Miss Colombia In No Mood To Surrender Miss Universe Title
A bizarre mix-up unfolded at this year’s Miss Universe beauty pageant. Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, was wrongly crowned the winner and had her crown snatched back a few minutes later for Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo.
The major faux pas by the show host, 58-year-old comedian Steve Harvey, was widely discussed on social medias as one of the biggest blunders of this century. Harvey wrongly announced that Miss Colombia was the new Miss Universe, which made for an embarrassing night for her. She even celebrated the ephemeral victory and paraded around the stage.
Gutierrez displayed professional courtesy of highest order when, moments after leaving the stage, she said, “Everything happens for a reason, so I’m happy.” She also thanked the voters, but her demeanor on social media suggests she is still hanging on to the dream she managed to live for a few minutes on the stage.
The 21-year-old Colombian belle took to Instagram where she shared pictures of her with the Miss Universe crown on her head.
“These moments will always be with me #missuniverse #misscolombia #backtoback Lo logramos COLOMBIA!” she wrote, the latter part translating to English as “We did it.”
The use of hashtag #backtoback is to refer the fact that last year’s Miss Universe Paulina Vega is also Colombian.
Although it might have been an honest mistake from Harvey, in which he claims that he simply read the first runner up’s card instead of the winner’s, the magnitude of emotions it evoked turned out to be immense. He later apologized and took the blame all to himself, but the incident is seemingly still taking its toll on Miss Colombia, and she is refusing to part with her “could have been” conquest.
The incident has generated vastly polarizing opinions, with many claiming it was brutal for Gutierrez. Some people think she should have been crowned, whereas the others believing Harvey’s absent-minded mistake should be forgiven.
Miss Germany was one of the biggest empathizers of Gutierrez, who threw jibes to official Miss Universe Pia Alonzo in an interview where she claimed that none of them voted for her and she unfairly robbed Gutierrez of her deserved title.
While several contestants, including Miss Australia, appeared to concur with the harangues of Miss Germany, the statement was greeted with furious dissent on social media. Twitters users who sympathized with Alonzo ripped her apart.
Dear Miss Germany,please answer our questions,How in the world you knew that no one voted for Miss Philippines?Are … pic.twitter.com/FjwUvDQIgZ
— Miss Universe Crown (@MsUniverseCrown) December 21, 2015
Many social media users speculate that she is still doleful to the prizes she would have won if she had been Miss Universe, which includes a year-long salary as Miss Universe, luxury accommodations in a New York City apartment for the duration of her reign, a new custom diamond tiara and jewelry designed by D.I.C, a shoe wardrobe from Chinese Laundry Shoes, swimwear by Yamamay, a year’s worth of skincare products from Image Skincare, and many more.
Many people are starting to fear that Gutierrez may be living in denial, including Colombian general counsel who believes that she is severely scarred by the whole fiasco and worries it could turn to a mental trauma for her.
“I do think that she’s very affected by all this, I just think that when I was in my 20s and was in her situation, I would take a little while to recover,” he said.
Gutierrez is now spending time with her family to get over the incident and plans to address the media after she has reached her homeland. It should be interesting to see her response after the storm has finally calmed.
