I just saw on CNN that Miss Vietnam may be stripped of her title because of her nude appearance on an unnamed adult website... anyone with any info on this?
(I would not have picked the winner as the best looking one)
Miss Vietnam quits; officials to alter pageant procedures
By Cecilia Kang
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...cal/7915704.htm Kim Hoang Tong officially gave up her title as Miss Vietnam of
Northern California on Monday, after revelations that she posed nude
for an adult Web site jolted the conservative local Vietnamese-
American community.
Pageant organizers said they accepted 21-year-old Tong's resignation
during the weekend and planned to hand the crown to runner-up Anh
Nguyet Hua of El Cerrito on Friday.
The contest, which coincides with Tet Nguyen Dan Lunar New Year
festivities, emphasizes traditional Vietnamese values and a desire
to learn and spread the culture and language of Vietnam to younger
generations.
Tong, a De Anza College student, will donate part of her $5,000 in
cash and prizes from the pageant to causes that help Vietnamese-
American youths, said Tuy Le, executive producer of the annual
competition. He said she also will work with the pageant committee
to ``prevent young Vietnamese from making the same mistake.''
``We wanted her to give up the title because we have higher
standards for our competition,'' Le said. ``But we also want to give
her a second chance because she had earned the title and had turned
her life around.''
Tong, of San Jose, who declined to be interviewed for this article,
plans to be a dental hygienist and is looking toward to putting the
scandal behind her, said friend and pageant committee member Chris
Vu. Organizers said the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants will
continue to be a role model by meeting with young Vietnamese-
Americans to tell them her story in hopes that others will learn
from her misstep.
Tong recounted in a news conference last week that when she was 19,
she left home in fear of confronting her parents about her job at a
tattoo parlor. She stayed with a friend for three months and, in
need of money, posed for an adult Web site for $400.
The scandal, organizers say, will make the selection process more
thorough and judges plan to ask specifically whether candidates have
posed nude in the past. In addition, they plan to conduct the search
for Miss Vietnam candidates throughout the year, Le said, as opposed
to the two to three months they usually spend fielding candidates.
Runner-up Hua, who also goes by the name Nancy, said she isn't
celebrating her new crown but is trying to support Tong, whom she
befriended during the competition last month.
``She ended up choosing the wrong path when she was young and
unfortunately she is paying the consequences now,'' said Hua, who
recently graduated from Milpitas College of Massage Therapy and
Electrolysis and helps run her parents' beauty salon. ``At least now
she can confront it.''