Meet your new beauty pageant overlord, people! Miss Michigan Rima Fakih was named Miss USA last night, and many are applauding the choice of a Lebanese-American immigrant – who practices both Christian and Muslim traditions – as this year’s winner. The two biggest incidents of the pageant were Fakih’s almost-stumble as she tripped over her big white evening gown, and when Fakih said that yes, insurance should cover birth control. I agree! Oohh, Johnny Weir was a judge! Fabulous. As was Oscar Nunez, from The Office. Funny. Here’s more from the pageant:

A 24-year-old Arab American from Michigan beat out 50 other women to take the 2010 Miss USA title Sunday night, despite stumbling in her evening gown. Rima Fakih of Dearborn, Mich., won the pageant at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip after strutting confidently in an orange and gold bikini, wearing a strapless white gown that resembled a wedding dress and saying health insurance should cover birth control pills.

When asked how she felt about winning the crown, she said, “Ask me after I’ve had a pizza.”

Fakih, a Lebanese immigrant, told pageant organizers her family celebrates both Muslim and Christian faiths. She moved to the United States as a baby and was raised in New York, where she attended a Catholic school. Her family moved to Michigan in 2003.
Pageant officials said historical pageant records were not detailed enough to show whether Fakih was the first Arab American, Muslim or immigrant to win the Miss USA title. The pageant started in 1952 as a local bathing suit competition in Long Beach, Calif.
Fakih told reporters she sold her car after graduating college in Michigan to help pay for her run in the Miss Michigan USA pageant.

She said she believed she had the title on Sunday after glancing at pageant owner Donald Trump as she awaited the results with the first runner-up, Miss Oklahoma USA Morgan Elizabeth Woolard.

“That’s the same look that he gives them when he says, ‘You’re hired,’” on Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice,” she said.

“She’s a great girl,” said Trump, who owns the pageant with NBC in a joint venture.

In a moment that was replayed during the broadcast, Fakih nearly fell while finishing her walk in her gown because of the length of its train. But she made it without a spill and went on to win.

“I did it here, I better not do it at Miss Universe,” she said. “Modeling does help, after all.”

Fakih replaces Miss USA 2009 Kristen Dalton and won a spot representing the United States this summer in the 2010 Miss Universe pageant. She also gets a one-year lease in a New York apartment with living expenses, an undisclosed salary, and various health, professional and beauty services.

During the interview portion, Fakih was asked whether she thought birth control should be paid for by health insurance, and she said she believed it should because it’s costly.

“I believe that birth control is just like every other medication even though it’s a controlled substance,” Fakih said.

Woolard handled the night’s toughest question, about Arizona’s new immigration law. Woolard said she supports the law, which requires police enforcing another law to verify a person’s immigration status if there’s “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the country illegally. She said she’s against illegal immigration but is also against racial profiling.

“I’m a huge believer in states’ rights. I think that’s what’s so wonderful about America,” Woolard said. “So I think it’s perfectly fine for Arizona to create that law.”

“The Office” actor Oscar Nunez was booed as he asked the question and asked the audience to wait until he finished the question before they reacted. The panel of judges came up with the questions themselves.

Miss Virginia USA Samantha Evelyn Casey was the second runner-up, Miss Colorado USA Jessica Hartman was third runner-up, and Miss Maine USA Katherine Ashley Whittier was the fourth runner-up.

The young women already glammed up for lingerie shots that became an online sensation and received online ratings from the public before the women face a panel of seven celebrity judges in the live pageant. The racy photo shoot posted on YouTube generated some debate about whether it went too far while drawing thousands of viewers.

Most of the field of contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia were eliminated just after the pageant began and the entire group danced onstage to “TiK ToK” by Ke$ha.

A panel of eight judges, including NBA star Carmelo Anthony, Treasure Island casino-hotel owner Phil Ruffin and Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir, were judging the girls throughout the night. It was hosted by celebrity chef Curtis Stone and TODAY’s Natalie Morales.

After 15 contestants strutted in swimsuits, five were eliminated. Another five were eliminated after the evening gown competition. Miss Nebraska USA Belinda Renee Wright won the Miss Congeniality award, roughly one week after her father was killed in a farm accident. Miss Alabama USA Audrey Moore won Miss Photogenic after an online fan vote.

[From MSNBC]

Well good for all of them. I think it’s a little funny that when Miss Oklahoma was asked about the Arizona immigration law, she was all “states rights, et cetera, no racial profiling, whoop!” So she doesn’t really understand the issue, it’s not like she’s a politician. I actually do think it’s a little rude that now these women have to answer very complicated political questions. I guess the pageant was hoping for another Carrie Prejean moment, perhaps for Miss Oklahoma to shout “Send’em all back!” Don’t get me wrong, I do think the interview portion could stand to be a bit deeper, and I like that Fakih was asked about birth control – that’s a great question for a beauty pageant. Immigration law? Eh.

Header: Fakih after her victory, credit: WENN.

This is such a bullsh-t scandal, I know. It’s one of those totally manufactured “scandals” that is all about cross-promoting. This one is for Donald Trump’s Miss USA pageant. I guess they were worried that people wouldn’t tune in unless they could top the “Carrie Prejean is a f-cking idiot” scandal from last year. Thus, all of the Miss USA contestants were forced (or given the opportunity) to pose in cheesy, lingerie-clad “glamour shots” as part of their Miss USA promotional stuff. These are some of the images – like budget Victoria’s Secret catalog stuff. Anyway, somebody said something about it being “too sexy” and immediately Donald Trump (who owns the pageant) defended the “glamour shots”.

Miss California (and Miss USA finalist) Carrie Prejean lost her crown when topless photos of her emerged last year.

But this year? The Miss USA pageant contestants pose in lacy lingerie and fishnet tights while rolling around in a bed for their official competition “glam” portraits.

Donald Trump, who owns the Miss Universe organization, defends the racy pics.

“We are in a different age. They are a little bit sexy but I’ll tell you what — everybody’s watching, so I have no problems with it,” Trump, 63, tells The Insider. “If you look at Miss America, it’s now off network television — and we’re doing better than ever, so I really have no problem with it.”

Continues Trump, “The Miss USA Pageant and the Miss Universe Pageant just got renewed for three years by NBC. The ratings have been terrific.”

Trump tells the New York Post that Prejean’s photos “were quite a bit different. There’s no open exposure [in the current Miss USA pictures]….they [are] very artsy and very beautiful.”

[From Us Weekly]

The problem wasn’t that Carrie Prejean posed for sexy photos, it’s that she lied and violated her contract by not informing the Miss USA pageant about her soft-core pornographic photos and her solo sex tapes. And that she was a hypocrite and a bigot. So I suppose Miss USA has changed their rules or whatever, and now the pageant is just going to be full-on cheesy, “sexy” posing in lingerie or swimsuits. Whatever. I’m not offended by the lingerie-clad contestants, I’m offended by the obvious effort to build this into a silly controversy.

Some of the Miss USA glamour shots, courtesy of Fox News.

The whole controversy over Miss California’s answer to the gay marriage question has grown into an all-out feud between her and Perez Hilton. Perez recorded a video in which he called Carrie Prejean a bitch (along with the “c” word), and is flaming mad. The Today show had an interview with both Perez and Prejean (separately), and it was clear he was barely able to keep his anger down.

Matt Lauer pointed out that Prejean was asked her opinion, and she answered it honestly. But Perez says there are better ways she could have answered – ways that would not have lowered her score.

“I personally would have appreciated it if she left her politics and her religion out of it. Because Miss USA represents ALL Americans. I think I gave her the easy way out. She could have answered that question so many ways. She could have said, ‘Well, I want to leave my politics out of it and I think it’s important for the states to make those decisions for themselves.’ And I think that would have been a better answer.”

[Transcribed from video]

And he’s right, that would have been a fair way around the issue. Kaiser noted that Prejean didn’t seem prepared for question. In defending herself on “Today,” she said that while other judges said she should have given a vague answer or said something in the middle, “When I’m asked a specific question, I’m going to give a specific answer.”

Matt Lauer also asked her if she’d give a different answer if she could have a do over, to which Prejean immediately said no, noting, “‘It’s not about being politically correct; for me it’s about being biblically correct.’”

Unfortunately her answer wasn’t exactly biblically correct, in the sense that the Bible also says a lot about tolerance and acceptance of everyone. It’s also widely open to interpretation. I’m not going to pretend to be any exceptional Bible scholar, but I do go to church every week. I am proud that my church belongs to several organizations that actively seek out and support GLTBQ people to let them know they are welcome, equal additions to our congregation. A few of the groups are also actively campaigning for marriage equality. There are a wide variety of responses to homosexuality within the Christian faith, and I hope people know that Prejean’s beliefs are not representative of everyone’s.

America really has a problem with balance. Not the country as a whole, just the women we send to worldwide beauty pageants. Last year’s Miss USA went crashing to the ground during the evening gown portion of the Miss Universe competition. This year? Miss USA went crashing to the ground during the evening gown portion of the Miss Universe competition. Awesome. Crystle Stewart, 26, tripped on the hem of her very beautiful – and very long – gown, and next thing you knew the motivational speaker was ass to floor.

No one said the route to being crowned the most beautiful girl in the Universe would be easy. And beauty queen Crystle Stewart was no doubt hoping to make an entrance as she strutted her stuff at the final of the Miss Universe event. But maybe not quite the one she did make, as the 5ft 10in beauty tripped on the train of her dazzling evening gown during the competition and ended up in a heap on the floor.

The reigning Miss USA took a tumble in front of a worldwide audience of 1billion people and shattered her hopes of winning Miss Universe 2008. Stunning Crystle ended up in an ungainly heap after slipping as she emerged on stage for the evening gown section of the contest in Vietnam. The stunned beauty queen briefly sat on the floor before regaining her composure and getting up to applause from the audience.

Before the show Stewart, 26, a motivational speaker and former track and field star said she felt very confident going into the show and couldn’t imagine experiencing the same calamity as her predecessor.

[From the Daily Mail]

Of course the video is all over YouTube… which is kinda sad… and also means it’s going to be all over this article, too. It must really suck to have your drams go down so quickly in front of so many people, and have to act like you’re cool with it. Here’s Crystle Stewart outside the Waverly Inn in the West Village on June 3rd. Images thanks to WENN.