Miss Universe: Olivia Culpo, Miss USA, brings Miss Universe crown home for U.S.
Miss USA, Olivia Culpo, waves to the crowd after being crowned Miss Universe, Dec. 19, 2012, in Las Vegas. /AP
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CBS News/ December 20, 2012, 2:31 AM
LAS VEGAS A
20-year-old Boston University sophomore and a self-described
"cellist-nerd" brought the Miss Universe crown back to the United States
for the first time in more than a decade when she won the televised
contest Wednesday.
Olivia Culpo beat out 88 other beauty
queens from six continents at the Planet Hollywood casino on the Las
Vegas Strip to take the title from outgoing champion Leila Lopes of
Angola.
Culpo wore a tight navy blue mini-dress with a sequined bodice as
she walked on stage for the competition's opening number. Later in the
night, she strutted in a purple and blue bikini, and donned a wintery
red velvet gown with a plunging neckline.
Culpo's
coronation ends a long losing spell for the U.S. in the competition
co-owned by Donald Trump and NBC. An American had not won the Miss
Universe title since Brook Lee won in 1997.
No one seemed
more surprised than Culpo's family, who "looked at her like she had
three heads" when told them she was entering the Miss Rhode Island
contest last year, her father Peter recalled.
"We didn't know a thing about pageants," he said.
She
won that contest in a rented $20 dress with a hole in it and then began
working out, dieting, and studying current events on flashcards to
compete for the Miss USA crown.
Culpo was good enough
during preliminary Miss Universe contests to be chosen as one of 16
semifinalists who moved on to compete in the main show. Her bid lasted
through swimsuit, evening wear, and interview competitions that saw cuts
after each round.
She won over the judges even after
tripping slightly during the evening gown competition. Telecasters
pointed it out but also noted her poised recovery.
Moments before she won, Culpo was asked whether she had she had ever done something she regretted.
"I'd
like to start off by saying that every experience no matter what it is,
good or bad, you'll learn from it. That's just life," she said. "But
something I've done I've regretted is probably picking on my siblings
growing up, because you appreciate them so much more as you grow older."
One
of those siblings, 17-year-old Gus, was cheering from the front row
with his sister's glittering Miss Rhode Island sash wrapped around his
shoulders
Miss Philippines, Janine Tugonon, came in
second, while Miss Venezuela, Irene Sofia Esser Quintero, placed third.
All the contestants spent the past two weeks in Sin City, where they
posed in hardhats at a hotel groundbreaking, took a painting lesson, and
pranked hotel guests by hiding in their rooms.
After the
show, Culpo appeared wearing a white gold crown atop her long brown
hair and told a group of reporters she hoped to bring the country some
good news in the wake of the deadly school shooting in Connecticut.
"It's
such an honor to be representing the USA in an international beauty
contest in spite of all the tragedy that's happened in this country
lately," she said. "I really hope that this this will raise everybody's
spirits a little."
The daughter of two professional
musicians, Culpo grew up in Cranston and spent her summers at band camp.
She has played the cello alongside world-renowned classical musician
Yo-Yo Ma, and followed in her parents' footsteps with performances at
Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Her father called her the
"nerdiest" of her siblings, and her brother recalled that she was
"really chubby and sort of weird when she was younger."
They
speculated that the same single-mindedness that helped her master the
cello in second grade propelled her rapid rise through the beauty
pageant ranks.
With her promotion, Miss Maryland Nana Meriwether becomes the new Miss USA.
The
Miss Universe pageant was back in Las Vegas this year after being held
in Sao Paulo in 2011. It aired live on NBC and was streamed to more than
100 countries.
The panel of 10 judges included singer
Cee Lo Green, "Iron Chef" star Masaharu Morimoto and Pablo Sandoval of
the San Francisco Giants.
Asked on the red carpet whether
he found playing in the World Series or judging the beauty pageant to
be more difficult, Sandoval said both were hard.
As Miss
Universe, Culpo will receive an undisclosed salary, a wardrobe fit for a
queen, a limitless supply of beauty products, and a luxury apartment in
New York City.
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