UPDATE: Miss Puerto Rico, Zuleyka Rivera, is the new Miss Universe!
Miss Universe 2006 will be held on July 23 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, brought to you by the Trump Organization. As part of the production team for the show, periodically during the next two weeks I will be staying at the Wilshire Grand, the host hotel for this pageant, and the venue for all of the events leading up to the day of the live telecast. And I will post a follow-up report once the event is over and a winner is crowned.
Without listening to their comments/responses to the questions, judging their talent, or seeing them in their swimsuits, I have pre-selected my top ten as shown above for this annual contest. As you can see, I believe Miss Turkey, Ceyla Kirazli, has a pretty good shot at lasting through to the latter rounds. Miss Nicaragua, Miss Norway, and Miss Venezuela make up the rest of my baker's dozen. By the way, Turkey was represented twice in last year's Miss Universe, by Miss Turkey, Dilek Aksoy, and Miss Germany, Asli Bayram.
Missosology, a website specializing in analyzing beauty pageants, is running an online poll for its 'people's choice' picks. (Scroll to the bottom right side of the page.) So far, Miss Turkey is lagging far behind the leaders at 30th place or so. I'd encourage you to vote for your favorite, or, if you feel as I do, for Miss Turkey.
As of July 23, Miss Turkey was in first place with more than 25,000 votes.
Is the Turkish press a week late in reporting the 'online poll' story? And while this particular poll clearly has no bearing on the outcome, why would they suggest otherwise? Did they recently pull the article out after my presentation of the facts? See my recent post about 'Turkish Flavor Journalism.'
For more information about this pageant, you may visit the official Miss Universe site. Yet another site, Global Beauties, also provides in-depth coverage. Enjoy the show on NBC on the 23rd.
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