Miss Netherlands loves her managerBy Michael S. Arnold
Special to PNB BAYAMON, Puerto Rico -- Imagine dating one of the most beautiful women on the planet. Then imagine that every guy who laid eyes on her felt free to sidle up, wrap his arms around your honey and have someone take their picture. That's what it's like to be in the shoes of Gase (pronounced "Jayce") Choenni, the boyfriend of Miss Netherlands, Reshma Roopram.
Choenni, 25, is one of a handful of devoted boyfriends who have come to Puerto Rico to support their significant others through the pressure of the Miss Universe Pageant, when only one of 77 outstanding young women will be chosen to wear the crown for the next year. In Choenni's case, he has an added incentive to attend. He's also Ms. Roopram's manager. Little about the couple's relationship is what you might expect.
|  Miss Netherlands,
Reshma Roopram
Photo by Miss Universe Inc. |
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First, there's Ms. Roopram herself. Think of Dutch women and you're likely to picture flaxen hair, light eyes and peach-golden skin. Ms. Roopram, on the other hand, has black hair, black eyes and dark brown skin. The name, of course, might be something of a giveaway. The old, homogeneous Netherlands has given way to a melting pot, assimilating newcomers from all parts of Africa and Asia, and Ms. Roopram, 22, is a member of the large community of immigrants from Suriname, a former Dutch colony on the northeastern coast of South America. But that was only a temporary way station for Ms. Roopram's ancestors. Her great-grandparents came to Suriname from India, which explains both her name and her appearance. Choenni is of identical heritage, which gives them not only much in common but a feeling of being at home almost anywhere in today's multicultural world. "We have South American blood, Eastern blood and a Western view, which is what makes [Ms. Roopram] such an international girl," Choenni said. "Wherever we go in the world, we can adjust." It's not exactly a coincidence that they ended up together. In fact, they met five years ago at an annual festival for Dutch citizens of Indian descent, which draws some 100,000 people each summer. Choenni, who says he also used to attract a fair amount of attention from the opposite sex, was walking through the crowd when he set eyes on Ms. Roopram. He approached her parents and said he had been looking for an Indian girl who was not only beautiful but modest, and he could sense that Ms. Roopram was both. Her parents consulted with her to see if she was interested in getting to know the suitor. In fact, Choenni says, Ms. Roopram and her parents already had seen him from afar and had been talking about the handsome young man. Ms. Roopram agreed to the match. First, though, the couple spent a month corresponding only by mail. He wanted to take things very slowly, Choenni says, to show Ms. Roopram's parents that he was serious and trustworthy. Finally the couple spoke in person, and their feelings of love at first sight were vindicated. Even five years later, however, the two do not live together, and keep their weekly dates to a manageable level. Partly it's in the interests of tradition, and partly it's a question of logistics. He lives in the commercial center of Rotterdam, while Ms. Roopram lives in Holland's political capital, The Hague. Choenni admits that it's been difficult to watch Ms. Roopram's many fans hug her and mug with her for the cameras. "In the beginning, of course, I had to get used to it, but it's not a bad thing," he says. "She knows her limits, she knows what she can do and what she can't do. I know I can trust her." The key, he says, is being secure about his own accomplishments. He recently became the Netherlands marketing manager for L'Oréal. After the pageant, Roopram will become a L'Oréal model. Despite his own responsibilities, Choenni felt it was important to be in Puerto Rico with Ms. Roopram. "Although I'm very busy making my own career, I took time out of my life to come here, to show her that she can depend on me," he says. She was really touched, he recalls. Ms. Roopram -- who was in the middle of rehearsal during the interview with Choenni and couldn't speak to the press, would make funny faces at him whenever she had an idle moment. "We got a lot of compliments from all the other girls, they all thought we were cute together," he says. Ms. Roopram's future plans are still unclear, Choenni says. She has a bachelor's degree in economics and is considering either getting an MBA or trying to break into the Indian movie industry. His advice to her, Choenni says, is that it really doesn't matter whether or not she wins the pageant. "I say to her that the most important thing is that she has fun, and I know that she did. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that no one can take away from her," he says. "You just have to do your best and not worry about impressing other people, just about impressing yourself." And, Choenni says, the words of wisdom fall on receptive ears. "The thing I like most about her is that she realizes it's not her outer beauty that's most important -- that will fade with the years -- but her inner beauty," he says. "She's really a kind person." Win or lose, Ms. Roopram has a surprise in store. Choenni has brought a diamond ring to Puerto Rico, and on Saturday, once the pageant is over, he plans to propose to the girl he picked out of the crowd in Holland five years ago.
Ready to take up armsBy Michael Arnold
Special to PNB BAYAMON, Puerto Rico -- Most of the young women competing for the Miss Universe title have nice plans when they leave Puerto Rico after this weekend: modeling contracts, waiting boyfriends, university studies, even jobs. Miss Israel, Ilanit Levi, faces something a bit more grueling: basic training. Like most Israeli women, Ms. Levi, 19, will have to do a two-year stint in the army, a tour of duty she postponed for six months to prepare for the May 11 beauty pageant in Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum in this suburb of San Juan.
 Miss Israle, Ilanit Levy
Photo by Miss Universe Inc. |
| Yet she doesn't seem at all bothered by the prospect, spending her time clowning around with her fellow contestants in the days before the pageant as if she hadn't a care in the world. Ms. Levi has distinguished herself as among the most social of the 77 contestants. As the girls braced themselves for a pre-pageant rehearsal that lasted from 1 p.m. to nearly midnight, with many of them collapsed in the seats with boredom writ large on their faces, Ms. Levi was a blur of activity, talking, snapping gum, answering her cell phone, teaching Miss Croatia, Maja Cecic-Vidos, a bit of Hebrew slang. |
Still, after three weeks in Puerto Rico on a grueling schedule of rehearsals and photo shoots, Ms. Levi said she was missing Haifa, the northern coastal city in Israel where she grew up. "I'm dying to get home already," she said. "I want to be able to go where I want, when I want to." That, said her sister Nitza, is just like Miss Israel. "She's not one of those people to let this all go to her head," Nitza Levi said. "She's still the same Ilanit, one of those people who, no matter what happens, is still a person who likes a small, warm home." Ms. Levi's brother, Asher, didn't hesitate when asked whom he considered the most beautiful of the contestants: his sister, of course. Yet the family said they felt the judges would have other considerations when choosing one contestant as Miss Universe. "It doesn't just come down to beauty here," Nitza Levi said. "There are a lot of other factors, like politics and language." Ilanit Levi's unusual beauty -- she has olive-colored skin, blonde hair and stunning green eyes -- derives from her international heritage. One parent immigrated to Israel from the Jewish community in Morocco, the other from Libya. Yet there's enough of a Latin look about her to make her a favorite with Puerto Ricans on the street, who tell Ms. Levi that she looks like Jennifer Lopez, one of the island's most cherished exports. She hasn't come off all that well in the local press, however. One paper featured on its back page a huge picture of Ms. Levi with a look of anger and boredom on her face, meant to represent the girls' frustration with the tedious preparations for the event. While some pageant followers think the picture might hurt Ms. Levi's chances to win by portraying her as less than committed to the pageant, she laughed it off as a chance and candid moment. "Look, it's really hard work," Nitza Levi said. "They keep them going from morning to evening." Still, it's not quite as challenging as basic training will be. After her army service, Ms. Levi hopes to get a degree in psychology and work as a children's therapist. Given the violence that has racked Israel and the Palestinian territories in recent months, it's inevitable that Ms. Levi is asked frequently about Mideast politics. She feels obligated to correct misperceptions of her country as violent and dangerous. "They want to know how I live, what it's like," Ms. Levi says. "Everything I say will go into the newspaper, so I want to make sure they know that what they read about in the paper, the war and the violence -- it exists, but it doesn't dominate our lives." Still, politics intrudes even into the pageant world. Just as in 2000, Miss Israel has gotten the cold shoulder from Miss Lebanon, who is under orders from her government to ignore the Israeli representative because of the tense situation between the two countries.
"I say hello to her and she says hello, like everyone else, but that's it," Ms. Levi said. Miss Lebanon, Sandra Rizk, confirmed that their relations are rather cool. "Our countries are not at war, but [she and Ms. Levi] are not going to be friends, either," says Ms. Rizk, also 19. "We just try to be businesslike." Ms. Levi's closest friends among the contestants are Ms. Cecic-Vidos of Croatia, Miss Egypt, Sarah Shaheen, and Miss New Zealand, Kateao Nehua-Jackson. |  Miss Lebanon,
Sandra Rizk
Photo by Miss Universe Inc. |
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In fact, Ms. Levi said, the pageant has turned out to be a lot more fun than she imagined. "I thought it would be like jail, all the time 'Don't do this, don't do that,' " she said. "But none of us here is really thinking about being Miss Universe; it's too overwhelming for us. So we just concentrate on enjoying ourselves."
The final tense hoursBy Michael S. Arnold
Special to PNB BAYAMON, Puerto Rico - Gracia Morillos had waited for nearly an hour in a hesitant drizzle before she finally reached the window of Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum and asked for four tickets for Friday’s Miss Universe Pageant. Then she learned the cost: from $1,000 to $2,000, depending on the seats she wanted. Ms. Morillos, 68, had to be steadied by her grandson Carlos, 10. "My God!" she exclaimed. In the end, she settled for four seats to the Friday afternoon dress rehearsal -- for the more modest total of $100. Ms. Morillos and her family won’t be there Friday night, but some 300 lucky -- and wealthy -- patrons from around the world will when the Miss Universe organization holds its 50th annual pageant in this industrial suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital. Not surprisingly, the locals among them will be rooting for Denise Quinones, the 20-year-old aspiring singer who is Puerto Rico’s entrant in the pageant -- and who is considered to have a good shot at becoming a finalist. It certainly didn’t hurt her chances when she was chosen as Miss Photogenic in one of the preliminary competitions leading up to Friday’s event. Still, in interviews with local papers this week Ms. Quinones sought to play down her compatriots’ expectations, saying that just making it to the pageant was enough of an accomplishment for her. That modesty was not shared by Miss Venezuela, Eva Ekvall, 18, who predicted that she had a good chance to win, according to the local "Dia Uno" newspaper. | Unlike last year -- when most everyone seemed to sense that Miss India, Lara Dutta, would walk away with the crown -- there is no clear-cut favorite among this year’s 76 eye-popping beauties. Still, several names crop up frequently on the lists composed and compared by the hangers-on who follow the pageant every year from one exotic location to another. Among them are Ms. Quinones; Ms. Ekvall; Miss Nigeria, Agbani Darego; Miss Greece, Evelina Papantoniou; Miss Yugoslavia, Ana Jankovic; Miss South Africa, Jo-Ann Strauss; and Miss Spain, Eva Siso Casals. |  Miss Venezuela,
Eva Ekvall
Photo by Miss Universe Inc. |
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"There are just so many really striking girls this year, more than a normal year, that it’s impossible to say who is the favorite," said Luis Morales, a clerk from South Carolina who has been following the Miss Universe Pageant for nearly four decades. "Look at that girl," he says, motioning toward Miss Philippines, Zorayda Ruth Andam. "She's a real killer." At this point, the identities of the 10 finalists are known only to the panel of judges who have met with the girls several times in the past week for a series of interviews. At Friday’s show, the entire international cast will parade briefly on the stage, but most of the broadcast will be dedicated to the real competition among the finalists. Organizers say this year’s show will have several distinctive elements, though they may be evident only to pageant connoisseurs In video footage from a recent competition of national costumes -- won by Miss Korea, Sa-Lang Kim -- the contestants will introduce themselves, and the swimwear competition will take place after the performance by pop superstar Ricky Martin, not during it. Such minutiae aside, this year’s show will be marked by a heavy Latin emphasis, symbolized by pounding percussion and a distinctive stage design meant to resemble the historic walls of Old San Juan. In modern-day San Juan, meanwhile, the pageant has barely made itself felt. There are no billboards or posters advertising the competition, and the contestants have been sequestered in a beach resort nearly an hour from the city center. Beyond a general goodwill, locals have little to say about the presence of the internationally renowned event, nor strong opinions of what benefit it might bring to Puerto Rico. "Oh yeah, sure, I’m glad they’re holding it here, why not?" shrugged Evelina Marcia Garces, a waitress in a trendy restaurant along the main street of San Juan’s Condado tourist strip. "Sure, maybe people will learn a little bit about Puerto Rico, I suppose." "Ay, yes, they’re very beautiful, these girls," said businessman Angel Rodriguez de Cuellar, taking a swig on his light beer. "But, you know, there’s no lack of beautiful girls in Puerto Rico. We have it all here sun, beaches, music, beautiful women." Actually, Puerto Rico’s famed sunshine has been little in evidence this week, as torrential downpours have inundated the southwest of the island, turning it into an emergency zone. That, and the recent political unrest over U.S. Navy bombing exercises in nearby Vieques -- which some speculate may become fodder for protests outside the coliseum Friday night -- may have put a bit of a damper on the locals’ enthusiasm. Miss USA, Kandace Krueger, was grilled on the Vieques training by the "Dia Uno" newspaper. The Texan responded that unless it is proven that the bombing exercises damage nearby residents’ health -- as protesters have claimed -- the training should continue. Politics was far from contestants’ minds on Thursday, however, as they struggled through a daylong rehearsal to learn the poses and places hey would take the following night. "We get only about five hours of sleep a night here, which on a normal day would be all right, but they’re working us so hard that we’re all exhausted," said Ms. Krueger, before admirers pulled her aside for another photo. |  Miss USA, Kandace Krueger
Photo by Miss Universe Inc. |
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Waiting while technicians labored for an excessively long time over the lighting on Miss El Salvador, Grace Zabaneh, Venezuela’s Ms. Ekvall plunked herself down on the set’s elaborate staircase, resting on her elbows. As others sat in the audience awaiting their turns on stage, Miss Croatia, Maja Cecic-Vidos, gave Miss Israel, Ilanit Levy, a shoulder massage -- until Ms. Levy dragged her friend Kateao Nehua-Jackson, Miss New Zealand, aside for a quick smoke. Pageant regulars, meanwhile, grumbled about the planning for this year’s event, with several saying it was the most poorly organized in recent memory. Indeed, information provided has been scattered and often contradictory, and the long distances between locations -- it is about a 90-minute drive from the girls’ hotel to the coliseum, for example -- have made coordination and timing difficult. In contrast to previous years, the media has been given precious little time with the contestants, and one journalist nearly came to blows with pageant organizers when the press was hustled out of one of the rare interview sessions on Wednesday after just 20 minutes. Outside the coliseum, however, none of the pressures and tensions are evident. Ms. Morillos has a big smile on her face as she clutches the four rehearsal tickets she has bought for her family. "We’re going to win, of course," she says, referring to the local favorite, Ms. Quinones. "And enjoy your stay in Puerto Rico!" Michael Arnold is a veteran international reporter based in New York.
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