This Memorial Day weekend while many were displaying patriotic sentiment through the grilling of meats Rachel Smith was representing the U.S. in the Miss Universe competition. I'm only familiar with Rachel because of her appearance on the Oprah show. Apparently, she was an intern at Harpo Studios, and having heard that she had won the Miss USA pageant, Oprah had her on to discuss her experiences. Usually, pageant contestants are only interesting to me as targets for sarcastic humor. They remind me of Stepford sorority girls. Anyway, the few impressions the interview left me with were:
1) This girl really hasn't faced very much adversity in her life.
2) How stupid it was to have her go on to discuss Oprah's leadership Academy in South Africa because really what wisdom could this Beauty Queen impart to girls in South Africa?
3) There are a lot of people that work for Oprah and she has no idea who they are. Since it was obvious that this was the first face to face meeting between the two of them. Did Oprah just use the connection to further remind the audience about her leadership academy?
4) blah blah blah why isn't Sylvia Browne on Montel today?
The interview was mid-day filler for me, nothing else.
Slowly, though as the blogosphere starts to awaken from its BBQ induced coma, reports are circulating that Miss USA was booed all through out the Miss Universe competition. Of course I had to see the footage for myself and even though it was amusing (come on it totally is!). I felt so sorry for Rachel. And if the boos weren't enough, she falls flat on her ass during the evening gown competition! I'm pretty sure her confidence must be pretty well shattered and still she keeps a smile plastered to her face. A nation is basically booing her and Ms. Smith holds it together. Even though I felt pretty ambivalent about her before I had to give it up to her for going through all of that with an unshattered sense of decorum. Kinda makes me feel like Rachel should have belted out "And I'm Telling You," like Effie in Dreamgirls. Not that the booings would have stopped, but I would have loved her all the better for it. If adversity is what I wanted to give her some sort of validity there it was, and is since its playing over and over again on youtube, for all the world to see.
Comments on sites about the incident are ranging from a call to oust all Mexicans from the United States to teach them a lesson. To calls, asking the Miss Universe organization to boycott Mexico for its boorish behavior. To others calling for a race war against Latinos. Really what is the logical response to such outlandish requests? Isn't it that sort of attitude what fostered this reaction in the first place?
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