Mr. Fernandes debuted it. He wore a red, sequined gown with the rest of the outfit, but Ms. Cecile wore a beaded bikini that Mr. Fernandes provided from his existing collection. Mr. Good said he personally bought the feathers for the costume while he was in Brazil, and they were not ordered from New York as Mr. Davila had originally claimed.

Mr. Fernandes refused an interview request, saying he was bound by the terms of the rental agreement between himself and Mr. Davila.

He originally wore the patriotic costume at gay pride parades in Montreal and Toronto in 2001. Pictures of him at the events appeared on the front pages of newspapers and in alternative magazines. Perhaps fittingly, one reporter who covered the Toronto event wrote that Mr. Fernandes' outfit "converted him into a sort of male Miss Canada."

Mr. Fernandes' outfit was inspired by the Brazilian carnaval tradition, not the Caribbean themes associated with Toronto's Caribana street festival, Mr. Good added.

Ms. Cecile, who is from Tecumseh, Ont., did not win the competition. But one Panamanian newspaper said her costume was "the most applauded of the night.""
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I have to say, while it is well, a bit "overwhelming", people were definitely talking about it. This is quite something, considering that Canada has faded into the background at MU in the past. And some people have complained that the costume was not "Canadian enough".... I mean, really, should we send a girl dressed in a Mountie outfit (It's been done in the past) or a hockey outfit? :rolleyes: (Puh-leeze) I think the idea of MU is try to look attractive here! LOL.....
You're so right, who better to know about glitz and glamour than drag queens?!:D
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There was also a 2nd (and separate) controversy about Leanne wearing a sealskin dress by an Inuit designer:
http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/30523_03.html
In the end, Leanne did not wear the dress, because she would have been dying of the heat in Panama (it's like 30C there!!! 86F for the Americans ;) ) and also due to anti-fur pressures.

I assume that the dress would have been for the fashion show (which goes on in the prelims) but not in the actuall competition (mind you, Japan wore a bikini top so who really knows??)

The original Miss Universe 2002 was Oxana Fedorova (Russia) http://www.pageant.com/universe2002/.../00ruswin3.jpg

Justin Pasek (Panama) was her 1st RU
http://www.pageant.com/universe2002/images/justine1.jpg

The reasons aren't totally clear but I think Oxana (I have friends who are deeply into the pageantry world) had a boyfriend back in Russia who just did not want to let her out of his sight...consequently she could not do her prescribed duties and thus she was asked to step down.

I watch Entertainment Tonight at like 1 30 am...

I saw something about Donald Trump encouraging Miss Universe (dunno if it was this year or a few years ago) to lose weight. Evidently she got up to 175 pounds and she said herself that she was happy at her weight. Donald Trump said that she should be more physically fit so he had this campaign to get her in weight before the pagaent...like he had personal trainers and dietitians help her. She was a good sport about it and really bubbly. She didn't mind doing it but it sounded like she was happy with her weight and that's where I thought it was so sad that people, or Donald Trump, couldn't just let her be.

Did anyone else hear about this or see that episode?

I had pretty much all of the final 5 placed, but I had Miss Universe and the 1st runner up switched. I really like Venezuela, and I thought she had the best dress, haha. What was her question again? Maybe that's why she didn't get first.

Hootie, that was Miss Universe 1996, Alicia Machado (Venezuela) who gained weight. Jump back to page 4, I talk a bit about it there! :D

jess_pom, Venezuela had a question about "extreme sports" and she said something about how she values her life very much...LOL

Gotchya! I didn't know who that was in referance to. But still, I think it's pretty sad that people have to pull the "weight card" out on contestants.

So true...I think on pageant night she was an unhealthy stick - then when she put her weight back on and was "normal", then The Donald started kvetching.... :rolleyes:
I thought she looked good- she looked more voluptuous and womanly than the sickly stick that she was on the night that she won!! I definitely did see that on ET a few years back and she was on stair master or something.

FWIW: My friend Jason was there in Vegas to support his Canadian girl...and he can't stand Alicia Machado. He just rolls his eyes when I talk about her. He thinks she's a twit, whereas I think she's gorgeous, twit or not. BWAH HA HA HA!! :D

for some reason I thought that last year's crowned Miss Universe got in trouble because of something on the Howard Stern Show? :confused:

scratch the Howard Stern theory.. I found a story on cnn.com for those of you interested:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/Northeast...rse/index.html

They didn't state clearly why she was kicked out, but did say something that she didn't perform a number of her Miss Universe duties, "might be married to her longtime boyfriend -- a violation of pageant rules -- and could be pregnant."

She said she wasn't kicked out and she gave it up on her own, but still considers herself "miss universe"

I swear to you, my Ice Capades Barbie had that exact same dress...

I really liked Miss Canada's costume, though I kind of liked bcdphie's earlier suggestion about dressing her as a box of Timbits ;)
Reading all that Timmy's talk has given me a serious craving... Not fair -- we don't have Timmy Ho's in New Jersey!! I need to go back to school, if just for that...

http://mindscraps.com/s/ups/dvx_rune/lol.gif
That seriously made me giggle!!! lol
I think what was nice about Miss USA's dress is that it was different.. many of the contestants wore white dresses... I didn't see anyone else wearing a blue and purple dress!!