Miss Universe 2013 (December 19th)

[peibeck]

Well Trump can't get rig the presidency, so I guess he has to stick with beauty pageants.

[HeatherC]

I loved Miss USA when she won earlier this year but Miss Philippines was totally robbed of the title tonight.

[Garden Kitty]

Pairs skater Jimmy Morgan seems happy that a fellow BU student won.

[Smiley0884]

Philippines wuzrobbed! I love Miss USA, and I can forgive the dress, but she didn't bring her A game tonight It just looks like the competition was rigged/biased.

[kylet3]

There's no question in my mind that tonight was beyond rigged. Miss USA hadn't won it in 15 years and it was held at home so it made it all the more convenient for him to do so. I love Olivia and I think she'll make a fine Miss Universe but she just didn't bring her A-game like she did at Miss USA, I thought Australia and Philippines had the best answers for sure, Olivia just wasn't that here. There quite frankly were some WTF choices for top 16 and some glaring omissions, but congrats to Miss USA...

I also have to come to terms with the fact that Nana Meriwhether is the new Miss USA... Where's a barf emoticon when you need one. Everytime she spoke at Miss USA I wanted to throw something at her...

[HeatherC]

There's no question in my mind that tonight was beyond rigged. Miss USA hadn't won it in 15 years and it was held at home so it made it all the more convenient for him to do so. I love Olivia and I think she'll make a fine Miss Universe but she just didn't bring her A-game like she did at Miss USA, I thought Australia and Philippines had the best answers for sure, Olivia just wasn't that here. There quite frankly were some WTF choices for top 16 and some glaring omissions, but congrats to Miss USA...

I also have to come to terms with the fact that Nana Meriwhether is the new Miss USA... Where's a barf emoticon when you need one. Everytime she spoke at Miss USA I wanted to throw something at her...

Ugh, I forgot about her but look at it this way....she only gets to be Miss USA for like six months or something and then we get rid of her, LOL

[ryanj07]

Nana was annoying at Miss USA constantly listing her achievements but I'm glad to see that she's finally reached her goal of being Miss USA. She was a runner up at Miss California for YEARS before competing in Maryland her last year of eligibility and finally winning her way to Miss USA.

[kylet3]

Ugh, I forgot about her but look at it this way....she only gets to be Miss USA for like six months or something and then we get rid of her, LOL

Here's hoping!

I wonder if they'll move Miss Universe back to summer time, that'd really cut short Olivia's reign.

[skateboy]

I guess I'm the only one who liked Olivia's gown--I thought it was stunning! But...

Could have sworn she's end up 4th runnerup with that embarrassingly bad answer to the final question. I thought Philippines had it for sure.

[overedge]

Nana was annoying at Miss USA constantly listing her achievements but I'm glad to see that she's finally reached her goal of being Miss USA. She was a runner up at Miss California for YEARS before competing in Maryland her last year of eligibility and finally winning her way to Miss USA.

I didn't watch the pageant, but if she could only become Miss USA by moving to another state that isn't exactly a Miss USA powerhouse...maybe the judges at Miss California had the right idea.

[IceAlisa]

You are not the only one, skateboy. On the picture in this thread the gown does look bad, makes her lower body appear a lot larger than it is. But on TV it looks original and elegant. She really did look great. Philippines had the best answer but not the best dress. It didn't do anything for her. I thought Olivia did OK until she said she doesn't regret picking on her siblings when the question was what she regretted doing. Australia is a total Fembot. Meh.

A lot of natural ladies and only a few with implants!

[Vash01]

I thought Miss USA would place #4 (and Venezuela #5) because she blew the final question. Miss Philippines should have won the title. She wuzrobbed. As soon as the winner was announced, I said, this pageant was rigged.

On top of everything else, Miss USA's gown was simply awful.

[ryanj07]

I didn't watch the pageant, but if she could only become Miss USA by moving to another state that isn't exactly a Miss USA powerhouse...maybe the judges at Miss California had the right idea.

Miss CA is one of the most difficult states to win and MD isn't exactly easy either. The girls that Nana lost out to in CA (Alyssa Campanella, Carrie Prejean) either won Miss USA or came very close.

[IceAlisa]

Alyssa Campanella is is no slouch.

[Seerek]

On top of everything else, Miss USA's gown was simply awful.

I'm a little surprised that Olivia kept the same gown from preliminaries (last Thursday) considering the opinions were so divided even then. Some of the others (Venezuela) changed their gown for finals.

[Sassafras]

Erm... what?!?!!? Tragic judging, she should not have been top 5.

ITA. At least the judges got it right with Miss China winning the National Costume. That dress was just gorgeous. I do have to give props to whoever designed Miss Mexico. One comment I saw "It actually took me a few seconds to find the woman inside the Mexico costume."

[julieann]

You are not the only one, skateboy. On the picture in this thread the gown does look bad, makes her lower body appear a lot larger than it is. But on TV it looks original and elegant. She really did look great. Philippines had the best answer but not the best dress. It didn't do anything for her. I thought Olivia did OK until she said she doesn't regret picking on her siblings when the question was what she regretted doing. Australia is a total Fembot. Meh.

A lot of natural ladies and only a few with implants!

I thought Miss USA's gown was beautiful! It proves you don't have to go full pageant glitzy gown to win. She is pretty and articulate. Her little stumble (which some people even missed) was a non-issue. Looking at the whole competition, she performed great. Venezuela should always use an interpretor. She sounded un-educated and drunk.

[Garden Kitty]

Marissa Castelli has tweeted to say that even though Miss USA goes to BU, she's originally from Marissa's home town in Rhode Island.

[Jenny]

When is Train ever good?

Russia's gown looks like a swimsuit coverup.

Train looked like he didn't want to be there, and every second of camera time on him took away from us getting a better look at the contestants, booo hissss.

Loved Russia's gown, and in fact thought it would be a great ice dance costume with a bias cut knee length skirt, or a ladies costume with a short skirt. Wasn't big on her though - too Audrina Partridge.

Venezuela had a bondage Christmas dress on.

USA gets extra points for side boobage. Looks like Mexico shopped in Russia's dress store.

Brazil my favorite so far in the dresses.

I thought Venezuela really rocked her Christmas ornament dress. It was hideous but her personality made it rock.

I though Brazil's dress was super tacky.

I thought Miss USA's gown was beautiful! It proves you don't have to go full pageant glitzy gown to win. She is pretty and articulate. Her little stumble (which some people even missed) was a non-issue. Looking at the whole competition, she performed great. Venezuela should always use an interpretor. She sounded un-educated and drunk.

I thought USA's gown was lovely - classy yet saucy, and a standout from all the others.

Phillipines won the gown segment IMO, and while she was good on her question, given all the gorgeous women who didn't make the top 16, I'm called konspiracy politik - isn't Miss Universe absolutely HUGE in the Phillipines?

Australia was lovely, but her dress was tragic - so ill fitting poor thing.

I had picked Venezuela to win from the initial introductions - such great personality! Not at all surprised she made it to F5, and expected her to win - until she spoke

The one I thought was robbed was Finland - so pretty! They really should do a top 32 or so for swimsuit, then 16 for gowns and go from there.

[peibeck]

Miss USA's gown was a bit of a throwback to gowns from the 40's and updated with that plunging neckline. My problem was not so much the style, as she definitely stood out from most of the gowns, but the fact that the lining of the gown was a mess with the underskirt showing, the fact that their should have been a least some sort of hoop (or hoops) to prevent her from tripping and give the area just below the hip the volume it needed without looking something very Scarlett O'Hara, and the fact that she did trip up while modeling it (though she recovered well).

Also to her credit, I thought Miss USA did a good job in swimsuit, and she definitely has the banging physcial condition they like in the USA/Universe system.

I can't remember what percentage of the preliminary nights carries over into the final night as well (I think 60% [but that might be the America system], with personal interview being the highest part of that), so that can make a big difference which is not reflected just by the televised portion we see.