Latest Picture of Minorka Mercado

Beauty in Pageants made a blog entry about Minorka Mercado, 1994 Miss Universe 2nd runner-up, when this blog was just two months old. Recent news about her is very scarce. But we are happy to find another picture of her. Here she is.

Do you see her resemblance to the current Miss Universe Stefania Fernandez who also from her country?

Here is Minorka during the 1994 Miss Universe in Manila.

How did the long gowns of Dayana Mendoza and Stefania Fernandez influence other countries like Wales and Poland?

I was inspired by the turn out of comments on this post I have written about the identical gowns of Miss Philippines and Miss Venezuela during the Miss Universe 2008 in Vietnam. The similarity is more on the cuts of the gowns.

Because of this post, I have realized how strong Venezuela is in influencing other countries when it comes to pageantry. The long gowns of Dayana Mendoza and Stefania Fernandez, the back-to-back Miss Universe winners from Venezuela for 2008 and 2009, have been the inspirations of other countries. Poland and Wales (United Kingdom) copied the designs of the gowns for their representatives to Miss World and Miss Earth respectively.

Although this act of copying designs is a fashion crime, I am more curious to know the feelings or reactions of the girls who were forced to wear these gowns. Did they wear it with pride and confidence? Did it affect their performances?

For comparison, the next two pictures are Dayana Mendoza (first) in her yellow gown and Stefania fernandez (second) in her red gown.

Now, here is Miss Wales Dominique Dryer during the preliminary evening gown competition of Miss Earth 2009 in Manila. The gown is exactly the same with Dayana's gown except that she changed the color to pink.

On the other hand, Miss Poland Anna Jamróz paraded in Miss World 2009 with a gown which was obviously a fusion of the gowns of Dayana and Stefania. The upper part of the gown is patterned from Dayana's while the lower part is copied from Stefania's.

The problem on the thighs of Stefania Fernandez, Miss Universe 2009

The latest picture of Miss Universe 2009 Stefania Fernandez of Venezuela, together with Miss USA 2009 Kirsten Dalton and Miss Teen USA 2009 Stormi Henley, in her swimsuit is baffling some pageant fans.

These fans are referring to the thighs of Stefania which are showing serious discolorations. If you have seen these photos and tried comparing her legs with those of the two American beauties, Stefania's thighs have really a different tone or texture. Refer to the pictures and see it for yourselves.

One would think that if these photos are official pictures released by the Miss Universe Organization, they would have cleaned her legs with the aid of a photoshop. Or is there really something serious in Stefania's thighs that even the magic of photoshop can no longer do something?

Someone suggested that probably her skin texture is so fine and thin that we already see flesh. She's thin skinned and the veins are showing through.

Another fan added that probably the lighting in the photographs only made it worse. He claimed he had seen a picture of the 6th Miss Universe winner from Venezuela during the 2009 Miss Universe pageant in Bahamas with the same discolorations on her legs.

This will remain a mystery but one thing is for sure, the thighs of Miss Universe 2009 are weird.

Perla Beltran, Miss Mexico World, is NOT a goddess!

Ada Aimee de la Cruz, Miss Dominican Republic 2009, is not alone in her current fight against gaining extra weight after her international pageant because Perla Beltran of Mexico who competed in Miss World 2009 is also in the same dilemma.

I posted Ada's "healthy" pictures in this post and it is Perla's turn to be scrutinized.

But I observed one thing. What do Perla and Ada have in common? Well, aside from gaining weight, both of them finished 1st runner-up in their respective international pageants.

Perla was the runner-up of Kaiana Aldorino of Gibraltar, Miss World 2009, and Ada was also the runner-up of Stefania Fernandez of Venezuela, Miss Universe 2009.

Is this their way to protest their losses or is this a result of their frustrations?

Perla Beltran was highly favored by pageant fans all over the world to win the crown during the Miss World pageant in South Africa last month. Some fans even labeled her a goddess of beauty.

But in these pictures taken in one of her modeling assignments, Perla can no longer be called a goddess. Obviously, fats are visible in her hips and thighs. The body is showing no more curves. Not only that, her styling made her look old.

What happened to Ada Aimee de la Cruz, Miss Dominican Republic Universe?

Ada Aimee de la Cruz who represented Dominican Republic in Miss World 2007 and Miss Universe 2009 was the envy of many girls around the globe because of her sexy body. She proved the whole world that she had the best body when she won the title of Miss World 2007 Beach Beauty in Sanya, China. She made the Top 15 of the said pageant.


Also in Miss Universe in August last year in Bahamas, she cemented her reputation as one of the sexiest when she ended a runner-up of the eventual winner, Stefania Fernandez of Venezuela.

But five months after the pageant, Ada is now a picture of a different woman. She obviously gained weight. She lost her sexiness.

Most beauty queens gain weight after their reign especially when there are no major international pageant crowns on their heads. This is because they are not pressured.

This is Miss Dominican Republic 2009 now.

Also read this post on Perla Beltran, Miss World 2009 1st runner-up from Mexico, who is obviously following Ada's footstep. The Mexican beauty queen is also gaining weight.

Miss Universe Stefania Fernandez's new hairtsyle

Miss Universe 2009 Stefania Fernandez of Venezuela decided to cut her hair. She was seen in Paris, together with Miss USA 2009 Kristen Dalton, with her shorter hair. What can I say? The new hairstyle perfectly suits her beauty. She now looks more beautiful and younger to me. Look at her in that picture above right before she was crowned as Miss Universe in Bahamas and compared her looks with this picture below.

Voila! She is definitely more stunning now. Agree? Oh, well, I just love her more now. And because of this, I am not going to complain anymore why Venezuela had a back-to-back victory. As days pass by, Stefania is winning my heart.

Beauty In Pageants is Back

Contestants of Miss Earth 2009 pageant during the filming at the famous world-class Boracay in the Philippines. The new Miss Earth winner will be crowned on Sunday, 22 November 2009, by Miss Philippines Karla Paula Henry.

Beauty In Pageants has not been updated for 3 months and 9 days to be exact. The last blog entry we have posted was on 12 August by Kuh Chara, at the heights of the 2009 Miss Universe pageant in Bahamas which was won by Miss Venezuela Stefania Fernandez.

Now, that I am back with my favourite hobby and that is blogging on beauty pageants, I am very happy to tell everyone that I missed you all. It was actually almost six months that I never posted anything in my blog because of the accident I was involved with.

And, I also would like to thank everyone for the support you have given on this site. Some of you remained regular visitors despite of having no fresh updates from us for more than 3 months. Kuh had to leave blogging for more important things and I don't know if he's coming back. I can't tell. For the benefit of my new readers, it was Kuh who continued writing on this blog for almost 3 months when I can't do it because of the accident.

It's a good thing I am over with my ordeal - hospital and jail. So, now I can concentrate on bringing you up the latest news, gossips and comments about the latest beauty pageants on earth. I will try to introduce some changes in my site for the next few days and hopefully, everyone would still remain loyal. I owe to all of you the success of this blog.

I just want to tell everyone about this one big opportunity I missed for a lifetime -bigtime!

I was surprised to learn that the more than hundred delegates of the Miss World 2009 pageant visited Abu Dhabi for a fashion show. They were in the capital of United Arab Emirates for 3 days, I guess. They left the country for South Africa on 14th November. Here's the most depressing part of the story. I was released out from jail (because of the accident)of Dubai on 15th November. I missed the chance of covering the event. As a beauty pageant fanatic, I should have given you personal updates and tidbits about the Miss World 2009 pageant here if only I was released earlier. Sigh!

Anyways, I am excited about the upcoming Miss Earth 2009 pageant to be held at the famous Boracay Beach in the Philippines on November 22nd and the Miss International 2009 pageant in China on November 29th. Unfortunately, I can't give you my predictions on who will most likely penetrates the Final Top 15 or Top 18 because I have little information about the ladies. I am hoping I can do this with Miss World 2009.

So, stay tuned.

Miss USA Kristen Dalton Bitches Misses Venezuela and Netherlands

Miss USA Kristen Dalton is getting negative publicities in some message boards for beauty pageants lately. Some fans have been convinced that the  lady who beat Carrie Prejean, the better choice, is such a bitch. Kirsten apparently insulted Miss Netherlands Avalon Chanel-Weyzig and Miss Venezuela Stefan Fernandez.

Last few days, a rumour was circulated that during the welcome party at the Balmoral Club, Miss USA made rude remarks about the dress of Stefania. Miss Venezuela learned about the remarks afterwards but she just ignored it. Some of the girls were happy for Stefania for not stooping down on the level of Kristen.

The source of this news was one of the girls from Central America who was sharing a table with Kristen. She relayed the incident to her mentors and it was leaked then in the forums.

Just today, we got another incident involving Kristen and this time with Miss Netherlands Avalon Chanel-Weyzig.

Avalon made a post in her twitter account. The half Indonesian beauty queen said that Miss USA approached her.

"Miss USA came to meet me and the first thing she said very spontanious, from the Netherlands, wow, so you smoke weeds??? LOL only tourists do!" That's the unedited post from Avalon.

On the other hand, Miss Australia rachael Finch revealed that Kristen talks in her sleep.

Gowns of Venezuela and Puerto Rico are Imitations from Ellie Saab

Puerto Ricans and Venezuelans look like having a word war in pageant-related message boards regarding their delegates' long gowns. Both parties are claiming, with evidence of course, that the gowns of both Stefania Fernandez of Venezuela and Mayra Matos of Puerto Rico are second rate copycat of Ellie Saab's, a famous designer, gowns.

I guess the Puerto Ricans first discovered the Ellie Saab gown in which Venezuela patterned their dress. To extract a vengeance, the Venezuelans tried so hard to research about the gown of Mayra. Fortunately, they were able to uncover also a gown which is so similar with Mayra's.

The funny thing in this exchange of words is that both gowns were copied from works of one famous designer.

Puerto Rico and Venezuela are one of the countries who take pageant seriously. Both have five Miss Universe winners in their caps.

Below are pictures of Miss Venezuela Stefania Fernandez's gown and the original gown. I took this from a Puerto Rican message board.

Below is Miss Puerto Rico's long gown and the original Ellie Saab gown. This was taken from a Venezuelan forum.

Miss Venezuela Stefania Fernandez is not mingling with Latin American candidates?

Is it true that Miss Venezuela Stefania Fernandez is not mingling with the Latin American girls? They say Stefania prefers to mix with the European candidates. Allegedly, she is avoiding the Latinas.

If this is true, probably Stefania would like to identify herself with her other heritage. She is a mix of Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and Venezuelan.

I have a feeling that Venezuela might not make it to the Top 15 this year just like in 2004 when Ana Karina Anez Delgado broke the 20-year winning streak of her country and in 2006 when Jictzad Nacarid Viña Carreño failed to advance. But the sash factor might work well on her also.

I've said that Stefania might not advance because I am not yet impressed with her photos and interview.

Her interview at the Miss Universe official website is so disappointing. She moves her hands too much which can distract the judges. There are also photos of her in which she looks not beautiful although most of them are stunning especially in her swimsuit picture. Her gown is also too busy. The design is too much to appreciate.

But if she choose to change her gown at the preliminary, I might be proven wrong.