2000 Miss World
Rosangela Pinkard
Miss World 2000 was the 50th anniversary of the Miss World pageant, held at the Millennium Dome in London, United Kingdom on 30 November 2000. Portions of the pageant were also filmed in the Maldives.[3]
At the end of the event, Yukta Mookhey of India crowned Priyanka Chopra of India as Miss World 2000.[4] She is the fifth Miss World and the second successive winner from her country. Internationally, Chopra reigned alongside Miss Universe 2000 titleholder Lara Dutta, marking the most recent time (as of 2016) that any country has held the two most prestigious beauty pageant titles in the world in a single year since 1994.[1][2]
The pageant was the first since the death of pageant owner Eric Morley, whose widow Julia Morley assumed responsibility for the event. The pageant had 95 contestants, the highest number of Miss World participants at that time.
Anyone who watched the Femina Miss India competition knows what a grand event it is. It's even bigger than Miss Universe itself with more international guests and a glamourous stage production that even puts the Oscars to shame. The best part is, there are no time constraints! It should come as no surprise that the contestants themselves are outstanding. This year's Miss India pageant also featured a video collage (with such excellent music) of all the representatives which India sent to international pageants that made the top 3 in their respective pageants. Madhu Sapre started India's rise to success in 1992 right up to Yukta Mookhey's win of the Miss World crown in 1999. It is exactly this kind of collage that I want to see in the 50th Anniversary pageants which are all coming in the next year. The pageants celebrating their 50th Anniversaries are Miss World (December 2000), Miss USA (February 2001), and Miss Universe (May 2001). In this competition, Lara was outstanding and instantly became a favorite for the Miss Universe crown. Now she has it. Interesting to note that whenever there is a tie in the Miss India competition, there seems to be an international winner among the finalists. In 1994, there was a tie between Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai and both these ladies went on to win their respective titles of Miss Universe and Miss World. In 1997, there was a tie and Diana Hayden won the Miss World crown that year and now in the year 2000, there was a tie and now Lara has become Miss Universe! Lara already was an international titleholder, winning Miss Intercontinental in 1997 as well as other competitions. Lara definitely ranks among the best Miss Universes of all time, a true winner right to the finish.
Lara's family is also proud. Her father, Wing Commander, L. K. Dutta celebrated his birthday on the day of the pageant (May 12) although the local date was May 13. The number of congratulatory phone calls to the Dutta home has overwhelmed Lara's mother, Jennifer, and her two older sisters, Sabrina and Cheryl!
The quest began in Cyprus, the birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty. A very nice symbolic choice to host the millennial pageant. There were 79 delegates and so many strong competitors this year making Miss Universe 2000 one of the strongest in Miss Universe history. The opening number was spectacular. All these angelic beings dancing around with the glowballs. Again the preliminary scores are gone. Who knows if they will ever return? One thing of which I disapprove was that this year, only the countries were introduced and they did not say the names of the delegates. They just become nameless faces and that's not right. We only got to hear the top 5 speak this year but all these girls have voices which deserve to be heard. Who stood out in the opening? There was something about the look Cayman Islands gave the camera. Estonia stood right out just as Evelyn always does, Finland has beautiful features, Hungary (that hair was phenomenal and it gave her the Aphrodite look), Namibia bore a striking resemblance to Joan Collins, Philippines looked gorgeous. There's no denying Miss Turks & Caicos was this year's biggest contestant but she was proud of it. As a final grand finale to the opening, last year's Miss Universe, Mpule, acting as Aphrodite rose from the sea-foam in the center stage sitting on a rock. The stage was also magnificent. The stairs looked like a colonial structure.
Sinbad was a good host. His jokes were great and he livened up the show as expected. Ali Landry and Julie Moran returned as commentators and were pretty good this time. They said all the right things and I'm glad they didn't give us that "no emphasis on breasts" speech again because this year that certainly was not the case!!!
As you can see, I predicted Lara's win, I got 5 out of 10 semifinalists plus 4 alternates. I pegged all except Canada. The reason why Philippines and Mexico didn't make it remains a mystery. I consider Nina Ricci Alagao to be far superior to last year's Filipina delegate, Miriam Quiambao who placed 2nd at Miss Universe. Letty Murray of Mexico prepared very hard for this competition with Miss Universe 91, Lupita Jones, and the fact that she won both the "Best in National Costume Award" and the "Clairol Herbal Essences Style Award" proves that. Funny to note, I was expecting Estonia to get Miss Congeniality and for Aruba to make the top ten but it was the other way around!! Japan's Mayu Endo attended some of the most prestigious schools in America and she had an excellent figure. Trinidad's Heidi Rostant was also strong but I don't know what happened with her. I do know that Puerto Rico's Zoraida Fonalledas made a very unwise gown choice and her legs looked enormous during the preliminaries even though she likely had a strong interview so I wasn't surprised she didn't make it.
This year marked the absence of the top 10 interview to make sure that only the best in swimsuit and evening gown made the top 5. I was expecting a gap in the pageant because of that but they filled up that time quite nicely with the opening introductory walk. I actually liked this portion because the girls could show off their modelling moves. I think I'll tell you what you didn't hear Julie say in those portions. Miss Spain was first and looked great. Helen, of course, was this year's controversial figure who almost got disqualified because of some sexy topless ads she had done which appeared in a Spanish magazine but they were not grounds for disqualification, it was more of a publicity stunt for the pageant. Helen also won Miss Photogenic. It's interesting to note that Eugenia Santana, Miss Spain 1993 was also from the Canary Islands and she also won Miss Photogenic, just like Helen! There's something about those Canary Islands! Miss Colombia followed and she hails from Cundinamarca, even though many people were expecting Miss Valle, Carolina Cruz to take the Colombian crown. Catalina looked gorgeous but her smile looked a bit plastered to me and she also seemed somewhat tense throughout the competition. Next was Miss Zimbabwe, who was finally the first Zimbabwean to make the semifinals at Miss Universe. Corrinne was one of many biracial beauties in the top ten. She also had a wonderful message to spread about tolerance because her country has been experiencing racial turmoil recently and Corrinne is half-black, half-white and is strikingly beautiful. Next was Miss Estonia whose personality has been flaunted right from the beginning and it most certainly won over the judges. She just had a unique style and spunk that I really wish more delegates had. Evelyn looked stunning here. Following her was Miss Venezuela, who wasn't originally supposed to go to Miss Universe. Venezuela was in a torn situation. In years past, the winner of Miss Venezuela went to Miss Universe and the 1st runner up went to Miss World but Venezuela did not make the semifinals at Miss World in 1997 and 1998 and it was clear that Miss World was going to keep doing that to Venezuela until they sent their winners. Well, this year they did send the winner to Miss World. Martina Thorogood Heemsen originally won Miss Venezuela in September 1999 and competed at Miss World 1999 in December and she placed 2nd runner up at Miss World. When the Miss Universe organization heard of this Martina was denied entry into Miss Universe for unclear reasons. One suggestion is that they claimed Martina would have an unfair advantage at Miss Universe since she placed so high at Miss World. Another suggestion was that she was first runner up to Miss World and had to be on-hand to replace Yukta Mookhey if anything should happen to her. The first runner up to Martina at Miss Venezuela was Norkys Batista but she was also denied since it was said that Miss Universe allowed only winners, yet several countries sent first runner ups to the pageant (i.e. Switzerland, Cayman Islands, Lebanon, and Yugoslavia all competed at Miss World 99 and Miss Universe 2000). The end result was that Venezuela held a new pageant with ten candidates that all competed at Miss Venezuela in the past 3 years. Claudia won it and she went to Miss Universe, even though Claudia was a semifinalist in the Miss Venezuela pageant that Martina won.
The next half started with Miss South Africa, who many people have said bears a striking resemblance to Loretta Swit who played "Hot Lips" on the show M.A.S.H. and Heather has somewhat big hips which prevented her from getting past the top 10, therefore for these reasons, I hereby dub Heather, "Hot Hips". She looked gorgeous and her hair bounced nicely. Next was Miss USA, Lynnette looked stunning as always with a shorter hairdo. Lynnette, who is half-white, half Puerto Rican, was rescued from an abusive home and adopted at the age of 2 by the Cole family who also raised 130 other foster children. I saw a special program on Lynnette on the day of the pageant on the net and it was about Lynnette's quest for the crown. While the sound was somewhat choppy, her family and her brother talked about her and it also showcased Lynnette's popularity as Miss USA. Lynnette is also the third woman to compete in Miss Teen USA, Miss USA, and Miss Universe. Ali Landry and Kimberly Pressler were the first two. Lynnette truly has done Tennessee proud. Next was Miss Canada, a pleasant surprise in this pageant. Kim is from Edmonton, which is the city that has hosted the Miss Canadian Universe pageant for several years. Edmonton is well known for its very cold winters. I have several relatives living there and they have told me that on some winter days the temperature has gone down to -30 degrees Celsius. Kim is another bi-racial beauty, she has a Ukranian mother and a Chinese father. Her father is also a missionary. Next was Miss Universe herself, India's Lara Dutta. Lara looked spectacular here. Did you notice how she really worked her moves? It really shows that she is a professional model. She has toyed with ideas of several occupations but after her win of Miss Universe, she is destined for stardom. Finally, Miss France, Sonia, yet another biracial beauty, had a great story to tell about her fleeing the genocide in Rwanda where her Rwandan mother and French father owned a company. Unfortunately, she never got to tell it but I'm sure it came up in the preliminary interviews which likely influenced her entry into the top ten. Sonia always has looked so sweet and I couldn't help but notice her constantly stroking that ponytail.
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