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Event Information:
Miss
Universe is the 61st Miss
Universe pageant, and will be held
on December 19, in PH Live at
the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino
in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.
Leila Lopes from Angola will crown
her successor at the end of the
event. Over 89 countries and
territories will participate in this
year.
Miss
Universe is an annual international
beauty contest run by the Miss
Universe Organization. The pageant
is the most publicized beauty
contest in the world with 600
million viewers. The first use
of the title "Miss Universe" was as
part of International Pageant of
Pulchritude which began in 1926.
These events, the first
international contests, lasted until
1935 when the Great Depression and
other events preceding World War II
led to their demise. This pageant
had no direct relationship with the
modern event.
The
Miss Universe Organization, a New
York–based partnership between NBC
and Donald Trump, has run the
contest since June 20, 2002. The
current president is Paula Shugart.
The Organization sells television
rights to the pageant in other
countries, and also produces the
Miss USA and Miss Teen USA contests
with the winner of Miss USA
representing the USA in Miss
Universe. Each year, Miss Universe
organizers receive bids from
organizations who wish to select the
Miss Universe contestant for a
country. This allows competition
between different pageants to hold a
country's license, as happened for
Miss Italy and Miss France for
example, when the licenses for their
respective traditional organizations
were revoked (the usual Miss France
competition returned in 2004).
Usually a country's candidate
selection involves pageants in major
cities, with the winners competing
in a national pageant, but this does
not always occur. For example, in
2000 Australia's national pageant
was abolished as a relic of a bygone
era, with Australian delegates
instead chosen by a modeling agency.
Such "castings" are generally
discouraged by the Miss Universe
Organization, which prefers national
pageants that preserve an aura of
respectability and competition.
Despite being "cast", Miss
Australia, Jennifer Hawkins, was
chosen as Miss Universe 2004. Later
that year, Australia resumed its
national pageant and chose Michelle
Guy as Miss Universe Australia 2005.
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