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Miss Universe Contestant Claims "Sabotage" Led to Her Loss
By Erin Carlson | Wednesday, September 8, 2010, 1:50 PM
Campbell at Miss Universe Australia.
Brendon Thorne/Getty ImagesAs anyone who's seen "Toddlers and Tiaras" can tell you, the hyper-competitive world of beauty pageants has seen its fair share of adversarial sabotage. But when a contestant claims her evening gown was laced with sharp-edged pins or pepper spray or lipstick stains, the alleged girl-on-girl crime makes headlines around the world.
The latest heir-to-the-beauty-crown to make such a claim is Miss Australia Jesinta Campbell, who says one of her 82 rivals at this year's Miss Universe pageant tampered with her festive national dress just before she took the stage in Las Vegas last month.
"There was a bit of sabotage backstage," she told Australia's Nova 91.9 radio station of her experience with the "national dress" she donned for the event. "When I went to put it on I found about six pins all pinned in the back of it, so when I put it on I scratched all the back of my back. I was like 'Ooh! What's that?'."
Good natured as ever (she did win the "Miss Congeniality" title, after all), Campbell didn't point any fingers at any specific competitors.
"I don't know who it was," she said in the radio interview when asked who she thought the pin-wielding perpetrator might be. "All of that stuff is backstage, so it could've been anyone."
[Photos: See All Contestants From the Pageant]
Campbell placed third at the televised event, held in Las Vegas last month; the winner was Jimena Navarrete of Mexico, and Yendi Phillips of Jamaica came in second. Campbell's be-pinned dress -- intended to represent the land Down Under with an aboriginal-print swimsuit, ruffled flamenco skirt and Ugg boots -- was ridiculed as too costume-y and over-the-top; little did anyone know the pain the 18-year-old Aussie beauty queen felt underneath.
[Photos: Pageant's controversial body paint shoot]
So, whodunit? No one has copped to the prank, but from the large pool of international competitor-suspects, Campbell singles out those from Mexico, the Phillipines, and Central and South America.
"Winning is so important for those girls because they become queens in their country and are worshipped if they win -- and it changes everything forever for them," she told the Herald Sun. "But there were 82 other girls there and I can't narrow it down, so it's a mystery to me."
She added: "But I know who didn't do it -- my best friends were the girls from Ireland, Belgium, Great Britain, and Guam and I know they wouldn't have done that to me."
By Erin Carlson | Wednesday, September 8, 2010, 1:50 PM
Campbell at Miss Universe Australia.
Brendon Thorne/Getty ImagesAs anyone who's seen "Toddlers and Tiaras" can tell you, the hyper-competitive world of beauty pageants has seen its fair share of adversarial sabotage. But when a contestant claims her evening gown was laced with sharp-edged pins or pepper spray or lipstick stains, the alleged girl-on-girl crime makes headlines around the world.
The latest heir-to-the-beauty-crown to make such a claim is Miss Australia Jesinta Campbell, who says one of her 82 rivals at this year's Miss Universe pageant tampered with her festive national dress just before she took the stage in Las Vegas last month.
"There was a bit of sabotage backstage," she told Australia's Nova 91.9 radio station of her experience with the "national dress" she donned for the event. "When I went to put it on I found about six pins all pinned in the back of it, so when I put it on I scratched all the back of my back. I was like 'Ooh! What's that?'."
Good natured as ever (she did win the "Miss Congeniality" title, after all), Campbell didn't point any fingers at any specific competitors.
"I don't know who it was," she said in the radio interview when asked who she thought the pin-wielding perpetrator might be. "All of that stuff is backstage, so it could've been anyone."
[Photos: See All Contestants From the Pageant]
Campbell placed third at the televised event, held in Las Vegas last month; the winner was Jimena Navarrete of Mexico, and Yendi Phillips of Jamaica came in second. Campbell's be-pinned dress -- intended to represent the land Down Under with an aboriginal-print swimsuit, ruffled flamenco skirt and Ugg boots -- was ridiculed as too costume-y and over-the-top; little did anyone know the pain the 18-year-old Aussie beauty queen felt underneath.
[Photos: Pageant's controversial body paint shoot]
So, whodunit? No one has copped to the prank, but from the large pool of international competitor-suspects, Campbell singles out those from Mexico, the Phillipines, and Central and South America.
"Winning is so important for those girls because they become queens in their country and are worshipped if they win -- and it changes everything forever for them," she told the Herald Sun. "But there were 82 other girls there and I can't narrow it down, so it's a mystery to me."
She added: "But I know who didn't do it -- my best friends were the girls from Ireland, Belgium, Great Britain, and Guam and I know they wouldn't have done that to me."
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