By HANNAH DREIER and MICHELLE RINDELS
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) - 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
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.
Copyright 2012 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
(ABC News)
