PAGEANT insiders in the Philippines felt something was wrong the moment host Steve Harvey announced Colombia’s Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo as this year’s Miss Universe.
News5 entertainment reporter MJ Marfori, who has been following local and global beauty pageants, told the Inquirer, “I knew it was wrong right away.”
Marfori also said she “wasn’t surprised” when the comedian went back onstage to confess his mistake, and later declared the Philippines’ Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach the true winner.
“God works in mysterious ways. We knew Pia won. Her answers were on point, she had the crowd’s support and the online push,” added Marfori, who watched the pageant live together with members of local media at the viewing hosted by the Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc. (BPCI) in Owner’s Circle at Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
ABS-CBN entertainment reporter Ginger Conejero said: “As soon as the camera panned back to the host, I knew there was a mistake.”
“As soon as they said Colombia, your heart sinks, it drops, because you know [Wurtzbach] put on an incredible performance and so deserving of the crown,” said Conejero, a former beauty queen.
BPCI insider Gines Enriquez told the Inquirer: “Just like everybody in this room, we were shocked. We were expecting Pia to win. She aced all events.”
And after Harvey announced his mistake, Enriquez said the organization shared Wurtzbach’s victory with the entire nation.
‘She owned the stage’
Looking past Harvey’s blunder, Conejero said she was convinced Wurtzbach had the crown in the bag because “her answers were phenomenal, she’s gorgeous, she owned the stage.”
She added: “She was a natural on stage. It didn’t look like she was super rehearsed. Her body was flawless, her face was gorgeous. She was also very candid, and it worked in her favor.”
Conejero said she also thought the other candidates saw these qualities, which may have been a deciding factor in Wurtzbach’s victory.
The 77 other candidates who were not part of the Top 3 were announced as the “sixth judge” during the culminating portion of the ceremonies, presented at the Axis Theater of Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Transformation
“I can tell you she gave more than 100 percent each time. She was the alpha female, and she took this role among all the ladies,” Enriquez said.
But in order to transform into a woman deserving of the Miss Universe title, Wurtzbach had to forget about being an actress, he said.
“Pia’s ‘backbone’ is being an actress. During her training, we told her to stop acting like an actress and be a queen,” said Enriquez, who had witnessed Wurtzbach’s journey to the crown since 2013 when she first joined the Binibining Pilipinas pageant and finished as first runner-up.
He added: “She has spunk. People like her as an actress. But she had to transform into a queen, and she succeeded.”
It is still not clear when Wurtzbach will fly back home, Enriquez said.
“We’re trying to get in touch with her now. You’ll be the first to know,” he said.
“She’ll be based in New York, spending her reign there. We will see if the Miss Universe Organization (MUO) will allow her to celebrate Christmas here and share the crown with you,” he added.
In the past years, the Miss Universe winners were hauled immediately to New York, and it took months before they could fly back to their home countries.
“Wurtzbach will be helping out in the MUO activities. She will always be with them,” Enriquez said.
