Miss World Wrap-Up

Around 11:00 this morning I scouted for broadcast information on the Miss World finale, and found that it was already in progress. It started at 2:30 London time, 8:30 on a Sunday morning, Central time. The only place where it could be televised in prime time was Asia; I assume they got it there, but here in the U.S., as best I could tell you had to watch on the internet. I suppose this is one more sign that the U.S. is no longer the center of the universe. In any event, I started the stream on the Miss World site just as they were about to announce the winner.

The five finalists were Misses England, Australia, South Africa, Hungary and United States. Miss U.S. got third place, somehow surviving this:

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Miss Hungary was second. We previewed the competition here, here and here, but we never featured Miss Hungary. Here she is, during the Miss Hungary competition:

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This year, the bettors had it right: the prohibitive favorite, Miss South Africa, Rolene Strauss, won. We featured Miss Strauss, a medical student, here and here.

Miss Strauss is a South African patriot:

South Africa is celebrating 20 years of democracy this year and I am a proud, born free citizen.

As usual, the Daily Mail has the best photography. (DM is a weird web site, one of the world’s most popular. I can’t quite figure out its editorial perspective–or even whether it has one–but it comes up with lots of great pictures.) Here is Miss Strauss:

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One thing about the Miss World finalists, there is nothing waif-like about them. One more of Miss South Africa:

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Clearly a worthy victor, although this year’s pageant seemed rather blah on the whole, with no surprises, let alone scandals, and, as far as I could tell, no political angle.

Now it’s on to Miss Universe, which will take place on January 25 in Miami. Which I assume means that it will be televised here in the U.S. Who knows? Maybe this will be Albania’s year to be Miss Universe:

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