There she is! Miss America! We’ve all seen beauty pageants on TV – Miss America, Miss Universe, Miss U.S.A., etc. The flawless, smiling ladies parading about on stage in dazzling dresses and teeny weeny bikinis that make us mentally plan our next crash diets. These pageant contestants spend hours primping, applying makeup and styling hair to perfection. They rehearse intellectual answers to worldly questions delivered by pageant judges and eagerly reveal their unique talents, such as playing the cello or performing a gymnastic routine. You’d be oh so surprised at some of the celebrities who actually participated in various pageants and donned sparkly tiaras.

Twitter

It looks like congratulations are in order for the couple!

Well, surprise surprise. No, we really mean that.

By all accounts – meaning their respective Twitter accounts – NY Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora and former Miss Universe Leila Lopes are engaged.  Ladies, shed your quick tear over Osi if that’s what you need to do.

Last week, he tweeted a pictured of them “booed up” with a beautiful backdrop and the caption read, “I love you my beautiful fiancée @leilavlopes.” She then tweeted back the above picture with the same caption.

They’ve been thanking people for their kind words for a few days now so it looks like this is official.

Perhaps this is engagement is so surprising because it appears they’ve only been together since November. They were first spotted when Osi attended her party as she bid farewell to her Miss Universe title.  Prior to that, he was seen in September with Elise Neal in what looked like a date. He’s also dated Selita Ebanks and Free, formerly of 106th and Park.

Not to be outdone, Leila was spotted with Russell Simmons most of last summer. In fact, he told her not to become a publicity Slore after he accused her of sending the NY Post’s “Page 6″ a note that he’d sent her flowers the night of her farewell party. He warned her not to “stir up sh…”

So yes, the fact that these two are engaged so quickly is pretty surprising. But hey, “they say” when you know, you know…right?

Source: Strangecosmos.com

Today Miss Universe pageant officials announced that transgender women will be allowed to compete for the crown in next year’s competition. The announcement comes just in time for trials which begin this summer, and one week after the committee made the decision to allow transgender contestant  Jenna Talackova to compete this year.

The 23-year-old Vancouver resident underwent a sex change four years ago and was initially disqualified from the Miss Universe Canada pageant citing a rule that said she must be “naturally born” a woman. Jenna plead for her right to compete, saying:

“I am a woman. I was devastated, and I felt that excluding me for the reason that they gave was unjust. I have never asked for any special consideration. I only wanted to compete.”

GLAAD pushed for the competition to extend acceptance to transgender women in the competition and now both organizations are working together to revise the current policy.

“We want to give credit where credit is due, and the decision to include transgender women in our beauty competitions is a result of our ongoing discussions with GLAAD,” said Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organization.

“We have a long history of supporting equality for all women, and this was something we took very seriously.”

Donald Trump, who runs the Miss Universe organization, will have to approve the final written rules along with NBC, which co-owns the competition, but the Donald has already said he wishes Jenna the best of luck in this year’s pageant.

Do you think transgender women should compete in the Miss Universe pageant?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

More on Madame Noire!

• 7 Ways He Wants You To Be Better Than His Last Girlfriend
• The Simmons Family (Including Ex-Wife Valerie Vaughn) Pose For Ebony’s Mother’s Day Issue
• “Ask A Black Man” Episode 2: The Dating Episode
• Sheree’s $750K Salary Demand Likely Got Her Cut
• Stripper Vanity Wonder Writes Book On Undercover Butt Shots Culture
• Columnist Fired For Article On What White Parents Should Tell Kids About Blacks
• Am I Raising a Spoiled Brat?
• Beyonce, Jay-Z & Blue Ivy Head to St. Barts

(Washington Post) — At the Miss Universe pageant Monday, Lelia Lopes of Angola emerged from a field of 89 beauty queens to win the crown. She is the first contestant from the African country to do so.  The 25-year-old told reporters she planned to continue doing “everything that my country needs,” including work with poor children and elderly and continuing the “fight against HIV.”  Lopes’s country is marked by extreme poverty despite its rich reservoirs of oil.

Read More…

by Cynthia Wright

Leila Lopes, 25 of Angola seemed to be just as stunned as the rest of the world, after she won the coveted Miss Universe crown last night. The competition, broadcasted live from São Paulo, Brazil, showcased 89 lovely international beauty queens in a whirlwind, samba dance party to celebrate the competitions 60th anniversary.

While the crowd was – at first – heavily endorsing all the Latin women – Lopes gradually won them over with her grace and charm. As the Latin women faded out of the competition, it didn’t take Lopes long to be put on the same pedestal as her Brazilian-born opponent, Priscila Machado (2nd Runner-up). Although there hasn’t been much outcry about the judge’s decision, some have mentioned that third runner-up, Shamcey Supsup, a graduate from the University of the Philippines with an architecture degree, should have perhaps captured the prize.

Yet, it was hard for most to deny that during the competition, the Portuguese-speaking beauty seemed to be the entire package, showcasing that she was beautiful inside and out.
When it came to her question during the interview portion of the contest, Lopes was asked whether she would change anything about her physical appearance. ”Thank God I’m very satisfied with the way God created me and I wouldn’t change a thing. I consider myself a woman endowed with inner beauty. I have acquired many wonderful principles from my family and I intend to follow these for the rest of my life.”

Many believe that statement cemented her as the international winner. Lopes is the first winner from Angola and one of the precious few black women to ever win the crown.

Her win shines a bright light onto Angola, which has over 18 million people, of which 38 percent of the population is living in poverty; while 2 percent of the population suffers from either HIV or AIDS. Even though, that doesn’t paint a pretty picture, Angola has also seen a lot of positive growth due to the country’s oil production, with exports bringing in over $47 billion last year.

Those numbers caused the country to receive a lot of unwanted attention from anti-government protestors, with things culminating when the Human Rights Watch criticized the country’s officials, stating that the government needs to pass the oil wealth down to its people.

Still, Lopes’ wants everyone to know that she is not just a pretty face. She is also a business student and has made it her mission to assist her country in any way that she can. Currently, that includes working with the poor children, the elderly and helping to fight the battle against HIV in the Angolan populations. With her crown, Lopes now believes that this will allow her to do much more for her developing country.

It is Angola, not Lopes, which will benefit most from this new visibility. Many Americans would probably say they never heard of Angola before the Miss Universe pageant. The country, located in the Southern region of the continent, was a Portugese colony, which explains Lopes’ name and fluency in the language. Tourism will undeniably get a boost in the coming years and just the fact that more people in the world will now recognize the name Angola will do immeasurable wonders for the economy down the line.

Cynthia Wright is an avid lover of all things geeky. When she isn’t freelancing, she can be found on her blog BGA Life and on Twitter at @cynisright.

After a winning many competitions and going up against some of the world’s most beautiful women in some swanky costumes, Leila Lopes of Angola was crowned Miss Universe in Sao, Paulo, Brazil last night. Angola, for those who don’t know, is a country in south-central Africa. It was once a Portuguese colony. But now that the geography mini-lesson is over, last night Lopes stepped ahead of the pack after answering a question about inner beauty so fervidly. When asked what physical trait she would get changed if she could, she answered:

“Thank God I’m very satisfied with the way God created me and I wouldn’t change a thing,” Lopes said. “I consider myself a woman endowed with inner beauty. I have acquired many wonderful principles from my family and I intend to follow these for the rest of my life.”

While Miss Brazil would have been thought to be the front runner (she was second-runner up), Miss Philippines, Shamcey Supsup, was actually a heavy favorite (one article today read, “It’s Miss Angola, but Supsup shines”). Her loss to Lopes has many of her followers crying foul–you know how haters are. But Lopes was a crowd favorite, especially since she speaks Portuguese, Brazil’s main language. And, she’s just gorgeous! Why wouldn’t you love her? Lopes says she’s already done a lot of work for various social causes, including helping with the fight against HIV. She told TIME:

“I’ve worked with various social causes. I work with poor kids, I work in the fight against HIV. I work to protect the elderly and I have to do everything that my country needs,” she said. “I think now as Miss Universe I will be able to do much more.”

We sure hope so! It’s definitely nice to see a black woman, an African woman at that, win something so prestigious. I guess all that talk about black women being the most unattractive females out there was bull, right? Yep, I thought so too…