With televised pageants considered to be in a ratings slump, this one was preceded by some rather unconventional hype. Television advertising on CBS promised "super-scandals." An absurd rumor was floated, with the obvious acquiescence of the pageant's owners, that Miss France had once been a man. Then the rumor was kept alive by repeated denials. When even the most tenaciously gullible began to tire of the "gender issue," the supposed record of Miss Brazil's plastic surgery was leaked to the media. This time, there were no denials.
One night in the tropicsBy Michael S. Arnold
Special to PNB BAYAMON, Puerto Rico -- From start to finish, it was Puerto Rico's night. The evening began with a sizzling performance by hometown hero Ricky Martin, which had even Puerto Rico Gov. Sila Calderon and Miss Universe co-owner Donald Trump swaying on their feet. And it ended with the coronation of local girl Denise Quinones as Miss Universe 2001, setting off spontaneous jubilation and raucous street parties that lasted late into the night. Few doubted that Ms. Quinones, 20, a long-legged brunette from the town of Lares, would be one of the top contenders. During the preparations for the pageant she won the award for Miss Photogenic, and her dazzling smile lit up the pages of all the local newspapers as excitement built in Puerto Rico toward Friday night's spectacle. The organizers of the pageant did their best to keep the suspense growing. After Martin's two numbers and a pass across the stage from all 77 contestants in traditional country costumes, supermodel hosts Elle MacPherson and Naomi Campbell announced the 10 semifinalists, who had been chosen during a series of preliminary events and interviews in the three weeks the girls had been preparing on the island. Though they stressed that the finalists would be announced in random order, the hosts announced nine and then paused for dramatic effect. Those nine were Miss Spain, Eva Siso Casals; Miss Venezuela, Eva Ekvall; Miss Nigeria, Agbani Darego; Miss Israel, Ilanit Levi; Miss Greece, Evelina Papantoniou; Miss India, Celina Jaitley; Miss Russia, Oxana Kalandyrets; Miss USA, Kandace Krueger; and Miss France, Elodie Gossuin. The crowd in Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum held their breath, fearing that perhaps Ms. Quinones somehow had not made the cut. But then the tenth finalist was announced, and Ms. Quinones traipsed down the grand staircase at the back of the set, beaming like the queen she would soon become. Though all of the finalists were stunning, there was a star quality about Ms. Quinones -- buoyed as she was by the crowd's adoration -- that set her apart from the rest. She extended that dominance in both the swimsuit and evening gown competitions. After those rounds, an informal survey put her slightly ahead of the other finalists, with Ms. Papantoniou of Greece and Ms. Ekvall of Venezuela close behind. Soon the crowd was narrowed to five, with Ms. Jaitley of India -- the only surprise among the last five finalists -- and Ms. Krueger of the United States rounding out the field leading into the question-and-answer portion of the event. Each contestant drew a judge's name from a bowl and then fielded that judge's question. Unlike the previous year -- when the ultimate winner, India's Lara Dutta, clearly distinguished herself with her beautiful elocution and thoughtful answers -- none of this year's finalists particularly shone in the question-and-answer period. Ms. Quinones was asked what she considered the most important thing in life. "To be the best I can be . . . to be beautiful inside and outside," she responded. She gave a similar answer to her second question, which dealt with common misperceptions about beauty. "Trying to find it on the outside," she said. "You have to go deep in the soul of the person." Similarly unenlightening were the responses to the final question. While the other contestants waited on the side with earphones on, each girl was asked what, if anything, she would change about her past. In some ways, it seemed a trick question. Admitting deficiency in the past might be construed as an unflattering sign of weakness. Only Ms. Jaitley tackled the question head-on, recounting an illness that left her bed-ridden for a year and stole "the best years of my life." The other girls all gave variations on a theme They would change nothing about their lives, claiming either to have had perfectly wonderful lives up to that point or to have benefited from adversity. The only marginally thoughtful response was from Ms. Krueger, who said that her parents' divorce had made her a stronger and more independent woman. She also alluded to other, unspecified, troubles, perhaps an oblique reference to her mother's battle with breast cancer. Her response may have catapulted Ms. Krueger -- a fit and muscular blonde with a sweet smile identical to actress Gwyneth Paltrow's -- ahead of several of the other finaliists. As the judge's results were announced, the contestants peeled off to receive bouquets from Ms. Dutta, who moments before had taken her final turn onstage as Miss Universe, blowing kisses to the audience and wiping away tears. In order, they were fourth runner-up, Ms. Jaitley, who received a hug from her compatriot, Ms. Dutta; third runner-up, Ms. Ekvall; and second runner-up, Ms. Krueger. It now came down to Ms. Quinones and Ms. Papantoniou of Greece, and the audience tensed, though in truth Ms. Quinones had far outshone Ms. Papantoniou, and there seemed little doubt about the outcome. When Ms. Papantoniou was announced as first runner-up, the crowd exploded in exultation for Ms. Quinones, who basked in the adulation of the hometown crowd like a conquering hero.
Everybody's happy (at least in Puerto Rico)By Michael S. Arnold
Special to PNB BAYAMON, Puerto Rico -- It may not have been a national holiday, but it certainly felt like one. Within seconds of hometown girl Denise Quinones' victory as Miss Universe, the crowd outside the Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum exploded in exultation. For hours afterward, revelers lined the streets from here to the the capital, San Juan, dancing, singing and waving Puerto Rico's distinctive flag of red, white and blue with a single white star. What normally would be a half-hour drive from the coliseum to the Caribe Hilton, where Ms. Quinones' coronation ball took place, took three times as long after the pageant, as traffic police struggled to keep the crowds off the streets and to keep at least a minimal lane open for cars to pass. All along the highway, teenage girls hung out the windows of cars that beeped their horns incessantly, while boys pumped their fists into the air. The windows of many cars were spray-painted with nationalistic messages, including many that were endearingly misspelled, such as "Puerto Rico do it's best!" [sic] Those with tickets to the ball were mobbed like movie stars, walking through a pulsing human corridor sweating in the humid Caribbean night and bragging of the island's victory to anyone who would listen. "This is a great night for Puerto Rico, the greatest night," said Julia Villaramon, 17, who was singing and dancing next to a car in the coliseum parking lot. "We knew that Denise was the most beautiful of all, and now this proves it." Ms. Quinones on Friday became the fourth Miss Puerto Rico to take the title and the first since Dayanara Torres -- one of the judges for Friday night's event, along with her salsa-singing husband, Marc Anthony -- won in 1993. Her victory also marked the first time the representative of the host country has taken the title since Miss USA, Brook Lee, won in Miami in 1997. The home-field advantage led some contestants to charge afterward -- not for attribution, of course -- that Ms. Quinones' victory was attributable to politics. According to this theory, the owners of the pageant, who appear ready to hold next year's contest in Puerto Rico as well, wanted to keep the host country happy. One country's national manager went so far as to demand that future judging panels include representatives from each continent, to counter what some say is a bias toward contestants from the United States and Latin American countries. Conspiracy theories abounded at the coronation ball, as the tensions suppressed during three weeks of preparations finally surfaced. One contestant's manager sketched an elaborate plot to explain the choice of the 10 finalists Miss USA, Kandace Krueger, and Miss Venezuela, Eva Ekvall, were included in the top 10 (and top 5) as a sop to those countries, whose support of the pageant is crucial, the manager opined. Celina Jaitley was included to placate India, which in recent years has dominated the Miss Universe and Miss World competitions. Miss Russia, Oxana Kalandyrets, the manager said, was included in the interests of superpower rivalry, while Miss Nigeria, Agbani Darego, was the token black contestant among the finalists. Miss Israel, Ilanit Levi, was included as a way to improve that war-torn country's public relations image. (One pageant regular even noted ominously that several of the preliminary judges had Jewish-sounding names.) Miss France, Elodie Gossuin, the manager said, was included to repair hurt feelings after rumors circulated on the Internet that Ms. Gossuin was in fact a man who had undergone a sex-change operation. "It's all about politics, it has nothing to do with beauty," said the manager, who felt that only Ms. Quinones and Miss Greece, Evelina Papantoniou, truly deserved to be finalists -- as well as the manager's own contestant, of course, who did not make the cut. While such grumbling appears to be a common feature of the pageant, where only one of the 77 outstanding contestants can win, few questioned Ms. Quinones' qualifications. From the start, she had been on everyone's short list, impressing them with her beauty, charisma and poise. Those qualities shone through at the press conference Ms. Quinones held after her victory, when she answered questions in fluent English and Spanish. Her inspiration, she noted, was her grandmother, who passed away several months ago but whose influence Quinones felt even on stage. Before the show began, Ms. Quinones said, she spent a few minutes in the bathroom "talking" to her dead grandmother. "I was asking her to be with me in the competition, and I felt her in every part" of it, Ms. Quinones said. During the press conference, Ms. Quinones expressed solidarity with Puerto Rican political activists protesting U.S. Navy training exercises held on the nearby island of Vieques, and joked that Puerto Rico should declare a national holiday if local boxer Felix Trinidad Jr. followed her Friday night accomplishment with a victory over William Joppy in a middleweight title fight in New York on Saturday. The Pageant News Bureau asked Ms. Quinones what she believed had set her apart from the other contestants on the crucial night. "I felt really confident and I think that projected," she said. "The way I felt inside, I think that projected out to the audience." In addition, she said, she steadied herself with one or two deep breaths before each turn on stage, and never let her concentration waver from the task or question before her, even when applause from the audience threatened to distract her. And, she said, she had that intangible that makes the difference between one beautiful contestant and another: "A little bit of luck."
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