# I Say, I Say, This Here Beauty Pageant Is Rigged!

An episode of [Ridiculous Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1608230191), 30 Apr 2024, 1 h 00 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/0b4bcc39-7ba2-453f-aaac-ae510011dd80/7d746af5-8d24-4713-bda5-b161013b131c/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=3a4c50f5-ff69-4807-aa26-ae510011dd8e

For many folks, beauty pageants feel like part of a bygone era of 'big hair, don't care' femininity. But Zaron is here to set you straight on that score. Beauty pageants are still very much a thing... and they've got crime a-plenty! Allegations of bribery and hijinks! And also, Steve Harvey! So you know it's bound to get loose. This week it's a bubbly bevy of beauty pageant scandals! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
[0:03] Speaker 2: Elizabeth does Zaren Burnette. So good to see you, my friend.
[0:07] Speaker 2: How are you being so good?
[0:08] Speaker 3: To see me too? I am feeling so much better
[0:11] Speaker 3: than I have.
[0:12] Speaker 2: You sound good? Do you sound like you feel better?
[0:14] Speaker 3: Yeah? I think I might have for the rest of
[0:16] Speaker 3: my life a slight graveliness. But hey, I can make
[0:21] Speaker 3: it work. I think I've recovered. I can breathe. So anyway,
[0:26] Speaker 3: enough about me.
[0:27] Speaker 2: Yes, how are you well? I'm find fine. Yeah, it
[0:30] Speaker 2: doesn't matter, you know, it's ridiculous, I do what?
[0:33] Speaker 3: Oh my goodness. Okay, so this We've heard a lot
[0:38] Speaker 3: about this one. This has been forwarded to me through
[0:41] Speaker 3: our various Oh no, no, no, I just have a really
[0:44] Speaker 3: quick question for you. I'll have you ever owned a
[0:47] Speaker 3: pair of Crocs?
[0:49] Speaker 2: No? No, no, I mean nothing against people who do,
[0:52] Speaker 2: or the shoes themselves. It's just not my bag.
[0:54] Speaker 3: It's just not your thing. My nephew has a sign
[0:58] Speaker 3: that he wrote for his door and that says no
[1:02] Speaker 3: shoes or crocs allowed, my boy. So they're not really
[1:07] Speaker 3: technically shoes the New Verse. Yeah, he's four rules anyway,
[1:14] Speaker 3: So crocs. This is a mash up, I know, And
[1:18] Speaker 3: like I said, the interns have been forwarded me from
[1:21] Speaker 3: every method of communication, so I can't nail it down
[1:24] Speaker 3: to who found this.
[1:26] Speaker 2: First they tell you about how I like mean mug
[1:29] Speaker 2: them in the break room. I'm like, yeah, huh, I
[1:31] Speaker 2: know what you do.
[1:32] Speaker 3: You're trying to log in and erase all that stuff.
[1:35] Speaker 3: So they told they told me about this. People are
[1:39] Speaker 3: losing it. It's Crocs have joined forces with Pringles, and
[1:45] Speaker 3: it says, I'll read the copy of come Together for
[1:47] Speaker 3: a fun collection that satisfies every flavor of fashion. So
[1:52] Speaker 3: they're the classic clog but they're like shiny, like glossy,
[1:56] Speaker 3: and they're mismatched. So one pair has read an orange
[2:00] Speaker 3: and the other has green and blue, like different colors.
[2:03] Speaker 3: And it says, so you don't have to choose between
[2:05] Speaker 3: your favorite flavors. That heel strap thing that you give
[2:08] Speaker 3: a converto strap that go back and forth backstrap action,
[2:11] Speaker 3: it's the shape of that the Pringles dude's mustache.
[2:16] Speaker 2: Oh yeah right.
[2:18] Speaker 3: And then it also it comes with like the what
[2:20] Speaker 3: they call gibbets charms. That's stuff that people stick in
[2:23] Speaker 3: the shoes. I've seen ones where it's like looks like
[2:26] Speaker 3: toes coming out. That's the only thing I indoors and
[2:29] Speaker 3: so anyway, glossy surface. They're incredibly light and fun to wear.
[2:33] Speaker 3: They say seventy dollars on the Croc's website.
[2:36] Speaker 2: I don't know how much Crocks normally cost.
[2:38] Speaker 3: I don't know either, but I've fifty dollars I suppose, so,
[2:42] Speaker 3: I mean it's fifty bucks is what it looks like
[2:46] Speaker 3: for just a standard. But then it gets worse.
[2:49] Speaker 2: Sarin, Oh, really, I'm shocked.
[2:52] Speaker 3: Because they came up with something else promising before the website.
[2:55] Speaker 3: When I tried to look at on the Croc's website,
[2:56] Speaker 3: it doesn't It's not there anymore. I think it either
[2:59] Speaker 3: got banned or sold out.
[3:00] Speaker 2: They realized they made boots like croc boots. Yeah, how
[3:04] Speaker 2: does it even work? Do they have the backstrap?
[3:06] Speaker 3: No, they're just boots, and so it says with Pringles
[3:11] Speaker 3: and Crocs Classic Crush Boot purchase. I don't know if
[3:15] Speaker 3: these are supposed to be used in crush fetish videos.
[3:19] Speaker 3: Buyers will also be eligible to receive Crocktail Party Flavor,
[3:23] Speaker 3: which is a new Pringles flavor which is PS watermelon
[3:27] Speaker 3: chili lime flavor. I don't know what happened there, but
[3:30] Speaker 3: it's a boot, right, Like, it's a Crocs material boot
[3:33] Speaker 3: that must get so sweaty because it doesn't have the
[3:37] Speaker 3: boot doesn't have the airholes. And then it comes with
[3:39] Speaker 3: a holster in the side, like a koozie on the
[3:41] Speaker 3: side that you slip the Pringles cannon like.
[3:42] Speaker 2: An ankle holster on the outside of it looks.
[3:45] Speaker 3: It looks like a home arrest ankle monitor, but you
[3:48] Speaker 3: put a Pringles can in it. Anyway, I know this
[3:51] Speaker 3: is going on way too long, but they got like
[3:53] Speaker 3: some of the biggest names really celebrity hood.
[3:57] Speaker 2: Really name a big name Elizabeth.
[4:00] Speaker 3: Ashley Simpson who's apparently married to some dude named Evan Ross.
[4:05] Speaker 2: I don't know who he is, ross boy.
[4:07] Speaker 3: And you know, they did like a sponsored content on
[4:11] Speaker 3: their Instagram of them wearing these absolutely hideous.
[4:15] Speaker 2: Boots, Like, how are these okay?
[4:17] Speaker 3: Sarah?
[4:18] Speaker 2: It's ridiculous, Elizabeth. You want I'll flip it around. You
[4:20] Speaker 2: want to know what my favorite pringles mashup is?
[4:23] Speaker 4: Yeah?
[4:23] Speaker 3: What's that?
[4:24] Speaker 2: The guy who invented it had them bury him in
[4:26] Speaker 2: a Pringles can. He's like, yeah, I turned that into
[4:28] Speaker 2: my cast yet, so he has cremated put in the can.
[4:31] Speaker 2: They're like, let's do it.
[4:32] Speaker 3: I like it.
[4:32] Speaker 2: That's a mashup. That is all right, Well, you know
[4:34] Speaker 2: what's also death and pringles. What I'm going to tell
[4:38] Speaker 2: you today involves your close personal friend Steve Harvey, but
[4:42] Speaker 2: also Donald Trump and Vanessa Williams.
[4:46] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[4:46] Speaker 2: Can you guess what all three of them happened? I
[4:48] Speaker 2: don't know the answer. Elizabeth beauty pageant scandals. Oh no,
[4:53] Speaker 2: some were criminal, all of them were ridiculous. This is
[5:17] Speaker 2: ridiculous crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers. Heice
[5:21] Speaker 2: and cons. It's always ninety nine percent orter free and ridiculous.
[5:27] Speaker 2: See signor Oh Elizabeth beauty pageants. Yeah they're wild right.
[5:32] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I kind of guess that, but I had
[5:34] Speaker 2: no idea. So what do you remember the twenty fifteen
[5:38] Speaker 2: Miss Universe pageant?
[5:40] Speaker 3: Is that the one when the wrong one got announced?
[5:42] Speaker 3: It was a La La Land situation.
[5:44] Speaker 2: I'll give you a hint.
[5:45] Speaker 3: Okay, black Steve Harvey.
[5:47] Speaker 2: Yes, your close personal friend Steve Harvey was the host
[5:50] Speaker 2: of the twenty fifteen Miss Universe pageant.
[5:52] Speaker 3: So the Steve Harvey thing with me is twofold. I
[5:54] Speaker 3: think I've mentioned on here that my trivia team is
[5:57] Speaker 3: Steve Harvey Oswald. Yes. And then also my brother does
[6:02] Speaker 3: a really good impression of Steve Harvey saying OK. And
[6:06] Speaker 3: then I do an impression of my brother doing the impression, and.
[6:09] Speaker 2: Then I do an impression of you doing an impression
[6:11] Speaker 2: of your brother doing an impression of Steve Harvey.
[6:12] Speaker 3: And then sometimes producer Dave does he.
[6:14] Speaker 2: Impression it's a game metallic phone.
[6:16] Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's it's there are a lot of impressions
[6:19] Speaker 3: going around.
[6:19] Speaker 2: Well, your close personal friend Steve Harris, he was supposed
[6:22] Speaker 2: to announce the winner, right and you were right there
[6:25] Speaker 2: with a la la land mix up. He proclaimed it
[6:27] Speaker 2: was Miss Columbia Ariadna Gutierrez right now, it was not,
[6:32] Speaker 2: because it doesn't matter. He walks off the stage. Producers
[6:35] Speaker 2: come up to him tell him he flubbed the call.
[6:38] Speaker 2: So Steve Harvey right, what does he do? He marches
[6:40] Speaker 2: his mustache right back out on him in the giant suit,
[6:43] Speaker 2: and he says, I have to apologize, and then he
[6:45] Speaker 2: went silent for a long awkward moment. Standing there. People
[6:49] Speaker 2: are to look at Adham like, what's he apologize for?
[6:51] Speaker 2: What happened? Backstage, Steve, He's like, and then the first
[6:55] Speaker 2: runner up is Miss Columbia, Miss Philippines, take your first
[6:58] Speaker 2: walk as Miss You, And so he introduces the actual winner.
[7:02] Speaker 2: The actual winner was Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wertzbock. Now
[7:07] Speaker 2: the reaction to Steve Harvey's primetime mistake, Elizabeth, you remember
[7:10] Speaker 2: it laughably outside right, Yeah, it was twenty fifteen, a
[7:13] Speaker 2: simpler time.
[7:15] Speaker 3: Oh man, it really was.
[7:16] Speaker 2: You can believe it now. One law firm in Colombia
[7:19] Speaker 2: went so far as to threaten to file a lawsuit
[7:22] Speaker 2: against the Miss Universe pageant. According to Miami Herald, they
[7:25] Speaker 2: claimed that, quote, the crown is an acquired right. They
[7:28] Speaker 2: cannot be taken away from us. It was like a flag.
[7:31] Speaker 3: Plantic I you know what, file the lawsuits for it.
[7:38] Speaker 2: Yeah. Now they took beauty pageants pretty seriously in Columbia, Elizabeth.
[7:42] Speaker 2: But more on that later. For now, back to your
[7:44] Speaker 2: close personal friend Steve Harvey. Yeah, Now here's how he
[7:47] Speaker 2: recalled how it went down. Here's the situation. Now, when
[7:50] Speaker 2: the mistakes was made, when I said the wrong woman's name,
[7:52] Speaker 2: I can only give information I had no one knows,
[7:55] Speaker 2: and that information is not in the teleprompter, because you've
[7:57] Speaker 2: got two women standing there. I read what was on
[8:00] Speaker 2: the teleprompter. Then I read what was on the card,
[8:02] Speaker 2: the difference being on the card it said first runner up.
[8:06] Speaker 2: Now what happened? How how it got like that, how
[8:08] Speaker 2: it was done, how it was worked on? That's neither
[8:11] Speaker 2: here nor there. I said the name that was on
[8:13] Speaker 2: the card. When I walked off, everything was cool, and
[8:15] Speaker 2: then after that all hell broke loose.
[8:18] Speaker 3: Wait, let me nobody knows. I think everybody knows. You
[8:20] Speaker 3: didn't read, he says, just on the card, I know.
[8:24] Speaker 2: Steve his thumb covered the answer.
[8:27] Speaker 3: Oh, you're kidding me.
[8:28] Speaker 2: There was two answers high and one answer low, and
[8:31] Speaker 2: he puts his dear one. Six years after the event,
[8:36] Speaker 2: Steve Harvey was still talking about it. He told a
[8:38] Speaker 2: podcast that it was the worst week of my life,
[8:40] Speaker 2: the worst week of This man used to be homeless,
[8:43] Speaker 2: living in a car before he made it big as
[8:45] Speaker 2: a comedian. Say yeah, worst.
[8:47] Speaker 3: I'll take that as the worst week of a life.
[8:49] Speaker 3: If you can say that, all.
[8:50] Speaker 2: Right, host a family feud. He also said it was
[8:54] Speaker 2: a painful night there dog. Oh god, I don't know
[8:57] Speaker 2: how the pain I was in I didn't know how
[8:59] Speaker 2: bad the mistake was, so it just lasted and lasted,
[9:02] Speaker 2: and as he recalled, I took my stupid back out there.
[9:06] Speaker 2: I should have let them announce it the next day
[9:08] Speaker 2: in the newspaper. I wouldn't have caught none of that.
[9:10] Speaker 2: Hell I caught Wait what? Yeah, He's like, I shouldn't
[9:13] Speaker 2: have gone exactly.
[9:15] Speaker 3: Oh my god, what.
[9:16] Speaker 2: Kind of hell did he catch? Elizabeth? Great question, Elizabeth.
[9:20] Speaker 2: Steve Harvey received a deluge of harassment from people all
[9:23] Speaker 2: around the world because Miss Universe has contestants from all
[9:26] Speaker 2: the countries, right.
[9:27] Speaker 3: So did you get in on that?
[9:29] Speaker 2: No? And I just have his phone number, so I
[9:31] Speaker 2: just texted him. I don't bother.
[9:33] Speaker 3: You're like, I'm just disappointed, and come on, man, Reno,
[9:37] Speaker 3: what happened?
[9:38] Speaker 2: Now? People's getting emails, tweets, people posted on all the
[9:42] Speaker 2: social media's. They're also writing him in handwritten obscene letters
[9:47] Speaker 2: in any different languages.
[9:48] Speaker 3: Let's get into that. Let's sending people handwritten I.
[9:52] Speaker 2: Want to receive them, you want to send them, I
[9:54] Speaker 2: want to receive them. So the funniest part is how
[9:57] Speaker 2: the same thing happened to Steve Harvey twice. So he
[10:00] Speaker 2: goes back he's still the host. Twenty nineteen, he makes
[10:03] Speaker 2: the same blunder.
[10:04] Speaker 3: Again again, and then people were tired of it. That's
[10:06] Speaker 3: why we didn't hear about it.
[10:07] Speaker 2: Oh no, wait, it just wasn't as fresh. Yeah, but
[10:09] Speaker 2: again it involved the contestant, Miss Philippines. Don't know what
[10:13] Speaker 2: it is with her, but Steve Harvey's on stage a
[10:15] Speaker 2: photo Miss Philippines is shown as if prompted, Steve Harvey declares,
[10:19] Speaker 2: this is it right here now he announces the winner,
[10:22] Speaker 2: who was a contestant standing beside him, but was clearly
[10:24] Speaker 2: not the same woman who's just shown on the screen.
[10:27] Speaker 2: Steve Harvey tells the crowd at the Miss Universe pageant,
[10:29] Speaker 2: let me let me explain something to you. I was
[10:31] Speaker 2: just reading that in the teleprompter. Y'all gotta quit doing
[10:34] Speaker 2: this to me. I can read right now. They are
[10:36] Speaker 2: trying to fix it. Now. See this is what they
[10:39] Speaker 2: did to me back in twenty fifteen, played me short
[10:41] Speaker 2: like that happened, like a little Steve Harvey moment.
[10:46] Speaker 3: It's one of those if you have to say, I
[10:47] Speaker 3: can read, It's like, I'm not crazy. You've reached the.
[10:50] Speaker 2: Point, and you know he's like he's kind of a
[10:53] Speaker 2: heard on his assistant. There's stories about him. Yeah, so
[10:56] Speaker 2: imagine that this happened twice. Though things all get sorted out.
[11:01] Speaker 2: You can't keep a king of comedy down from Elizabeth.
[11:04] Speaker 2: He's a kang. So this brings us to our next
[11:07] Speaker 2: big name in pageants, Donald Trump. From nineteen ninety six
[11:11] Speaker 2: to twenty fifteen, Donald Trump owned the Miss USA pageant,
[11:15] Speaker 2: also the Miss Teen USA contestant, and their sister pageant,
[11:18] Speaker 2: Miss Universe. He saw the pageants just before he ran
[11:21] Speaker 2: for president. Now, if you're like me, Elizabeth, you may
[11:24] Speaker 2: not know about the pageant taxonomy. I did not. Yeah,
[11:28] Speaker 2: there's Miss America, Miss USA, and Miss Universe. Two of
[11:31] Speaker 2: these are related. Miss USA is a sister pageant to
[11:33] Speaker 2: Miss Universe. As I just said, the winner of the
[11:35] Speaker 2: Miss USA beauty pageant goes on to compete for Miss Universe.
[11:39] Speaker 2: So Miss USA competes against Missus Columbia or Miss Missus,
[11:43] Speaker 2: Miss Columbia, Miss Thailand, Miss Yo Argantina.
[11:46] Speaker 3: When Steve Harvey messed up in twenty fifteen, that was
[11:48] Speaker 3: Donald Trump's pageant. Interesting.
[11:51] Speaker 2: Yeah, so I know, like it's weird. You can go
[11:55] Speaker 2: from like basically regional Miss USA to Miss Universe. There's
[12:00] Speaker 2: no missus World right or Miss North America. They kind
[12:04] Speaker 2: of skipped like the whole global thing. But I guess Miss.
[12:06] Speaker 3: World's little hemisphere underwhelming.
[12:08] Speaker 2: Maybe it sounds like kind of a WWE title, like
[12:10] Speaker 2: oh we got Miss Love. Yeah, there you go. If
[12:15] Speaker 2: you win Miss Usa, you work as a beauty ambassador, right, that's.
[12:19] Speaker 3: Your jokes, like you work as his beauty consultant alta.
[12:23] Speaker 2: The winner. Also, they received cash for their duration of
[12:25] Speaker 2: their reign, and they get a modeling portfolio, so lots
[12:28] Speaker 2: of photos taken. They receive free beauty products from all
[12:31] Speaker 2: these sponsors and companies they partner with. They get free clothes,
[12:33] Speaker 2: they get free shoes. They also receive free healthcare, so
[12:36] Speaker 2: there's one way to get healthcare in America. Win a
[12:39] Speaker 2: beauty patch, yes, so you know what. Miss USA also
[12:42] Speaker 2: used to win a free apartment in the Trump Place
[12:44] Speaker 2: apartments in New York, but the apartment was not all
[12:47] Speaker 2: hers alone, though she had to share it with Miss
[12:50] Speaker 2: teen Usa and Miss Universe. Going Trump ideas, He's gonta
[12:57] Speaker 2: three beauty queens sacks shaped up in one apart in
[13:00] Speaker 2: one of his buildings.
[13:01] Speaker 3: Oh my god, there's so much I want to say.
[13:04] Speaker 2: Anyway, we haven't talked about the actual pageant. So contestants
[13:07] Speaker 2: they get judged in various competitions. There's the interview competition
[13:10] Speaker 2: section where they're all answered to a series of questions,
[13:13] Speaker 2: judge on their answers. Also there's the swimsuit competition, and
[13:16] Speaker 2: of course the evening gown competition. Miss USA was the
[13:19] Speaker 2: second major beauty pageant. It was inspired by and a
[13:23] Speaker 2: reaction to, Miss America.
[13:24] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[13:25] Speaker 2: The first competition for women, being Miss America, starts in
[13:27] Speaker 2: nineteen twenty one, but it was a bathing beauty review.
[13:30] Speaker 2: It quickly becomes this tourist event for Atlantic city beach goers.
[13:34] Speaker 3: Oh okay, but that wasn't.
[13:36] Speaker 2: The first one. There's actually a previous Miss America. And
[13:40] Speaker 2: then the first Miss America is actually called the Fall Frolic.
[13:43] Speaker 2: It gets confusing, but here's how it works out. Let's
[13:46] Speaker 2: just focus on an example of Miss America and then
[13:48] Speaker 2: I'll sort out all the details of history. Okay, do
[13:50] Speaker 2: you know who is the most famous Miss America of
[13:52] Speaker 2: all time?
[13:53] Speaker 3: Vanessa Williams being go Baby.
[13:56] Speaker 2: That's right. Do you remember her and her scandal?
[13:58] Speaker 5: Oh?
[13:58] Speaker 2: Yeah, nineteen eighty three, Missed New York. The next year,
[14:01] Speaker 2: she wins the competition to become Miss America. Soon enough,
[14:04] Speaker 2: nude photos emerged over which were published in Penthouse. She's
[14:08] Speaker 2: subsequently stripped of her title in twenty sixteen, though Miss
[14:11] Speaker 2: America apologized to Vanessa Willis. Yeah, yeah, the very public apology.
[14:15] Speaker 2: Way to make her right, Miss America.
[14:16] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[14:17] Speaker 2: Now, since there have been other scandals and outrages, but
[14:19] Speaker 2: none so damaging was what was done to Vanessa Williams.
[14:22] Speaker 3: Yes, right, I couldn't name another Miss America exactly.
[14:24] Speaker 2: It's very difficult. I couldn't think of one off of hand.
[14:26] Speaker 2: But not.
[14:28] Speaker 3: Even with Miss USA or whatever that I have no
[14:31] Speaker 3: idea I see them advertising anything.
[14:34] Speaker 2: They're not as big as they once were. No, but
[14:36] Speaker 2: they did so Vanessa Williams. She goes on to have
[14:39] Speaker 2: this brilliant career as a singer and an actress, so
[14:41] Speaker 2: she had the last one. Good for her and love
[14:44] Speaker 2: that Miss America. Though the organization and just the words
[14:48] Speaker 2: Miss America, they've become kind of a code to tweak
[14:50] Speaker 2: and mock your girl. Lana del Rey, she has that
[14:53] Speaker 2: song Miss America Trash. It's Miss America in the parentheses. Yeah,
[14:57] Speaker 2: did you do you know that song, what is it a?
[14:59] Speaker 2: You know? And it was one of her kind of
[15:02] Speaker 2: unreleased songs. I was having a hard time pinning down
[15:04] Speaker 2: when it came out. Yeah, So anyway, that one as
[15:07] Speaker 2: if the beauty pageant could feel, you know, derision and
[15:09] Speaker 2: how ridiculous it was. In twenty eighteen, Miss America introduced
[15:12] Speaker 2: Miss America two point zero. The idea was to quote
[15:15] Speaker 2: evolve Miss American in this cultural revolution. That cultural revolution was,
[15:19] Speaker 2: of course, the movement to me too. Oh yeah. In
[15:23] Speaker 2: reaction to this, gonna Miss America is gonna get right.
[15:26] Speaker 2: So one big change beauty contestants for Miss America would
[15:29] Speaker 2: no longer be judged on their physical appearance. It would
[15:31] Speaker 2: no longer feature a swimsuit competition. And that went about
[15:34] Speaker 2: how you would imagine, because in twenty twenty three Miss
[15:37] Speaker 2: America reverse course, they had new leadership, new folks were like, hey,
[15:41] Speaker 2: you know what, forget everything we said before. Miss America
[15:44] Speaker 2: is going back to swimsuits, baby whoo. So that seems
[15:48] Speaker 2: kind of common for a sudden social changes to traditions
[15:51] Speaker 2: and in response to outrage like it, like the from
[15:53] Speaker 2: the Bonfire of the Vanities to Miss America. We've seen
[15:55] Speaker 2: this over and over again. It remains true. The change
[15:58] Speaker 2: only lost as long as the anger and the passion
[16:00] Speaker 2: are aroused. Anyway, soon as the shouting cools, it's back
[16:02] Speaker 2: to boobs and profits.
[16:03] Speaker 3: Right.
[16:04] Speaker 2: So now, I'm not here to make fun of beauty pageants, Elizabeth,
[16:07] Speaker 2: that'd be too easy. That's my job. I've researched them.
[16:10] Speaker 2: I've got all this, Ammo. But you stay hot, Let's
[16:13] Speaker 2: take a break and we get back. We're going to
[16:15] Speaker 2: get into it, all right, Elizabeth zaren So. As I
[16:37] Speaker 2: told you, I'm doing all this research because I don't
[16:39] Speaker 2: know the world of beauty pageants at all.
[16:41] Speaker 3: All I know about beauty pageants is that Toddlers and
[16:45] Speaker 3: TR's TV show.
[16:46] Speaker 2: Oh my god, that was gonna mention.
[16:48] Speaker 3: Really, I mean, I'm saying, like, let's pretend I watched TV.
[16:52] Speaker 2: Of course, of course you don't watch TV, but.
[16:54] Speaker 3: You did, you would watch That would be my point
[16:56] Speaker 3: of reference.
[16:58] Speaker 2: Do you know they like you? Probably well know or
[17:00] Speaker 2: maybe don't. They have three year olds competing on this show.
[17:04] Speaker 3: With like fake teeth.
[17:05] Speaker 2: Yes, there was one episode there's a three year old
[17:07] Speaker 2: who was dulled up as a sex worker, specifically Julia
[17:10] Speaker 2: Roberts Street look pretty woman. Yeah with the fish. Yeah, everything.
[17:16] Speaker 2: Now I've seen the images. At all I can say
[17:18] Speaker 2: is wow, parents, Wow, come on now, So you're familiar.
[17:22] Speaker 3: With this show, familiar with the show Cupcake hands, the
[17:25] Speaker 3: whole business.
[17:26] Speaker 2: Oh my god, Sarah, Sarah, okay show.
[17:31] Speaker 3: Yeah, and then we walked away from reality television. I
[17:35] Speaker 3: don't like it anymore.
[17:36] Speaker 2: You guys are over. You guys should get into like
[17:39] Speaker 2: Korean sports like me. Okay, Yeah, anyway, listen, I'm gonna
[17:43] Speaker 2: make the case that beauty pageants are actually super feminist. Okay, yeah,
[17:47] Speaker 2: you're ready.
[17:48] Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm ready for anything.
[17:49] Speaker 2: Okay, I'm not actually gonna make that case, but I will.
[17:51] Speaker 2: I will repeat what other people have said in a
[17:54] Speaker 2: very convincing voice. Okay, did you know that beauty pageants,
[17:58] Speaker 2: that there were beauty pageants in America before women in
[18:01] Speaker 2: America had the right to vote.
[18:02] Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, of course, but only by months.
[18:05] Speaker 2: You know, it wasn't like like a long time. It
[18:06] Speaker 2: wasn't like eighteen twenty women are in beauty pageants. But
[18:08] Speaker 2: you could see it.
[18:09] Speaker 3: Right, I could totally see it. And you know, like
[18:11] Speaker 3: there are a lot of things too that we could
[18:12] Speaker 3: loosely call beauty prosents.
[18:14] Speaker 2: Totally, No, for real, it would be some of these
[18:16] Speaker 2: those like county fair contests, you know, like cakewalks and stuff,
[18:20] Speaker 2: essentially become beauty pateants. Anyway, first Miss America contest, the
[18:23] Speaker 2: one that I mentioned earlier, took place on February first,
[18:26] Speaker 2: nineteen nineteen. Now, the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave American women
[18:29] Speaker 2: the right to vote was passed on June fourth, nineteen nineteen.
[18:32] Speaker 3: It's like Susan B. Anthony and the gals are doing
[18:35] Speaker 3: some heavy lifting over on one side, and then we
[18:38] Speaker 3: got the other ones parading around and they're underthings.
[18:40] Speaker 2: It takes all kinds, Elizabeth two wings to flap a bird.
[18:44] Speaker 5: Right.
[18:45] Speaker 2: So the next year, the first official Miss America event
[18:48] Speaker 2: takes place, unrelated to this first one, that was the
[18:50] Speaker 2: one that the second one was called the Fall Frolic.
[18:53] Speaker 2: This one was more reasonably taking place September twenty fifth,
[18:56] Speaker 2: and it was in the tourist haven of Atlantic City.
[18:59] Speaker 2: So out from the very beginning, these pageants were seen
[19:01] Speaker 2: and treated as feminist events. I swear to goodness the
[19:05] Speaker 2: beauty pagans the definition of the day. Sure, yes, they didn't.
[19:08] Speaker 2: They couldn't have future mind didn't look back. So when
[19:10] Speaker 2: they were by their definitions.
[19:12] Speaker 3: These ladies are allowed to walk alone.
[19:14] Speaker 2: This is how they hyped it. There's reasons too, the
[19:16] Speaker 2: legitimate reasons I looked into it. Right, So, the beauty
[19:19] Speaker 2: pageants and these bathing suit competitions, that was one means
[19:22] Speaker 2: of celebrating a woman, but also they were designed to
[19:24] Speaker 2: show off the new talents that women were learning as
[19:27] Speaker 2: professional women following the First.
[19:29] Speaker 3: World War, right, walking in high heels.
[19:31] Speaker 2: Well, obviously it didn't take long for the pageants to
[19:36] Speaker 2: devolve into what we think of them as now, swimsuits
[19:38] Speaker 2: and big hair. Yeah, so women's intelligence and her skill set,
[19:41] Speaker 2: they were obviously sidelined very quickly. Over time, beauty gets
[19:44] Speaker 2: pushed as the most important value, and what had started
[19:48] Speaker 2: as this feminist exercise kind of devolves into an anti
[19:51] Speaker 2: feminist exercise between the wars. Now here's where I have
[19:54] Speaker 2: to turn it over to the competitors for a little
[19:56] Speaker 2: more insights. Okay, because what I found wall was researching
[19:58] Speaker 2: this topic is that beauty pageant contestants always point out
[20:01] Speaker 2: the sisterhood. They feel right, and they seem to legitimately
[20:05] Speaker 2: mean this right. It is, isn't that like one of
[20:08] Speaker 2: the true goals of feminism that these women feel empowered
[20:10] Speaker 2: in a sisterhood and like have each other's back, not
[20:12] Speaker 2: just like in a sense of like, oh, I have
[20:14] Speaker 2: your back in theory, but like really to have each
[20:16] Speaker 2: other's backs and like, you know.
[20:17] Speaker 3: Being there, Let's join together to court the male gaze.
[20:20] Speaker 2: Well, just create, foster and protect a sisterhood. We'll say, right, Elizabeth,
[20:24] Speaker 2: I take you to the annual Your Highness Grandmother pageant.
[20:27] Speaker 4: Your Highness Grandmother, Okay, every senior women of the Russian
[20:32] Speaker 4: speaking neighborhood of Brighton Beach ok aka Little Odessa, they
[20:36] Speaker 4: come together to compete for the title of your Highness Grandmother.
[20:39] Speaker 2: Now, starting in the nineteen seventies, immigants from the Soviet
[20:41] Speaker 2: Union they start flooding in all the different republics, right,
[20:43] Speaker 2: they start settling in Brighton Beach, So it becomes one
[20:46] Speaker 2: of the most populous enclaves, I think, the most populous
[20:49] Speaker 2: enclay of the Russian speakers outside. Yeah, they were in
[20:51] Speaker 2: the US. We'll just say right now, for this contest,
[20:54] Speaker 2: a dozen or so grandmothers they compete in the beauty pageant.
[20:57] Speaker 2: The judges are all grandfathers, so it's even stage appropriate. Yes, exactly.
[21:02] Speaker 2: That you have to be a grandfather to be a judge.
[21:03] Speaker 2: So what did these grandfather judges look for? Is one
[21:06] Speaker 2: judge put it optimism, these pursuit of happiness and very
[21:09] Speaker 2: important support from family. Okay, so yeah, Now when he
[21:12] Speaker 2: says support from family, he's talking about an insane amount
[21:15] Speaker 2: of love for the grandmothers. Like some families charter buses
[21:18] Speaker 2: so they can bring in everybody in.
[21:20] Speaker 3: The family on.
[21:22] Speaker 2: They shout and clap the gut homemade signs. Right. The
[21:25] Speaker 2: judges are like, oh, yes, we love this because, as
[21:27] Speaker 2: the guy said, and I quote, they're supposed to see
[21:30] Speaker 2: that the babushka is not an old lady in a
[21:32] Speaker 2: bathrobe preparing the lacas or kathlets that are bashka are
[21:36] Speaker 2: colorful people, full of life. Right. Oh bah.
[21:39] Speaker 6: The contests are split into two groups right over and
[21:42] Speaker 6: under seventy seven that's the divide with and so yeah,
[21:46] Speaker 6: if you're wonder Elizabeth, there's no swimsuit competition. Instead, the
[21:49] Speaker 6: beauty pageant is about, as the judge explained, the overall
[21:52] Speaker 6: beauty of the person inside the that. Yeah, so the
[21:55] Speaker 6: beauty pageant was started as a response to American culture.
[21:58] Speaker 6: So these Soviet Union people, well some of them bobbous,
[22:01] Speaker 6: have predated the original ones to get in the seventies.
[22:03] Speaker 6: They predated like you know, the revolution. So we got
[22:06] Speaker 6: multiple views, some sor some Soviet, but some older women.
[22:10] Speaker 6: They arrive and as the founder of this group, Risa
[22:13] Speaker 6: Tcherannina said, quote, my mom would watch a lot of
[22:16] Speaker 6: American TV talent, showed competitions like America's Got Talent, and said,
[22:19] Speaker 6: one day, what can we do for grandmothers? Right, so
[22:22] Speaker 6: she obviously she starts this in the nineties or I
[22:24] Speaker 6: guess the early odds. So Raisa, she created a beauty
[22:26] Speaker 6: contestant for women. Women spend about a month preparing for
[22:29] Speaker 6: this pageant. They perform three tasks in competition, just like
[22:33] Speaker 6: kind of like Miss America and the others. So one
[22:35] Speaker 6: is a performance we're in the women in the past
[22:37] Speaker 6: they've done usually like a song or dance from your youth.
[22:40] Speaker 3: Okay. When you first started telling me, I thought that
[22:42] Speaker 3: this was happening in like nineteen ten or whatever.
[22:47] Speaker 2: This is a recent yeah, okay. So now there's also
[22:49] Speaker 2: there's a costume contest where women create a traditional costume
[22:52] Speaker 2: and then finally there's an unexpected challenger test, because life's
[22:56] Speaker 2: gonna throw you unexpected challenges or tests. I guess.
[22:59] Speaker 3: Wow.
[23:00] Speaker 2: One example of a challenge was roller skating, So they
[23:02] Speaker 2: got always like older ladies out there, and that you've
[23:05] Speaker 2: kind of held dangerous for a population that's with broken Yeah,
[23:07] Speaker 2: the risk of danger, yeah, but hey, I like the spirit,
[23:10] Speaker 2: you know, ladies. Yeah, and you know I'm always gonna
[23:13] Speaker 2: be on team roller blades, so hey, get you some
[23:15] Speaker 2: skate babies. Anyway, My favorite part of all this was
[23:18] Speaker 2: when the founder Risa admitted that in past years, grandmas
[23:20] Speaker 2: have tried to bribe the judges. Yeah, like a grandma
[23:25] Speaker 2: allegedly passed some boudoir style photos to a judge to
[23:29] Speaker 2: kind of curry some favor, Like, hey, well, do you
[23:31] Speaker 2: think Alexis Risea put it laughingly? Of course they want
[23:37] Speaker 2: to bribe the judges since day first.
[23:39] Speaker 3: That's amazing, since stay first, that's what she said.
[23:42] Speaker 2: Boom. This brings us to the crime portion of today's episode. Bribery,
[23:46] Speaker 2: scandals and cheating right apparently mad common in the beauty
[23:49] Speaker 2: pageant world. I was looking around the world, Elizabeth, anywhere
[23:52] Speaker 2: I looked, I could find this from Spain to South Korea.
[23:55] Speaker 2: Was there Zimbabwe? Back to like Russia that was there,
[23:58] Speaker 2: South Korea will start. There was a ivory scandal for
[24:00] Speaker 2: Miss Korea. One of the contestants families allegedly bribed a
[24:04] Speaker 2: judge to give her daughter a leg up in the pageant. Right,
[24:06] Speaker 2: so like a mother, this mother, she gives money to
[24:08] Speaker 2: someone from the newspaper, the Korea Times. Like why the
[24:11] Speaker 2: Korea Times, Yeah, good question of Elizabeth. They are the host
[24:14] Speaker 2: of the pageant. So this newspaper puts it on investigation
[24:18] Speaker 2: is of course launched. A contestant from a prior year
[24:21] Speaker 2: confessed that one of the senior staff of the contests
[24:24] Speaker 2: told me to buy off two judges. He gave me
[24:26] Speaker 2: a bank account and told me to wire the money
[24:28] Speaker 2: to that. Oh well there you go, past winner, right
[24:32] Speaker 2: so or past contestant. A TV program they go and
[24:35] Speaker 2: they investigate the scandal. They reported on the whole thing,
[24:38] Speaker 2: and they came to the conclusion or this is what
[24:40] Speaker 2: they reported for a first place, when it was understood
[24:43] Speaker 2: that if a woman paid five hundred million wand which
[24:46] Speaker 2: is Korea's money, yeah, or about that's about four hundred
[24:48] Speaker 2: and seventy thousand US dollars. At the time, she would
[24:51] Speaker 2: be named Miss Korea oh for second place. The bribe
[24:54] Speaker 2: was about three hundred million one Why would you bribe
[24:57] Speaker 2: someone to get.
[24:57] Speaker 3: To set one place? Well, you don't have that much money.
[25:00] Speaker 2: You're like, we just want on the stand. You want
[25:02] Speaker 2: to give me a medal. Yeah. As a result, the
[25:06] Speaker 2: Korea Time had to apologize. The most recent Winter had
[25:09] Speaker 2: to make a statement that neither she nor her parents
[25:11] Speaker 2: had bribed any judges, and of course doubt had surfaced
[25:14] Speaker 2: and would not easily be swept over. Yeah. Yeah, which
[25:16] Speaker 2: takes us to Colombia. Oh, oh, Colombia. Now remember I
[25:20] Speaker 2: said they take beauty pageants? Seriously? Oh boy, how did
[25:23] Speaker 2: do they? The La Times reported on this phenomenon back
[25:26] Speaker 2: in like the late nineties. They noted that quote girls
[25:29] Speaker 2: in Colombia dream of growing up to be queen. They
[25:32] Speaker 2: imagine hearing their names being called and walking down the
[25:34] Speaker 2: runway to be crowned Queen of Rice, Queen of the sea,
[25:39] Speaker 2: Queen for a harvest or a day. So they have
[25:42] Speaker 2: Queen of.
[25:42] Speaker 3: The Sea, Queen seaweed, yes, not teeth.
[25:49] Speaker 2: That's where you go. No, like clamshell opens up and
[25:52] Speaker 2: you step out. Yeah, you're so sticking of seawater.
[26:00] Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
[26:00] Speaker 2: We got bowl kelp all over here.
[26:02] Speaker 3: Yeah, I got like a crab hanging off one ear lobe.
[26:05] Speaker 2: It's my jewelry.
[26:06] Speaker 3: Exactly.
[26:07] Speaker 2: So anthropologist Maria Victoria Ribe, she said, there are more
[26:11] Speaker 2: beauty contests here. There are millions of queens. The queens
[26:14] Speaker 2: are a sort of oasis and opiate of the masses.
[26:17] Speaker 2: Now she should know because she was Miss Bogata in
[26:20] Speaker 2: nineteen sixteen.
[26:20] Speaker 3: Oh she got like a serious Miss Bogata.
[26:22] Speaker 2: Miss Bogota. Oh yeah, she got one of them real queens.
[26:24] Speaker 3: I guess she's not like, you know, Queen of the of.
[26:28] Speaker 2: The of the corn Dispatch, the corn distributor. I know.
[26:32] Speaker 3: I was like, what could she possibly.
[26:33] Speaker 2: Get, Queen of the Carnaves cornas Aria.
[26:35] Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
[26:37] Speaker 2: Excited mean that one. So now we also elizab because
[26:40] Speaker 2: it's Columbia. We have to factor in the role of
[26:42] Speaker 2: narco traffickers.
[26:44] Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah.
[26:46] Speaker 2: They start using beauty pageants as a form of competition
[26:48] Speaker 2: between them and a way to advertise their power. So
[26:51] Speaker 2: they get in on this game, and so now they're
[26:52] Speaker 2: starting to rig all these contests. Yeah, there's this author.
[26:55] Speaker 2: His name is etke Homo Setina, an amazing name. His
[26:59] Speaker 2: first name is eke Homo no way all one word wow.
[27:03] Speaker 2: So he wrote a book called Queen in Check, which
[27:06] Speaker 2: is about the drug barons and their influence on beauty pageants.
[27:09] Speaker 2: And so, for instance, my dude, Pablo Escobar, he kept
[27:12] Speaker 2: a signed photo of a beauty queen on his cell
[27:14] Speaker 2: like in his wall in prison.
[27:16] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[27:16] Speaker 2: The photo was a nineteen ninety one finalist for Miss Colombia,
[27:19] Speaker 2: not even the winner, apparently. I don't know how his
[27:21] Speaker 2: bribes were working out in ninety one. He's like kind
[27:23] Speaker 2: of on the run at that point. So she'd personally
[27:25] Speaker 2: written to him on the back of her photo. I
[27:28] Speaker 2: haven't her favorite girlfriend, thank you for the trip and
[27:30] Speaker 2: all the lovely things you gave me for carta Hana,
[27:33] Speaker 2: Oh heavens. So now when I say my man Publo
[27:35] Speaker 2: Escobar for our Colombian listeners, I want to be clear.
[27:37] Speaker 2: I don't like Pablo Escobar. I'm not like rooting for
[27:40] Speaker 2: Publo Escobar. I'm also not trying to excuse the crimes
[27:42] Speaker 2: against him. Yeah. I call him my man the same
[27:44] Speaker 2: way that people have favorite US presidents. Okay, I don't
[27:48] Speaker 2: think these are morally good queen men disgusting. Yeah, I'm
[27:51] Speaker 2: just saying there's a powerful person who's part of history, Like.
[27:54] Speaker 3: That's comical and disgusting exactly what he shows up here.
[27:58] Speaker 2: And he's a horrific person. So I want to make clear,
[28:00] Speaker 2: like if I say al Capone's my man, I'm not.
[28:02] Speaker 3: Like like, oh yeah.
[28:03] Speaker 2: I'm riding Shaka with al Capone.
[28:05] Speaker 7: Man.
[28:05] Speaker 2: What's up y'all? No, not like that anyway. The open
[28:08] Speaker 2: secret the Colombian beauty queens are backed by drug traffickers.
[28:11] Speaker 2: This ultimately hurts the beauty queens on the world stage.
[28:14] Speaker 2: There has not been a Miss Columbia named is Miss
[28:17] Speaker 2: Universe the ultimate winner on the national or the international
[28:20] Speaker 2: stage since nineteen fifty eight. Elizabeth, do you think.
[28:23] Speaker 3: That's why Steve Harvey do you think he had in
[28:26] Speaker 3: his pocket and then they caught him in it?
[28:29] Speaker 2: Like Steve, you've been brob Son, keep back out there,
[28:32] Speaker 2: no no money? Oh man? Yeah, He's like, I'm not
[28:35] Speaker 2: going to race the mustache. I'm going back out. Yeah.
[28:38] Speaker 2: So Miss Columbia was the runner up three years running,
[28:41] Speaker 2: nineteen ninety two, nineteen ninety three, nineteen ninety four. They
[28:44] Speaker 2: just seemed to win. Now, remember in Steve Harvey, as
[28:47] Speaker 2: you pointed out, that was a Miss Columbia twenty fifteen.
[28:49] Speaker 2: And uh, anyway, poor Miss Columbia, I've been bad mouth
[28:53] Speaker 2: by the narco trafficker just.
[28:55] Speaker 3: The idea of the bridesmaid.
[28:57] Speaker 2: You know, you know what I'm saying, Elizabeth. Now let's
[28:59] Speaker 2: get back to the Miss USA competition for some more
[29:02] Speaker 2: domestic scandals and domestic crimes USA number one. So on
[29:06] Speaker 2: October third, twenty twenty two, very recent a woman named
[29:10] Speaker 2: our Bonnie Gabriel. She won the Miss USA contest. She's
[29:13] Speaker 2: a fashion designer from Texas. She was named Miss Texas
[29:17] Speaker 2: obviously first. Then she went on to win the whole shebang.
[29:20] Speaker 2: She was the first Filipino American to be named Miss Usa.
[29:23] Speaker 3: Okay, go ahead, boom right.
[29:25] Speaker 2: Soon after she won, number of former beauty contestants they
[29:28] Speaker 2: all come forward to say, the Miss USA beauty pageant
[29:30] Speaker 2: is rigged. Oh the sister pageant, Miss Universe. They step
[29:34] Speaker 2: in to tap down all this negative versity. They can't
[29:36] Speaker 2: have this right, so they said, and I quote, we
[29:38] Speaker 2: firmly believe everyone has a right to express their thoughts
[29:40] Speaker 2: and experiences without retaliation and bullying. There are existing systems
[29:45] Speaker 2: in place to ensure the fairness of our national competitions,
[29:48] Speaker 2: and as such, we have begun an active of review
[29:51] Speaker 2: into the situation. Now people are gonna get to the
[29:54] Speaker 2: bottom of things. Elizabeth.
[29:55] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[29:55] Speaker 2: So as for her reputation, Gabrielle the MISSUS tech Miss USA,
[30:01] Speaker 2: she told the Washington Post the pageant was quote not rigged.
[30:04] Speaker 4: Yeah, obviously she's rigged the heck up of it.
[30:08] Speaker 3: I finessed that brought the most delicious tray of lumpia.
[30:11] Speaker 2: Do you want to see the pictures? She added that quote.
[30:14] Speaker 2: Of course, the current allegations are based on perception and
[30:17] Speaker 2: not the truth. I would never want to enter a
[30:19] Speaker 2: competition that was rigged. I know all of the contestants
[30:22] Speaker 2: worked really hard to prepare, and I don't want these
[30:24] Speaker 2: allegations to overshadow the accomplishments of all the women who
[30:28] Speaker 2: participated in this year's Miss USA competition. She's not defending herself, Elizabeth,
[30:33] Speaker 2: She's defending all the potential. Miss USA's a banger. The
[30:37] Speaker 2: president of Miss USA pageant at the time was a
[30:40] Speaker 2: woman named Crystal Stewart. She was also a former Miss
[30:43] Speaker 2: Texas and a former Miss USA. Oh okay, and she
[30:46] Speaker 2: confirmed that as a former title holder, I learned firsthand
[30:49] Speaker 2: the importance of the fair and unbiased pageant competition, and
[30:52] Speaker 2: I respect the voices of the class of twenty twenty
[30:54] Speaker 2: two and every woman's right to have her voice heard.
[30:57] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[30:57] Speaker 2: So now there's that sense of sisterhood, right, you know
[31:00] Speaker 2: they're all just doing it no anyway, Okay, So she
[31:02] Speaker 2: promised Spin that she and the Miss USA organization would
[31:06] Speaker 2: cooperate in the Miss Universe investigation as transparently as possible,
[31:11] Speaker 2: and then she announced her own internal investigation. So what
[31:15] Speaker 2: were the allegations? Great question, thank you. Following our Bonnie
[31:19] Speaker 2: Gabriel's win, TikTok gets lit up by contestants Miss New York,
[31:25] Speaker 2: she she took to Instagram. So she goes on Instagram
[31:28] Speaker 2: stories and says she's humiliated. I am lost for words.
[31:31] Speaker 2: The way I entered this pageant, I gave it every
[31:33] Speaker 2: last bit of my heart and soul. We were humiliated.
[31:37] Speaker 2: Thenk can we enter something with a fair chance?
[31:39] Speaker 5: Right?
[31:40] Speaker 3: So what? Okay, you're gonna tell.
[31:41] Speaker 2: Me, But first I'm gonna let their voices, you know,
[31:47] Speaker 2: tell you the story of Elizabeth Miss New York. She
[31:50] Speaker 2: ended with The only reason I am speaking up is
[31:53] Speaker 2: to prevent future contestants from feeling the way that I do,
[31:56] Speaker 2: for all the little girls who watch Miss USA with
[31:59] Speaker 2: the same dreams I had of working hard to be
[32:01] Speaker 2: in that position. You deserve a fair.
[32:04] Speaker 3: Chance, So they all thought they were going to be.
[32:07] Speaker 2: They're doing it for the girls, Elizabeth, not her own
[32:08] Speaker 2: hurt ego. It's for the little girl, that's true, Miss
[32:11] Speaker 2: Missouri MICHAELA McGee. She told Business Insider, A lot of
[32:14] Speaker 2: the girls felt like it was the organization's plan from
[32:17] Speaker 2: the beginning for our Bonnie to win, no matter who
[32:20] Speaker 2: else was competing. Why would they feel this way? Well,
[32:23] Speaker 2: it was complicated, Elizabeth. But the women promised they had receipts.
[32:27] Speaker 2: When the winner was announced, typically the other fifty pageant
[32:29] Speaker 2: competitors they always crowd around. Then there you go. When
[32:35] Speaker 2: Gabrielle won, the other fifty women walked off stage.
[32:38] Speaker 3: Wait what yes, No, that.
[32:41] Speaker 2: Was hinky as all hell, Elizabeth, Yeah, but there was
[32:43] Speaker 2: more b bah. Wait it gets worse. Former Miss USA
[32:47] Speaker 2: contestant Jasmine Jones said, not one of them stays on
[32:50] Speaker 2: stage to congratulate her or to run and hugger. In
[32:53] Speaker 2: my ten years of pageantry. I've never seen contestants walk
[32:56] Speaker 2: off the stage and not congratulate the girl. That's one.
[32:59] Speaker 3: What did she do this?
[33:01] Speaker 2: So when e with the exclamation point, I caught up
[33:04] Speaker 2: with Gabrielle and asked her about the on stage embarrassment.
[33:07] Speaker 2: She downplayed it, saying our time was cut short so
[33:09] Speaker 2: the girls couldn't come out to the stage, apparently because
[33:11] Speaker 2: there wasn't time and they didn't want their girls to
[33:13] Speaker 2: go into that bubble and maybe fall. So at least
[33:16] Speaker 2: that's what she had heard from the folks in production backstage.
[33:18] Speaker 2: And she also added when I went back to the girls,
[33:21] Speaker 2: they all hugged me. You just didn't see you weren't there, so.
[33:25] Speaker 3: They were just too excited for me. So they had
[33:27] Speaker 3: to go take a moment.
[33:28] Speaker 2: Yeah, they needed to, like you know, unfroclemped. So this
[33:31] Speaker 2: was more than just Caddy's social snub, Elizabeth, There's a
[33:33] Speaker 2: lot more to this. The real ring leader of all
[33:35] Speaker 2: the posting on social media and the whole protest was
[33:38] Speaker 2: is miss Montana m Yeah, Heather Le O'Keefe. She came
[33:42] Speaker 2: out hard and heavy against Gabrielle. She pointed out that
[33:44] Speaker 2: when the winner's name was announced, Gabrielle didn't even look shocked.
[33:47] Speaker 2: It's like she knew or expected the result before it
[33:50] Speaker 2: was called. So Keith was also like on it with
[33:53] Speaker 2: the fact that there was the Miss Texas connections. So
[33:55] Speaker 2: Christelle and her both had the Miss Texas I had
[33:58] Speaker 2: TikTok fit o'keif claimed most of the Miss USA contestants
[34:01] Speaker 2: feel very strongly that there was favoritism towards Miss Texas USA,
[34:05] Speaker 2: and we have the receipts to prove it. And when
[34:07] Speaker 2: she says we, it really was a collective. There was
[34:09] Speaker 2: Miss Georgia, Miss New Jersey, Miss Kentucky, Miss Kansas, Miss Massachusetts,
[34:13] Speaker 2: Miss Virginia, Miss New York, Miss Missouri, and then obviously
[34:17] Speaker 2: Miss Montana. So there was a lot wout right. And
[34:19] Speaker 2: they pointed out that the head of Miss USA, Christelle
[34:21] Speaker 2: Stewart from Texas, was a former Miss USA and that
[34:24] Speaker 2: she was caught in this candid shot behind the scenes
[34:26] Speaker 2: doing Gabrielle's hair. This was apparently alleged evidence of their collusion. Gabrielle,
[34:31] Speaker 2: she was on it. She's like Christelle was there of course,
[34:33] Speaker 2: and she stepped in and actually did my hair because
[34:35] Speaker 2: she said, hey, I can do a snatch ponytail, and
[34:37] Speaker 2: I said I'd love to see it, and the photos
[34:40] Speaker 2: were posted because social media doesn't always reflect reality or
[34:42] Speaker 2: to the time as it passes, so boom, there you go. Right.
[34:45] Speaker 2: So o'keith had other receipts though, because Miss USA was
[34:48] Speaker 2: also coached up by Miss Academy, a beauty pageant training
[34:52] Speaker 2: company run by Christelle Stewart President, one would think according
[34:59] Speaker 2: to the primary Cary whistleblower, Miss Montana Gabrielle aka fellow
[35:02] Speaker 2: Miss Texas to Christal, was the only one who was
[35:04] Speaker 2: really featured on their pages, being one of their clients.
[35:07] Speaker 3: So are other people their clients?
[35:09] Speaker 2: Of course, about a lot of them more Yeah, So
[35:12] Speaker 2: Miss Montana noted that not to mention the actual Miss
[35:14] Speaker 2: us A page reposting Texas on the official Miss USA page,
[35:18] Speaker 2: and no other state contestant got this kind of treatment,
[35:21] Speaker 2: So there's like a whole thing that there's a lot
[35:23] Speaker 2: of posting. So there's a lot of posting evidence, right,
[35:26] Speaker 2: So Miss Montana alleged that the favoritism was obvious. Y'all.
[35:29] Speaker 2: Don't tell me you can't see it. Nothing against Texas
[35:31] Speaker 2: as a person. I truly think she could have won
[35:34] Speaker 2: fair and square, but unfortunately all this drama has tadened
[35:36] Speaker 2: her win. But there's just too much evidence of favoritism.
[35:38] Speaker 2: Let this go unnoticed. I love the expression nothing against Texas, see.
[35:43] Speaker 3: That nothing about Texas as a person. But I'm just
[35:45] Speaker 3: not going to use her name.
[35:46] Speaker 2: You have one more syllable to make that makes sense today,
[35:48] Speaker 2: Miss Texas could just for me like idiots like me.
[35:50] Speaker 2: Otherwise I'm picturing the entire state of Texas squeeze into
[35:53] Speaker 2: a ball game.
[35:54] Speaker 3: I'm thinking, like I understand her humanity. I just refuse
[35:57] Speaker 3: to use her name totally.
[35:59] Speaker 2: So this fire controversy, scandals spirals out of control. Even
[36:02] Speaker 2: Miss Montano Keef has to distance herself from some of
[36:04] Speaker 2: the allegations. She says, I'm open to talking to her
[36:07] Speaker 2: about it. I would love to communicate with her because
[36:09] Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of allegations coming up that
[36:11] Speaker 2: aren't true. Yes, that Sisterhood's is strong see no. After
[36:15] Speaker 2: the investigation, Miss Universe's spended former Miss USA Miss Texas
[36:19] Speaker 2: two thousand and eight, Christelle Stewart from the presidency. True
[36:22] Speaker 2: to a beauty queen, she was graceful and lost. She
[36:25] Speaker 2: was as she was deposed from power as a form
[36:27] Speaker 2: of titleholder. I learned firsthand the importance of a fair
[36:30] Speaker 2: and unbiased pageant competition, and I respect the voices of
[36:32] Speaker 2: the class of twenty two and every woman's right to
[36:35] Speaker 2: have her voice heard. Now see, I'm telling you real
[36:37] Speaker 2: feminists right there. Women.
[36:38] Speaker 3: Women's what she said before I.
[36:40] Speaker 2: Know, I'm taking notes on how to be graceful though. Meanwhile,
[36:43] Speaker 2: Miss USA, our Bonnie Gabrielle continued to compete and the
[36:46] Speaker 2: next year, in January, she went on to win Miss Universe.
[36:50] Speaker 2: No Way. Gabrielle said, the hardest part was I felt
[36:52] Speaker 2: like I didn't have a voice at times. As Miss USA.
[36:54] Speaker 2: I wanted to stand up for myself and say, hey,
[36:56] Speaker 2: this is false. This is very frustrating. But I want
[36:59] Speaker 2: to compose myself and carry this with grace. Because I
[37:02] Speaker 2: was in the public eye, I wanted to show people
[37:03] Speaker 2: how you can push back from adversity and be resilient
[37:07] Speaker 2: go what you bad, So Miss Universe she called it
[37:09] Speaker 2: the sweetest victory, and she added, this is a strong
[37:11] Speaker 2: message that I want to share with the world. No
[37:13] Speaker 2: matter if people try to knock you down or there
[37:15] Speaker 2: are misconceptions about you, you can't let that get to you.
[37:18] Speaker 2: You just keep going and you'll get what you deserve. Finally,
[37:21] Speaker 2: in August, the third party investigation gets concluded. The Miss
[37:24] Speaker 2: Universe organization deems that the allegations were false, but Crystal
[37:28] Speaker 2: Stewart was not reinstated.
[37:30] Speaker 3: Eventually, she had a peaceful transmission of power.
[37:33] Speaker 2: Yes she did. So there you go, though, Let's take
[37:36] Speaker 2: a little while.
[37:36] Speaker 3: Hold on. You know, Miss Montana is in like a
[37:39] Speaker 3: silo bunker somewhere with red thread.
[37:41] Speaker 2: All over the wall. This goes all the way to
[37:42] Speaker 2: the top.
[37:44] Speaker 3: She gets universest to make her nuts.
[37:46] Speaker 2: Oh of course. I mean these are like real emotional
[37:49] Speaker 2: highs and lows. They're just racing through. Yeah, total expectation
[37:53] Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden losing. They've trained for years.
[37:55] Speaker 2: She using like a little Olympic athletes, I know, of
[37:58] Speaker 2: beauty and talents. Yeah. So take a little break. Yeah,
[38:02] Speaker 2: and then we get back. I got one more for you.
[38:04] Speaker 3: Oh you're kidding.
[38:05] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's good.
[38:05] Speaker 8: Oh boy?
[38:26] Speaker 2: Oh right, Elizabeth, alright, Zaren, we're back. Yeah we are
[38:29] Speaker 2: want to talk feminisms more?
[38:30] Speaker 3: Sure?
[38:31] Speaker 2: Okay, So that last one I told you about the
[38:34] Speaker 2: Miss USA scandal. It led to a documentary a docuseries
[38:38] Speaker 2: called How to Fix a Pageant by The New York Times,
[38:41] Speaker 2: and it was written and done by Nicole Rittenmeyer.
[38:44] Speaker 5: Right.
[38:44] Speaker 2: So, Nicole Rittenmeyer she found some really interesting angles and
[38:48] Speaker 2: results of the Miss USA scandal. And she was talking
[38:50] Speaker 2: to Salon about this in an interview and she said,
[38:52] Speaker 2: you know, every single person we talked to, even if
[38:54] Speaker 2: they felt they had been done dirty or they didn't
[38:56] Speaker 2: get a fair share, or they've been maligned, literally every
[39:00] Speaker 2: single woman who had ever participated in pageants in any respect,
[39:04] Speaker 2: was like, I do not want pageants to die. I
[39:06] Speaker 2: think pageants offer so much. Now, of course the beauty
[39:09] Speaker 2: queens would say this, rightestines hunters say this about hunting.
[39:14] Speaker 2: People are going to say this about the thing they love.
[39:16] Speaker 2: But they also she noted that the pageant contestants all
[39:19] Speaker 2: argued for the feminist nature of beauty pageants. Right, and
[39:22] Speaker 2: so Rittenmeyer was raised by feminists. She considers herself a feminist.
[39:24] Speaker 2: So she interrogates this from that angle. She said, quote,
[39:27] Speaker 2: the very first thing that everyone cited was the sisterhood,
[39:30] Speaker 2: the lifelong friends. It sounds kind of cliche, like a
[39:33] Speaker 2: thing you would say for the press, but in reality,
[39:36] Speaker 2: I had no reason not to believe these women. They
[39:38] Speaker 2: all said it and they're all still friends.
[39:41] Speaker 3: Okay.
[39:41] Speaker 2: She even went further. She argued that for gen Z feminists,
[39:45] Speaker 2: a beauty pageant didn't even define all womanhood. It was
[39:48] Speaker 2: just one expression, is how they thought. This was her reasoning,
[39:51] Speaker 2: she said, and I quote one of the things we
[39:53] Speaker 2: see with the gen Z women is they're kind of like,
[39:55] Speaker 2: why are their rules about what we can do and
[39:57] Speaker 2: can't do? Who said? Who made that up? And I
[39:59] Speaker 2: think that is the right evolution to feminism. We shouldn't
[40:02] Speaker 2: be in a situation where I'm judging one of these
[40:03] Speaker 2: young women and saying, how dare you get up there
[40:05] Speaker 2: in a bathing suit or in an evening gown or
[40:07] Speaker 2: whatever it is. If that's your bliss, that's how you
[40:10] Speaker 2: find your fullest explanation and exploration of being a strong,
[40:12] Speaker 2: powerful woman. Go girl, now up to she said, go girl.
[40:16] Speaker 2: I was right there.
[40:19] Speaker 3: But at the same time, she's saying, Okay, so don't
[40:21] Speaker 3: judge them because they like to wear a swimsuit. But
[40:23] Speaker 3: what if someone gets on there and they don't want
[40:25] Speaker 3: to wear a swimsuit? Then they're judging. The whole thing
[40:28] Speaker 3: is judging. So they're saying, you know, for them, that works.
[40:33] Speaker 2: Yeah, but the judge, I think she's deemphasizing the judging
[40:36] Speaker 2: as well.
[40:37] Speaker 3: Here her spirit, it's okay if they want to wear
[40:40] Speaker 3: a swimsuit, what if they don't.
[40:42] Speaker 2: She speaks to the male gaze point, she said, I quote.
[40:45] Speaker 2: Another thing that's really interesting about this is there's this
[40:48] Speaker 2: automatic assumption that it's all about the male gaze. That's
[40:50] Speaker 2: not who watches these shows. It's certainly not who participates,
[40:53] Speaker 2: but the people who watch this are women. So women
[40:56] Speaker 2: are performing for women, and now with a new ownership,
[40:58] Speaker 2: they've made it more and more of a fully woman
[41:01] Speaker 2: led organization. So now, what do you think.
[41:03] Speaker 3: I don't think it has to be immediate male gaze,
[41:05] Speaker 3: but just in my personal opinion, and again I'm sure
[41:09] Speaker 3: that plenty of people will disagree with me, and I
[41:11] Speaker 3: don't want to hear it if they do. But if
[41:13] Speaker 3: you're servicing this whole notion that's come up in our
[41:16] Speaker 3: society of how women are supposed to present themselves in
[41:19] Speaker 3: order to be women and to be you know, an ideal,
[41:22] Speaker 3: because that's what they're saying, Yes, that's crap.
[41:25] Speaker 2: I don't think they're supposed to be an ever present ideal.
[41:28] Speaker 2: There's there's just like one example of there.
[41:30] Speaker 3: But who decides that ideal?
[41:31] Speaker 2: Well, these judges for their show, right, and then.
[41:33] Speaker 3: But that if you look go back, that's not something
[41:36] Speaker 3: that women created for women. That was created by the
[41:39] Speaker 3: men for this contest for the So you know, yeah,
[41:42] Speaker 3: you can have women in charge, but like you.
[41:44] Speaker 2: Know, still operating under presumption of precisely. Okay, well, now
[41:48] Speaker 2: we've had some fun, we've had some laughter, we had
[41:50] Speaker 2: some serious consideration. You ready for things to go truly
[41:53] Speaker 2: go sideways. Yes, let's return to one of the big names,
[41:56] Speaker 2: Donald Trump. He's a beauty pageant guy. Yeah, the fact
[42:01] Speaker 2: in the stories I read he was often called it
[42:03] Speaker 2: a pageant overlord. That was the press the time. Right now,
[42:07] Speaker 2: I'm not going to talk about any of the gross
[42:08] Speaker 2: stuff about him, like peering into the dressing rooms and stuff.
[42:12] Speaker 2: There's something really funny that I can go with that,
[42:13] Speaker 2: And no, I don't even really want to discuss it
[42:15] Speaker 2: because it's just so wrong, Sarah.
[42:16] Speaker 3: The older I get, the angrier I get, So I
[42:19] Speaker 3: just want to have that as Okay.
[42:21] Speaker 2: Now, this takes place back when he owned the Miss
[42:24] Speaker 2: USA and Miss Teen USA and Miss Universe pageants.
[42:26] Speaker 3: Like I own the Miss teen USA pageant. Just okay.
[42:31] Speaker 2: So at the time Miss teen USA was Tara Connor,
[42:34] Speaker 2: poor thing gal from Kentucky. She looked to lose her
[42:37] Speaker 2: crown because she was young, She's been out partying, she
[42:40] Speaker 2: got messy. Most notably she kissed a girl and the
[42:42] Speaker 2: paparazzi captured it. Two thousand and six. This is occurring.
[42:48] Speaker 2: So this is like pre gay marriage passing in this
[42:51] Speaker 2: or this is like still like very much an issue,
[42:53] Speaker 2: like even Democrats weren't coming around for like, oh I'm
[42:55] Speaker 2: gonna back there totally the rights of people who yes, okay,
[42:58] Speaker 2: So we have like an outrage like, oh, she's kissing
[43:01] Speaker 2: the girl, she's Miss teen Usa.
[43:03] Speaker 5: Right.
[43:03] Speaker 2: Also she's drinking in bars in New York. She's he's
[43:06] Speaker 2: clearly she's you know, seemingly high drunk, what have you.
[43:10] Speaker 2: So people are getting upset, they start canceling public appearances
[43:13] Speaker 2: or canceling photo ops. She's got to avoid the press.
[43:16] Speaker 2: Talk was she's gonna be fired as Miss teen USA
[43:19] Speaker 2: because who's her boss, the celebrity apprentice guy and at
[43:21] Speaker 2: the time is his big You're fired right? Or what
[43:24] Speaker 2: was like, oh, he's gonna say it. When's he gonna
[43:26] Speaker 2: tell her you're fired?
[43:27] Speaker 5: Right?
[43:27] Speaker 2: She sounds like a whole thing anyway, Donald Trump. He
[43:30] Speaker 2: steps forward and defends her true advocate that he is Elizabeth.
[43:34] Speaker 2: Because if ever there were a man to step forward
[43:37] Speaker 2: to defend a blonde woman from a rather meaningless crisis,
[43:40] Speaker 2: only to make it then all about him, it's gonna
[43:42] Speaker 2: be the former president. But you know that, Elizabeth, so right.
[43:45] Speaker 2: I didn't make lazy jokes about it. I'd rather close
[43:48] Speaker 2: stop stopping.
[43:52] Speaker 3: Oh my eyes are closed, Elizabeth.
[43:54] Speaker 2: You were standing outside a large, dark glass and steel
[43:57] Speaker 2: building in Manhattan. You were there to cover press conference.
[44:00] Speaker 2: You're working as a camera woman for the local TV
[44:02] Speaker 2: news WNJZ. Normally you're part of their Channel two Action
[44:06] Speaker 2: News team investigation team, but today they've sent you over
[44:10] Speaker 2: close to Central Park to Trump Towers, headquarters of the
[44:13] Speaker 2: Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA pageants. The
[44:16] Speaker 2: weather's a little brisk this Tuesday. A breeze moves through
[44:19] Speaker 2: the color and the leaves and the trees. You sip
[44:22] Speaker 2: on your latte while you still have time. Your job
[44:24] Speaker 2: today is to point your camera at the two folks
[44:27] Speaker 2: who called the press conference. Miss teen USA, who the
[44:30] Speaker 2: former Miss Kentucky and her boss and benefactor, Donald Trump,
[44:33] Speaker 2: the billionaire has called the presser to calm the rough
[44:36] Speaker 2: seas of negative publicity about Miss teen USA and her
[44:39] Speaker 2: quasi lesbian kiss. You zoom in your camera and set
[44:42] Speaker 2: the focus on her. You pull back out to a
[44:44] Speaker 2: standard shop for the TV news. But then she doesn't
[44:47] Speaker 2: speak instead, of course it's Trump. You have to re
[44:50] Speaker 2: aim your camera at him. He starts to speak while
[44:52] Speaker 2: you and the gathered press listen to Donald Trump. She
[44:55] Speaker 2: left a small town in Kentucky, and she was telling
[44:58] Speaker 2: me that she got caught up in the whirlwind of
[45:00] Speaker 2: New York. Now you know what he means. All the
[45:02] Speaker 2: recent tabloid shots of her out partying, drunk, possibly high,
[45:06] Speaker 2: and there's the one shot where she's very clearly kissing
[45:08] Speaker 2: a woman outside a bar. But Miss teen USA just
[45:11] Speaker 2: turned twenty one yesterday, literally Monday. Wait, so she's not
[45:16] Speaker 2: even a teen the day before the press conference.
[45:18] Speaker 3: So she's still missed. So she was twenty when she
[45:20] Speaker 3: won Miss teen that's a bigger scan.
[45:23] Speaker 2: What kind of role model is she for the American
[45:25] Speaker 2: Beauty pageant? Stands Elizabeth no Idea Now in response. You
[45:29] Speaker 2: have to watch Trump explain why he's decided not to
[45:31] Speaker 2: fire Miss teen USA after a bit of preening and posing.
[45:35] Speaker 2: After he delivers a good line that the press laughs at,
[45:37] Speaker 2: Trump says, I've always been a believer in second chances.
[45:41] Speaker 2: He's like the anti Fitzgerald. Now. Trump then outlines how
[45:44] Speaker 2: Miss teen USA will be going to rehabs. As a result,
[45:49] Speaker 2: her duties will be limited as she receives the help
[45:51] Speaker 2: she needs during this personal time. You think to yourself, hmm,
[45:54] Speaker 2: miss teen USA is going to rehab. It sounds like
[45:57] Speaker 2: Alana del Ray lyric. But she you know, she's already
[46:00] Speaker 2: one Miss America, so whatever. Meanwhile, the press conference grows
[46:03] Speaker 2: tiresome as Miss teen Usa aka Miss Kentucky says, You'll
[46:07] Speaker 2: never know how much I appreciate mister Trump for saved
[46:09] Speaker 2: me on this one. It truly takes someone with a
[46:11] Speaker 2: wonderful heart, a heart of gold, and a blessed soul.
[46:14] Speaker 2: He's a very, very compassionate person, and obviously I learned
[46:17] Speaker 2: that today. I'm so happy I'll be giving this opportunity
[46:20] Speaker 2: because I know that when I do my job, I'm
[46:22] Speaker 2: very passionate about it. You listen to a Cabby hank
[46:26] Speaker 2: At a pedestrian, thank the driver for the noise that
[46:29] Speaker 2: drowns out the press conference. You no longer have to
[46:31] Speaker 2: hear Miss ten USA say how passionate she is about
[46:33] Speaker 2: her job, being a spokesmodel, for having fun hair or whatever. Elizabeth,
[46:39] Speaker 2: I'm so surprised to you. Why would you be so
[46:41] Speaker 2: critical of Trump and Miss teen USA? No, you'd forget
[46:45] Speaker 2: how beauty pageants are a feminist exercise so quickly forgot
[46:49] Speaker 2: or whatever the claim is it way, Look, I'm not
[46:50] Speaker 2: saying they are or they aren't. I'm just raising the question.
[46:53] Speaker 2: What if Custer escaped from the Battle of Little Bighorn
[46:55] Speaker 2: and he became a famous beauty pageant contestant?
[47:00] Speaker 3: Okat? Okay's the thing that just one little quick pump. Okay.
[47:04] Speaker 3: So she's Miss teen USA. She's twenty years old, so whatever,
[47:07] Speaker 3: we're going to overlook that thing. And she's out just
[47:09] Speaker 3: having a night of carousing.
[47:10] Speaker 2: Doing her thing. Yeah, being twenty that's what twenty year olds. Yeah,
[47:13] Speaker 2: but it's two thousand and six.
[47:14] Speaker 3: They weren't ready, they've been doing it.
[47:16] Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, no, we all agree, And that's how
[47:19] Speaker 2: Trump liked it. He normally paid extra for this cat. Sorry,
[47:27] Speaker 2: I don't know, go to the island. That's what you
[47:31] Speaker 2: expect exactly. So anyway, he was stoked at her address.
[47:34] Speaker 2: You knew right where she could find her and her friends. Yeah,
[47:37] Speaker 2: hold up in my apartment.
[47:39] Speaker 3: Yeah, we're like blink three times.
[47:41] Speaker 2: Seriously before you become a Fox News No, I remember
[47:46] Speaker 2: I told you about the Miss USA pageant that was
[47:47] Speaker 2: alleged to be rigged. Well turns out that was not
[47:50] Speaker 2: the first time. Okay, keeping it trump for a moment.
[47:52] Speaker 2: He was involved in that story of the rigged Missus
[47:55] Speaker 2: USA contest. And again his involvement may surprise you.
[47:58] Speaker 3: Wait, Missus USA or miss Missus.
[48:00] Speaker 2: I keep saying, miss I keep running complicated?
[48:02] Speaker 3: Did they get married?
[48:03] Speaker 2: Yeah? Sorry, I'm terrible Miss Usa. The year was twenty twelve,
[48:07] Speaker 2: because I know you always like to know where am I? Anyway,
[48:11] Speaker 2: So Miss Pennsylvania was a woman named Sheena Monan okay
[48:15] Speaker 2: monin m O n n I n okay anyway, So
[48:18] Speaker 2: she entered the Miss USA contest. She gets bounced out
[48:21] Speaker 2: in the early rounds. Oops. Anyway, I guess she wasn't
[48:24] Speaker 2: going down with a fight because she gets on the
[48:26] Speaker 2: horn and she alleges that the beauty pageants rigged?
[48:29] Speaker 3: Oh is that where he gets all those ideas?
[48:31] Speaker 2: So what was her claim? Well, Monan said that she
[48:33] Speaker 2: was backstage with Miss Florida, though, who told her that
[48:36] Speaker 2: she'd seen a list of the finalists before the show,
[48:38] Speaker 2: and then when the finalists were announced live, it was
[48:40] Speaker 2: the exact same list she'd heard. Boom rigged. Elizabeth totally
[48:45] Speaker 2: fixes in. Convinced of the truth of the rigged pageant,
[48:49] Speaker 2: Miss Pennsylvania takes to Facebook and in a series of
[48:52] Speaker 2: scathing posts, she resigned her crown in my.
[48:56] Speaker 3: Heart, crown if Pennsylvania.
[48:58] Speaker 2: Pennsylvania in my heart. I believe in honesty, fair play,
[49:02] Speaker 2: a fair opportunity, and high moral integrity, none of which,
[49:06] Speaker 2: in my opinion, are part of this paget system any longer.
[49:09] Speaker 2: Now seeing a story perfect for them, the morning shows
[49:11] Speaker 2: came a call, right, so Miss Pennsylvania. She makes the
[49:14] Speaker 2: round of appearances on programs like Today's show, Good Morning America.
[49:17] Speaker 2: What have you? Yeah, she told the host, Well Anne
[49:20] Speaker 2: Curry in particular, I know what I heard. There's no
[49:23] Speaker 2: doubt in my mind that the contestant was serious when
[49:25] Speaker 2: she laid out what she said she saw, and I
[49:26] Speaker 2: believe her to be true. Yeah. She also added to
[49:30] Speaker 2: Anne Curry, there are many reasons that a list can
[49:33] Speaker 2: be laying around with the top five names, But when
[49:35] Speaker 2: the names were called out in the order that she
[49:37] Speaker 2: said she saw them on the list, that's just too
[49:41] Speaker 2: coincidental to not be true. Now, to really make her
[49:44] Speaker 2: case the beauty contestant, she cited her ability to analyze
[49:48] Speaker 2: and interpret hidden psychology. Oh, I have many years of
[49:52] Speaker 2: psychological training. I know when someone's telling a joke. I
[49:55] Speaker 2: know when someone's scared and when someone's serious. And in
[50:00] Speaker 2: my opinion, her body language was very serious. She looked
[50:04] Speaker 2: a little bit scared because she had just seen something
[50:06] Speaker 2: that could potentially drastically change the reputation of the Miss
[50:10] Speaker 2: Universe organization. This is a big deal. Oh my god,
[50:14] Speaker 2: she knows someone tells a joke versus when someone's serious.
[50:18] Speaker 2: That was a joke. The tone after she did the
[50:23] Speaker 2: rounds of the morning news shows and alledge that the
[50:26] Speaker 2: Miss USA was rigged. The now former Miss Pennsylvania had
[50:29] Speaker 2: made a real petty enemy Donald Trump, so he immediately
[50:33] Speaker 2: goes on the attack. Right twenty twelve, Trump starts with
[50:36] Speaker 2: the alleged eyewitness Miss Florida Trump.
[50:39] Speaker 3: This is when he's gearing up with like all his want.
[50:42] Speaker 2: First time, Yeah, the first time he's thinking about right.
[50:45] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[50:45] Speaker 2: So Trump said, the person that supposedly saw the list
[50:48] Speaker 2: totally denies that it took place, and Trump added that
[50:52] Speaker 2: she let him know that it was a throwaway comment
[50:54] Speaker 2: and that she had never meant it as fact. So
[50:57] Speaker 2: then she went on all the TV shows that Florida
[51:00] Speaker 2: like this. Florida personally told him Miss she never meant
[51:03] Speaker 2: it this fact, Elizabeth. So he went and did his
[51:06] Speaker 2: usual personal tax. He reasoned that it was just the
[51:08] Speaker 2: grousing of a bitter loser. Trump said, I never felt
[51:11] Speaker 2: that she had a chance. All this is buyer's remorse.
[51:14] Speaker 3: Eight grousings of a bitter loser.
[51:16] Speaker 2: Yeah. So he told the morning shows that he'd given
[51:18] Speaker 2: the new now former Miss Pennsylvania twenty four hours to
[51:21] Speaker 2: respond and issue a public apology or he'd take her
[51:24] Speaker 2: to court. Right. So then old girl Miss Pa, she
[51:27] Speaker 2: did not back down. Now we got like a tri
[51:29] Speaker 2: state area beach. So she's like, what twenty four hours,
[51:31] Speaker 2: they come, they passed, Trump talks. He goes right back
[51:34] Speaker 2: to the talking heads on Good Morning America. I think
[51:37] Speaker 2: that frankly, she should apologize. We will be bringing a
[51:40] Speaker 2: lawsuit against her. She lost, and if you look at
[51:42] Speaker 2: her compared to the people who were in the top fifteen,
[51:45] Speaker 2: you would understand why she's not in the top fifteen.
[51:47] Speaker 2: It's a very, very sad situation. So this is where
[51:50] Speaker 2: Trump is at his best as an insult comic, Like
[51:53] Speaker 2: I don't want to talk about like politics, but the
[51:55] Speaker 2: man kills as an insult comic. He's like if Don
[51:58] Speaker 2: Rickles had a rich daddy, you know, like Trump later said,
[52:01] Speaker 2: we're going to be suing her now she had made
[52:04] Speaker 2: a very false charge and she knows it's a false charge. Now,
[52:07] Speaker 2: still their public squabbling's not done. The former Miss Pa
[52:11] Speaker 2: she's like tri state throwdown, Let's do this right. So
[52:13] Speaker 2: she's coming. She reappears on the Today Show and she says,
[52:16] Speaker 2: I feel disappointed that Trump has made some of the
[52:18] Speaker 2: statements that he said about me, and I feel prepared
[52:21] Speaker 2: to continue to pursue the truth. I know what I heard,
[52:24] Speaker 2: and I know what I in turn witnessed come true
[52:27] Speaker 2: based on what I heard the contestants said, she saw
[52:30] Speaker 2: the list, So I'm prepared to continue to march forward,
[52:33] Speaker 2: like across the Edmund Pettis Bridge Elizabeth, this civil rights
[52:36] Speaker 2: worker for her own justice. And this was a mistake
[52:39] Speaker 2: on her part because in the meantime, the pageant organizers
[52:42] Speaker 2: they focused on why Miss Pia really quit the game.
[52:47] Speaker 2: The Miss Universe folks later came forward with a full
[52:49] Speaker 2: accounting of their own, and they pushed out Olivia Culpo.
[52:52] Speaker 2: She was Miss Rhode Island. Shout out to producer Dave,
[52:56] Speaker 2: and she was named the winner of the Miss USA. Now,
[52:59] Speaker 2: as Colpo said, Miss Pia's original story sounded a little
[53:02] Speaker 2: iffy to me. She came forward because after all this hullabaloo,
[53:06] Speaker 2: and she said she knew Miss Pa pretty well because
[53:08] Speaker 2: they were typically lined up real close to each other
[53:10] Speaker 2: because the states go alphabetically, right, So she said that
[53:13] Speaker 2: Miss they kind of got to know each other. So
[53:15] Speaker 2: she talked to her. She's like, yeah, Miss Pennsylvania resigned
[53:18] Speaker 2: not due to it being rigged, but because Trump had
[53:20] Speaker 2: allowed a transgender competitor into the Miss USA pageant.
[53:24] Speaker 3: Huh.
[53:25] Speaker 2: So after a transgender woman had wanted to compete in
[53:27] Speaker 2: the Miss Universe pageant representing Canada, she was first barred
[53:31] Speaker 2: from competition. Yeah, Trump then goes and changes the rules
[53:34] Speaker 2: for the Miss Universe Universe. When this was brought up
[53:38] Speaker 2: as her reasoning Trump changing the rules to allow a
[53:41] Speaker 2: transgender woman or transgender women rather to compete in the
[53:44] Speaker 2: Miss Universe contest Miss ten USA, Miss USA, he tried
[53:48] Speaker 2: to downplay it, and he said he doubted that that's
[53:50] Speaker 2: why Miss Pa stepped down. He preferred the narrative that
[53:53] Speaker 2: she was a jealous loser or whatever. Right, so as
[53:55] Speaker 2: he put it, and I quote, I think her primary
[53:58] Speaker 2: issue was that she low and she's angry about losing. Frankly,
[54:02] Speaker 2: in my opinion, I saw her for barely a second.
[54:04] Speaker 2: She didn't deserve to be in the top fifteen. He
[54:06] Speaker 2: goes right back to tech. She's she's an uggle woman.
[54:08] Speaker 2: I don't know what to tell you. So there he
[54:11] Speaker 2: is our insult comic king, and he really should have
[54:13] Speaker 2: stuck to a comedy and posting like I think he
[54:16] Speaker 2: would have been way happier as a person, right just
[54:18] Speaker 2: I know you would be. I know a lot of
[54:20] Speaker 2: other people would be. But there's a lesson there about ego,
[54:22] Speaker 2: about not letting like a cool black man knock you
[54:24] Speaker 2: off your game because he made people laugh at you.
[54:27] Speaker 2: That's what I do every week here. Look that's gonna happen.
[54:31] Speaker 2: And also it's like like teenagers, they're gonna make fun
[54:34] Speaker 2: of what you wear, which happens when I leave the house. Right,
[54:37] Speaker 2: this is just the death and taxes of life. But anyway,
[54:40] Speaker 2: the wildest part of all this talk of Miss teen
[54:42] Speaker 2: Usa being rigged is that Trump eventually wins in court.
[54:45] Speaker 2: And you don't hear that much anymore. No, she lost
[54:48] Speaker 2: on charges of defamation. The ruling wasn't Miss Pennsylvania. She
[54:51] Speaker 2: and Monan had to pay Trump and his beauty pageant
[54:54] Speaker 2: organization five million dollars for reputational damage because they lost,
[54:59] Speaker 2: like some contract with the person. Anyway, arbitrator uphold the ruling,
[55:03] Speaker 2: then a federal judge upholds the arbitrator's decision. Ultimately, Trump
[55:07] Speaker 2: wins in court when he supported a transgender woman against
[55:10] Speaker 2: a beauty queen. Who would have.
[55:11] Speaker 3: Thought, I've just I'm blown away by the Wow.
[55:16] Speaker 2: Elizabeth, what's your favorite.
[55:18] Speaker 3: Ridiculous take away how things change?
[55:22] Speaker 7: Uh?
[55:22] Speaker 3: My ridiculous takeaway? I just want people to feel happy
[55:25] Speaker 3: with what they do, enjoy themselves. Yes always, you know,
[55:29] Speaker 3: and so I you know. I don't like when agendas
[55:33] Speaker 3: are pushed, even though I push it a lot of agendas.
[55:36] Speaker 3: But you know, if people like the pageants, is what
[55:38] Speaker 3: I'm trying to say, then like, go on, I don't
[55:40] Speaker 3: think it's good to put kids in them because they
[55:42] Speaker 3: don't have the agency really to decide. Yeah, totally, And
[55:44] Speaker 3: it's a lot of like.
[55:45] Speaker 2: And it defines their world before they yeah.
[55:47] Speaker 3: Yeah, and I you know, and I just wish that
[55:50] Speaker 3: we as a culture had better ways of measuring all people.
[55:53] Speaker 3: But you know, yes, I'm a dreamers erin you are.
[55:56] Speaker 2: I like that about you. I've always liked that about you. No,
[55:58] Speaker 2: you're not there. You've got a whole group with you,
[55:59] Speaker 2: and they're mostly dogs. But I like that about you and.
[56:01] Speaker 3: You and we all when we're dreaming bark in our.
[56:04] Speaker 2: Sleep, Elizabeth, Oh my goodness, did you just I did?
[56:09] Speaker 2: Were you copying it?
[56:10] Speaker 3: It's part of the sisterhood anyway.
[56:13] Speaker 2: Mine is I want there to be more competitions, not
[56:16] Speaker 2: about like I think that the word beauty throws people
[56:19] Speaker 2: off where I think really what they mean is like
[56:21] Speaker 2: a pageant of what we all agree according to these ideals,
[56:25] Speaker 2: because like there's like, uh, you know, art contests that's
[56:28] Speaker 2: essentially a beauty contest, like the oscar Wards is essentially
[56:30] Speaker 2: a beauty contest, just so that the aesthetics right. So
[56:33] Speaker 2: I want once for like lumberjacks and like house painters.
[56:36] Speaker 2: I want house painter pageants like that. Dude, Look at
[56:39] Speaker 2: his colors. He works so hard. Did you see all
[56:41] Speaker 2: these colors on his out?
[56:43] Speaker 3: You want that when you painted houses?
[56:45] Speaker 2: Kidding? If we could have a pageant, I would be like, Yo,
[56:47] Speaker 2: tell my boy Chris taking you down this year, son,
[56:50] Speaker 2: bring your best white the overalls. I don't even care anyway,
[56:54] Speaker 2: that's mine.
[56:55] Speaker 3: So ridiculous. You don't, don't email or mess just with
[57:00] Speaker 3: complaints about me. I feel like I'm setting myself up
[57:03] Speaker 3: for him today.
[57:04] Speaker 2: Oh no, send them all to me like, yeah, give
[57:07] Speaker 2: me the yes please I said it? Or just keep
[57:10] Speaker 2: it to yourself or yeah, I just act like you know,
[57:12] Speaker 2: an adult and be like you know what. They may
[57:14] Speaker 2: have said that and that's their opinion.
[57:15] Speaker 3: Yes, there it is.
[57:16] Speaker 2: Anyway, it's not the truth. It's just an opinion for
[57:19] Speaker 2: a talkback? What's for goodness?
[57:21] Speaker 3: Am I all right?
[57:22] Speaker 2: Producer? Dave hit it, Oh my god.
[57:32] Speaker 5: I love Jeet, Hey, y'all, Michelle and Phoenix.
[57:39] Speaker 7: I just paused the old man in the gun episode
[57:41] Speaker 7: when you guys were talking about the guards having their
[57:44] Speaker 7: families on Alcatraz.
[57:45] Speaker 5: True facts. There's this movie called Murder in the First
[57:48] Speaker 5: with Kevin.
[57:49] Speaker 7: Bacon from the nineties and they show that as an
[57:52] Speaker 7: aspect of the movie.
[57:54] Speaker 5: So check the movie out. Love the show. Former Bay
[57:57] Speaker 5: Area kid here, so keep it up, have a great day.
[58:02] Speaker 2: Yes it's former baby.
[58:03] Speaker 3: Watch that movie.
[58:04] Speaker 2: Man, dude. Respect to y'all right out the box just
[58:07] Speaker 2: for being a former Bay Area kid.
[58:09] Speaker 8: Yeah.
[58:09] Speaker 2: Now, thanks for also for the hookup on the information
[58:11] Speaker 2: on the prison. Oh yeah, but I still would be
[58:13] Speaker 2: so judgmental to my parents if they had me being
[58:15] Speaker 2: raised on Yeah, on alculatize You're like, I'm sorry, I'm
[58:19] Speaker 2: glad you have a job.
[58:20] Speaker 5: Dad.
[58:21] Speaker 2: I understand it could be tough, but couldn't you sell shoes?
[58:24] Speaker 3: Yeah?
[58:25] Speaker 5: You.
[58:25] Speaker 2: As always, you can find us online Ridiculous Crime the
[58:28] Speaker 2: social media's. We have our website which we highly recommend,
[58:32] Speaker 2: ridiculous crime dot com. Just like it sounds. We also
[58:35] Speaker 2: obviously love your talkback, so go to the iHeart app
[58:37] Speaker 2: download it, leave one. You may hear your own voice
[58:40] Speaker 2: on the air. Email us if you like a Ridiculous
[58:42] Speaker 2: Crime at gmail. Dot com and this time say dear Zaren. Yes, anyway,
[58:47] Speaker 2: that's all I got for you. We'll catch you next crime.
[58:50] Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton
[58:58] Speaker 2: and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by the President of
[59:01] Speaker 2: the Fancy Lads School for Handsome Men, Dave Couston. Research
[59:05] Speaker 2: is by Marisa I prefer pirate booty pageants Brown and Andrea. Yes,
[59:12] Speaker 2: I'm a fan of all buried treasure contests regardless of gender.
[59:15] Speaker 2: Song Sharpened hear Our theme song is by twenty sixteen's
[59:19] Speaker 2: mister san Diego aka mister Gaslight, Thomas Lee and Travis
[59:24] Speaker 2: you can just call me mister Universe Sole Basic Income Dutton.
[59:28] Speaker 2: The host wardrobe provided by Bobby five hundred. Guest hair
[59:32] Speaker 2: and makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive producers are
[59:36] Speaker 2: Ben I'm not just the president, I'm also a spokesmodel
[59:39] Speaker 2: for the Handsome Men's Modeling agency Bowling and twenty twenty
[59:42] Speaker 2: twos and twenty twenty threes, two times mister Americana Facewarmer
[59:46] Speaker 2: of the Year aka mister Beard No.
[59:50] Speaker 3: Brown REDI why say it one more time?
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