THE PRETHOUGHTS
THE RESULTS (Dec. 21, 2015)
And the controversy ensues! After temporarily leading us to believe that Colombia had become the second country to win the Miss Universe crown two years in a row, host Steve Harvey revealed that he misread the card and that the Philippines had finally obtained their 3rd Miss Universe crown after all these years of loyalty. The controversial way in which the results were revealed are making headlines worldwide as Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach manages to get the tropical haven of Asia its long awaited Miss Universe crown. Other pageants which saw the wrong girl crowned and later corrected include Miss California USA 2008 and Miss Universe Canada 2013. Did you also notice that this is the third year in a row that my 4th runner up won Miss Universe??? In terms of my predictions, I picked 9 of the 15 semifinalists plus 2 alternates (Japan and Belgium). The 4 ladies that missed my list were Curacao and Mexico (who were in the tier below my honorable mentions) and Indonesia and South Africa were the countries that I missed entirely. My full commentary on this interesting pageant will be posted on December 26.
With the events of 2014, it might have been better to have kept the titles postdated but that's all in the past now. But the delay of the Miss Universe 2014 was only the beginning. Adding to the turbulence of 2015, it was on June 16, Donald Trump (who co-owned the Miss Universe family of pageants including Miss USA and Miss Teen USA) announced that he was running to be the Republican candidate for President and since then, he has risen to the top of multiple polls. However some comments uttered during his speech triggered a lot of boycotting of things associated with Trump. Many people took offense to one portion of Trump's speech when he said, "When do we beat Mexico at the border? They’re laughing at us, at our stupidity. And now they are beating us economically. They are not our friend, believe me. But they’re killing us economically. The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems. (audience applauds) Thank you. It’s true, and these are the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They’re sending us not the right people. It’s coming from more than Mexico. It’s coming from all over South and Latin America, and it’s coming probably, probably from the Middle East. But we don’t know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don’t know what’s happening. And it’s got to stop and it’s got to stop fast." There was some speculation that the source of these comments came from when the behind-the-scenes deal for Miss Universe 2007 which was held in Mexico went awry. The 2007 Miss Universe pageant held in Mexico City was likely what soured Trump on Mexico. He was booed during his appearance but the recipient of the most boos that night was then Miss USA, Rachel Smith, 
who placed as 4th runner up even after falling during the evening gown competition whereas then Miss Mexico, Rosa Maria Ojeda Cuen made the top 10 but not the top 5 which angered members of the predominantly Mexican audience. This whole episode was reminiscent of the 1993 Miss Universe pageant which was also held in Mexico City. When Miss Mexico didn't make the top 10 that year, many members of that audience became raucous and booed loudly throughout the show daring to target then legendary host, Dick Clark and especially then Miss USA, Kenya Moore who also participated in the most recent Celebrity Apprentice featuring Trump in the leading role. Also, according to an article from Yahoo Finance, the Mexican businessmen responsible for paying the hosting fee of 6.5 million dollars to bring the Miss Universe pageant to Mexico in 2007 didn't pay the full hosting fee originally. One businessman paid 1 million dollars upfront out of the 6.5 million dollar hosting fee. As collateral for the remainder, he agreed to set up a trust containing 26 properties belonging to a second businessman. After the show was over, they refused to pay the remaining balance and it was impossible to claim the collateral and it turned out that the assets were never actually contributed to the trust. The Miss Universe organization went to court over this in Mexico and won but it got tied up in the Mexican court system and after interest and legal fees, the amount owed to the Miss Universe organization grew to 12 million dollars but they ended up not being able to collect it. On February 24, Trump tweeted, “I have a lawsuit in Mexico’s corrupt court system that I won but so far can’t collect. Don’t do business with Mexico!” Trump shortly thereafter vowed that Mexico would never host another Miss Universe pageant. When it came time for the Miss USA 2015 pageant, on June 24, one of the original performers, Latin singer J. Balvin said he would no longer participate at Miss USA because of Trump's comments and from there the Miss USA pageant started unravelling at the seams. Univision was slated to broadcast the Spanish version of Miss USA 2015 which was to be color commentated by Chilean actor Cristian de la Fuente, who has previously participated as a judge for Miss Universe 2000, and the Puerto Rican actress Roselyn Sanchez but all of them bailed. Originally 5 judges were announced: Former Miss Universe, Puerto Rico's Zuleyka Rivera, Property Brothers star Jonathon Scott, Football great Emmitt Smith (husband of Pat Southall, 1st runner up to Miss USA 1994), E! News co-anchor Terrence Jenkins, and country singer Jessie James Decker. As posted in my first round prethoughts, there was speculation that Catelyn Jenner (formerly Olympic champion, Bruce Jenner who is transitioning to become a woman) was rumored to also be a judge but any hopes of that happening were eliminated. Other originally slated performers all dropped out and they included: Flo Rida, Natalie La Rose and Craig Wayne Boyd, winner of the seventh season of The Voice. The original hosts, Cheryl Burke and Thomas Roberts said they will no longer be participating. Some sponsors pulled out and NBC Universal who co-owns the pageant also announced that it would not broadcast Miss USA this year even after recently signing a five year deal. Miss USA 2015 needed a complete overhaul with new hosts, judges and performers and a new network but it happened and all came together nicely. A lot of Latin countries said they would also boycott Miss Universe at the time so change was inevitable and very much needed for the survival the Miss Universe family of pageants so Donald Trump ended up buying back the share in the pageants that he sold to NBC in 2002 after that year's winners were chosen. Donald Trump took ownership of the Miss Universe family of pageants in 1996 and ever since then, controversy became a major factor in the publicity of multiple pageants to follow and Miss Universe 1996, Venezuela's Alicia Machado 
was the first to experience this when she was criticized for gaining weight during her reign. 2002 became the last year that the pageants aired on CBS and was also the year that a Miss Universe winner was dethroned and replaced by her runner up. Russia's Oxana Fedorova was the original winner of Miss Universe 2002 but was dethroned a few months later for failing to fulfill her duties. Oxana said she became unwilling to perform her duties especially after an appearance on Howard Stern's radio show in which he asked her very degrading questions such as 'spit or swallow?' Oxana was replaced by Justine Pasek of Panama who also happened to represent the host country of the following Miss Universe pageant in 2003... which was the first year that NBC joined with Donald Trump as co-owner of the pageants and this was the year that the reality show 'The Apprentice' which aired on NBC began filming and the first season aired in January 2004. 2002 was also a transition year for new Mikimoto crowns to be used which seemed to resemble peacock feathers like the peacock logo of NBC... In 2015, NBC broke its ties with Donald Trump and refused to air Miss USA which ended up being picked up by the Reelz network which recognized that the delegates competing for Miss USA shouldn't have been punished for what happened so after Miss Teen USA happened, it was announced that Trump bought back NBC's share of the pageants and sold it all to the WME/IMG Group which heads the William Morris and Endeavor Agencies which are highly renowned talent and modelling agencies headed by executives Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell and then we learned that FOX would be the airing the pageants so we have entered a brave new era in pageantry with new ownership and hopefully some change for the better. However, Donald Trump did host an episode of Saturday Night Live which is an NBC show in November 2015 after the deal was done so maybe there is more to this story than we know like perhaps they weren't too keen on keeping the pageants and this was more of an escape tactic... Trump's role on 'The Apprentice' is apparently being taken over by Arnold Schwarzenegger. We will learn what the outcome of the U.S. presidential race is over on November 8, 2016 and whether or not all of this was worth it. So the timeline goes that Miss Universe aired on CBS from 1960 to 2002. NBC aired the pageants from 2003 to 2014/15 and now in 2015, FOX takes its turn in airing the pageants. The other major American network ABC is the one that airs the Miss America pageant. Some dizzying changes have occurred over the years but cheers to the new era of pageantry and let's all hope for the best! This year's pageant is also being held one day after the Miss World pageant which will be held on December 19 which means that there will be no overlap of contestants this year like there have been in years past. Some national directors that run the pageants to select representatives for both the Miss World and Miss Universe pageants have been forced to choose which pageant to attend and some countries are sending a runner up like South Africa is doing by sending their winner to Miss World and the runner up to Miss Universe. In most cases these days, there are separate national pageants: One to select a country's representative for Miss Universe and another for Miss World.
The last name Vega is the first last name to be repeated amongst Miss Universe titleholders. The reigning Miss Universe, Colombia's Paulina Vega shares the same last name as Miss Universe 2003, Dominican Republic's Amelia Vega. So it is only fitting that La Vega give up her crown in Las Vegas, no? And perhaps both of las Vegas will appear in Las Vegas if Amelia shows up to perhaps be a judge or just attend as an audience member. Miss Universe 2015 will be the 5th Miss Universe pageant to be held in that exciting city following the years of 1991, 1996, 2010 and 2012. The country of Mexico has placed all of those years and has even won both of its Miss Universe crowns in Las Vegas (1991 and 2010) thanks to Lupita Jones and Ximena Navarrete so this year's representative of the land of the Mariachi, Wendolly Esparza hopes that she experience the same luck that Mexico has encountered in Las Vegas. In fact, Mexico's last two placements were in Las Vegas in 2010 and 2012 but they haven't placed since then. It will be interesting to see how Mexico places especially this year as they would have boycotted if Trump still owned the pageants but since he is not involved, Mexico is back and will try to win its 3rd Miss Universe crown and will they perhaps be rewarded because of those comments? There will certainly be loud support from the audience as always from the Mexican Cantinflas...I mean contingent and while I don't see a win for Wendolly, she could very well get a semifinalist spot but we shall see how this all plays out. The other two countries to win in Las Vegas were Venezuela in 1996 and the USA in 2012 so could one of these countries experience a repeat win in Vegas as Mexico has or is it time for another country to win in Vegas?
India's Urvashi Rautela is easily one of the top contenders for the Miss Universe crown this year but the story of how she got to Miss Universe is a fascinating one. You see, back in 2012, Urvashi was the original winner of the Miss India Universe title. That was the last year that former Miss Universe, Sushmita Sen ran the "I Am She" pageant which selected India's representative to Miss Universe. Apparently, Urvashi barely missed the age cut-off at the time. Even though, she was 18 and technically old enough to compete for Miss Universe 2012 when it happened in December of that year, there was apparently a rule that contestants had to be 18 by February 1, 2012 but Urvashi turned 18 on February 25, 2012. Urvashi was also at the time, a reigning titleholder for another pageant, Miss Tourism Queen of the Year International 2011 meaning she would have conflicting duties and as a result, India was represented in 2012 by runner-up, Shilpa Singh who managed to place in the semifinals and broke India's drought as India missed the semifinals for 4 years from 2008 to 2011. India has placed every year since 2012 which could mean a return to regain the powerhouse status it once held during its glory years from 1990 to 2002 which India only missed the semifinals in one of those years (1991) and winning its two Miss Universe crowns during that period (1994 and 2000) thanks to Sushmita Sen and Lara Dutta. Urvashi would not let this setback phase her and determined to fulfill her dream of competing for the Miss Universe crown, she competed all over again for the 2015 Miss Diva Universe crown to win the right to represent India at Miss Universe and she won that title AGAIN! This further proves what a powerful force Urvashi is. Lara Dutta, Miss Universe 2000 is involved with Miss Diva Universe pageant and so Urvashi has therefore received training from both Indian Miss Universes and even Miss World 1997, Diana Hayden. Urvashi has since become an established celebrity in her country getting Bollywood film roles and has friends in high places. She is shown pictured here standing next to Bollywood superstar, Salman Khan and she even has almost 4 million followers of her Facebook fan page so it is safe to say that Urvashi is this year's most popular delegate. Urvashi won Miss India twice and so will a win of the Miss Universe title make her not once, twice, but three times a winner??? Urvashi is my winner at this moment. In fact, my top 5 is looking like a repeat of 1994 excluding Slovak Republic, the other 5 countries in that top 6 were: India, Colombia, Venezuela, USA and Philippines which also happen to be my top 5 for 2015 so far. Another pattern working in this favor: USA placed 4th in 1994 and won in 2012, Venezuela placed 3rd in 1994 and won in 2013, Colombia placed 2nd in 1994 and won for 2014 and India placed 1st in 1994 so is it time for the country which embodies unity through diversity in 2015???
So Miss USA 2015, Olivia Jordan met Oprah Winfrey who inspired this headline, of course! Here we see, Olivia Jordan Thomas with Oprah and her friend Gayle King. Olivia's real last name is Thomas and Jordan is actually her middle name, by the way. And the once, twice, three times a winner scenario doesn't only work for India but it also works in Olivia Jordan's favor as prior to winning the Miss USA title, Olivia won the Miss World USA title in 2013 and placed in the top 20 of Miss World 2013 and she went on to win Miss USA 2015 which makes Olivia the first woman in history to represent the USA at both Miss World and Miss Universe. Olivia was also 1st runner up to Miss California USA 2013. Like India's Urvashi Rautela, USA's Olivia Jordan also has some film credits to her name and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Olivia has appeared in "Ted" (2012), "Here Comes the Boom" (2012) and "Hot Tub Time Machine 2" (2015). And of course, we must bring up the patterns! Olivia Jordan happens to have the same first name as Olivia Culpo, Miss Universe 2012 who also represented the USA and competed for Miss Universe in Las Vegas in the month of December (only one day apart too - Olivia Culpo won her crown on December 19, 2012 and Olivia Jordan will compete on December 20, 2015) and on top of that both Olivia Culpo and Olivia Jordan have attended Boston University! With all of these things in common, will it mean yet another Miss Universe win for the USA??? The USA has won the Miss Universe crown 8 times which is more than any other country. Olivia Culpo has also been making headlines due to her recent break-up with football player Tim Tebow who reportedly refused to have sex with her because he is saving his virginity until after marriage citing his Christian values. This break-up follows Olivia Culpo's previous break-up from Nick Jonas which also happened this year. Nick Jonas, of course, performed during the Miss Universe 2014 pageant which was held in January and at one point, got down on his knee in front of Olivia Culpo who was sitting in the audience. She also stars in the music video for his song, "Jealous" which was a top 10 hit for Nick Jonas peaking at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Two countries have become pageant powerhouses in recent years and those nations would be the Philippines and Venezuela. The tropical haven of Asia, the Philippines currently holds the longest streak in the semifinals for Miss Universe placing every year since 2010 and 4 of those 5 years were in the top 5. Their latest hope for the crown is another experienced competitor, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach who is half-German on her father's side. Also, an experienced actress since age 4, Pia is used to the spotlight and should have a very strong showing at this year's Miss Universe pageant. The Philippines has won the crown twice (Gloria Diaz in 1969 and Margarita Moran in 1973) but this pageant obsessed nation has come very close to the crown in recent years but haven't been able to grasp it as of yet but Pia hopes to change that. She won the right to represent the Philippines at Miss Universe on her third try and she also has friends in high places and there is a rumor that she is dating the current President of her country, Benigno Aquino III but Pia has not confirmed these rumors. The gateway of South America, Venezuela is being represented by Mariana Jimenez and she is the latest hope of this other pageant powerhouse to capture another Miss Universe crown. Venezuela is easily the most successful in international pageantry capturing multiple crowns from numerous pageants and 7 of those crowns are Miss Universe crowns won in the years of 1979, 1981, 1986, 1996, 2008, 2009 and 2013. These wins make Venezuela second only to the USA in terms of having the most Miss Universe winners. Mariana also has previous experience competing in a new international pageant called Miss Grand International where she placed among the top 10 in 2013 at that pageant. The most recent winner of the Miss Grand International by the way was Anea Garcia who was my prediction to win Miss USA 2015 where she represented Rhode Island but placed as 2nd runner up due to an unfortunate question and answer round. Anea went on to represent the Dominican Republic at the Miss Grand International 2015 pageant so this tells me that she may very well have dual citizenship which means she may be making an appearance on the Miss Universe stage in the near future representing the Dominican Republic. Venezuela and Philippines were my top 2 last year so how will they fare in my list this year?
The land of the Eiffel Tower is giving us an eyeful of beauty with another favorite, Flora Coquerel who was actually crowned Miss France 2014 and competed for the Miss World 2014 crown where she went unplaced but now she has been given the opportunity to compete for the Miss Universe crown. Oddly enough, Flora's successor for the Miss France title, Camille Cerf was the one who competed for the Miss Universe 2014 which was held in January and she placed among the top 15 although many felt that Camille could have gone much further. Now, we see Flora competing after Camille instead of before her and a large part of this is likely due to the odd dating of the Miss Universe pageants in recent years but now that things have been made right, there should be some normalcy. Flora has a French father and Beninese mother which contributes to her exotic appearance. The country of France has made headlines recently due to the horrific terrorist attacks that have affected that nation. When Camille Cerf was competing for Miss Universe earlier this year, some staff of the French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo were shot and killed and this was seen as an attack worldwide on free speech. Last month, there were numerous shootings in various venues throughout Paris also carried out by terrorists and the world mourned the senseless losses of innocent victims and France's presence in international events like the Miss Universe pageant is a testament to their strength and they could have a strong showing this time around. France has done quite well in recent Miss Universe pageants placing every year since 2009 except for one year, 2013. France's only Miss Universe is Christiane Martel who won their nation's crown back in 1953 making France the country that has had to wait the longest for a repeat Miss Universe win. Will Flora be able to do it?
Ukraine has experienced great success at the Miss Universe pageant in recent years placing 6 out of the last 9 years. A lot of that may have to do with Donald Trump's involvement however which takes us back to 2004 when Oleksandra Nikolayenko competed for Miss Universe 2004 but did not place among the semifinals even though she made the top 10 at Miss World 2001 only a few years earlier. This angered Trump as he said he was so sick of seeing the most beautiful women in the world standing in the background as others are chosen. He invited Oleksandra to be a finals judge the following year at Miss Universe 2005 and Oleksandra is now married and has children with one of Trump's friends, prominent businessman Phil Ruffin. Due to Oleksandra's exclusion, this prompted the rule be introduced that the Miss Universe Organization would select 6 of the semifinalists and the preliminary judges would choose 9. Now, that Trump is no longer involved with the pageant, we shall soon learn if this method of selected semifinalists will still be in effect or not and if Ukraine may no longer have the success it has enjoyed in recent years. Ukraine first placed in 2006 and got as high as 1st runner up in 2011 and they were even 2nd runner up in the most recent Miss Universe pageant, now we have Anna Vergelskaya who I think happens to look a lot like Donald's daughter Ivanka Trump. I have pictured them here side by side so you can see what I mean. Ivanka is shown here when she co-hosted Miss Teen USA 1997 when she often made her trademark kissy face as she was working as a model at the time. Anna Vergelskaya certainly could place on her own merit so we shall see if she can keep Ukraine's strong showings going at Miss Universe.
Those hips don't lie! The world's finest coffee land sends us the fine Ariadna Gutierrez who is yet another major contender for the Miss Universe crown. She also hails from the country of the reigning Miss Universe, Paulina Vega so will Colombia be the next country to win Miss Universe two years in a row? The only country to achieve this extremely rare feat was Venezuela in 2009 when Stefania Fernandez won the Miss Universe crown for Venezuela immediately following Dayana Mendoza who won the Miss Universe crown for Venezuela in 2008. Colombia has won the Miss Universe crown twice (1958 and 2014) and was 1st runner up 4 times (1992, 1993, 1994 and 2008) so the land of passions and emeralds has consistently proven itself to be a force to be reckoned with.
Ariadna is the youngest of five children in her family and also happens to be a cousin of the reigning Miss Universe, Paulina Vega so it would be extra special for their family if Ariadna happens to win the Miss Universe crown. Ariadna has been nicknamed the “Cat Lady” because she loves cats, especially her two own cats, Abril and Gianni. Ariadna works as a fashion model and studies Communications and she is also a Christmas baby also! She was born on December 25, 1993.
2015 tragically becomes the first year to have two former Miss Universe pass away in one calendar year. On August 16, Miss Universe 1967-Sylvia Hitchcock Carson passed away and now on December 2, Miss Universe 1958-Luz Marina Zuluaga has entered mortality at the age of 77. Luz Marina was Colombia's first Miss Universe and what an unbelievable coincidence that she passed away during the year of Colombia's 2nd Miss Universe win as the reigning Miss Universe, Paulina Vega became the second Colombian Miss Universe over 56 years after Luz Marina's win. Zuluaga died around 2 a.m. on December 2 in an apartment in the neighborhood, Palermo, from Manizales, where she lived. According to reports, she died of acute coronary syndrome with cardio-pulmonary arrest. Sources indicated that apparently Zuluaga suffered a blackout when in the company of friends in her apartment and the emergency services that came to her rescue couldn't do anything to bring her back.
