Alicia Machado and Tara Conner nearly lost their crowns after winning the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, and Miss USA and Miss Teen USA contestants Carrie Prejean and Lauren Caitlin Upton delivered memorable answers during the interview segments.
This year's Miss USA pageant has already been embroiled in controversy. Original broadcastersNBC and Univision both canceled plans to air the contest and cut all business ties with Miss Universe Organization co-owner Donald Trump following his controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants in his June 16 presidential campaign announcement. Cable network Reelz picked up the pageant on July 2, and will broadcast it live from Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Sunday night, but the pageant also lost all of its original co-hosts (Thomas Roberts, Cheryl Burke, Jeannie Mai, Roselyn Sanchez and Cristian de la Fuente).
This year's Trump controversy is far from the first scandal faced by the pageant and its winners. 2006 Miss USA winner Tara Conner and 1996 Miss Universe winner Alicia Machadoboth made headlines after the pageant, with Conner nearly losing her crown following reports of hard partying and Machado gaining 42 pounds in less than a year, leading organizers to threaten to revoke her title if she didn't slim down. And during the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants, contestants Carrie Prejean and Lauren Caitlin Upton delivered memorably controversial answers to questions during the interview segment.
Ahead of Sunday night's pageant, take a look back at some of the best-known controversies faced by the Miss USA, Miss Universe and Miss Teen USA pageants and their winners, presented in chronological order.
1957 Miss USA winner Leona Gage's secret marriage: One day after Leona Gage won the 1957 Miss USA pageant, officials stripped her of the title after they learned that she was married (a violation of contest rules) with two children and was 18 years old, not 21 as she had claimed. “I’m glad it’s over with now,” Gage said at the time. “I knew the Miss Universe rules forbade a married girl from entering the contest, but I thought I had a chance. I took it and lost.” Runner-up Miss Utah took her place. Gage appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show just days later, where she explained that she had entered the contest because she needed the money. Gage, who died of heart failure in 2010, went on to pursue an acting career and ultimately had six failed marriages and lost custody of her five children.
0 comments:
Post a Comment