MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANT 2009 and Miss Universe Organization
Posted on January 17, 2009
Filed Under East meets West | 3 Comments
Miss Universe 2009, the 58th Miss Universe beauty pageant will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, during late July or early August. An official announcement revealing the specific date of the pageant is expected anytime by the Miss Universe Organization. Miss Universe 2008, Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela, will crown her successor at the end of this event. About 80 countries and territories are expected to compete and the pageant will be broadcast live on NBC and Telemundo. Croatia was interested in hosting Miss Universe 2009 but they backed out of the project. The Miss Universe Organization is the organization that currently owns and runs the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA beauty contests. Based in New York, it is owned jointly by NBC Universal and Donald Trump. The current president is Paula Shugart. The organization sells television rights to the pageants in other countries.
As you may recall, the 2008 MISS USA PAGEANT took place at PLANET HOLLYWOOD in Las Vegas last April. The event was so well-received, that Las Vegas & PLANET HOLLYWOOD signed a 2 year deal to keep the pageant here. The smart folks at the LAS VEGAS CONVENTION & VISITORS AUTHORITY, namely, Rossi Ralenkotter, Vince Alberta, & Rob Dondero, got into negotiations with the pageant owner, DONALD TRUMP, as well as Miss Universe president, PAULA SHUGART to host the event there and have succeeded too. Probably, this means that Las Vegas might become the “Pageant Capitol of the World, apart from being the gambling capitol too. Dubai too wanted to host the pageant badly, and were more than happy to pay a sizable site fee of over $10,000,000, plus goods & services. But, the Dubai organizers had one stipulation. They did not want MISS ISRAEL to compete! Of course, Donald & Miss Universe would never tolerate that kind of horrible nonsense. And now it looks like it could be Las Vegas & Planet Hollywood (the dynamic duo of CEO, Robert Earl & prez, Mike Mecca) to the rescue!In Miss Universe 1996, the casino capital of the world hosted it and won by Alicia Machado of Venezuela. Las Vegas also hosted the annual grandslam pageant in 1991 (won by Lupita Jones of Mexico).
But, the price of beauty ain’t cheap. Last year’s host country, Vietnam, forked-over nearly $15-million for the event. $8,000,000 for the site fee, & about $7,000,000 in ancillary expenses. The amount for Las Vegas to secure the glam-fest -$5,000,000, with Planet Hollywood picking up much of the additional cost for goods & services, i.e. housing, meals, transportation, hairspray. The pageant would take place in July or August, with the new MISS UNIVERSE crowned live on KVBC, Channel 3.
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i’m gonna make my own journal
very lucky you.
Best MUO trio in years! I love all of them!