MEXICO CITY – This year’s Miss Universe pageant is missing one of its most noted contestants: Miss Sweden, a statuesque blond whose country is one of the few to win the crown three times. Isabel Lestapier Winqvist, 20, has dropped out because Swedes say the Miss Universe competition, airing live Monday night from Mexico City’s National Auditorium, is degrading to women and weighed down by scandals. The pageant culminates on May 28. The 15 finalists from a field of 77 contestants were announced early in Monday’s show. They were picked last week during preliminary judging in the contest’s swimsuit, evening gown and interview categories. Their names were not announced until Monday, allowing all 77 to be introduced to the television audience.

Designers who helped select the dress from among 30 entries said they had wanted something that represented the nation’s culture and history, especially since Mexico City was hosting the pageant this year. The modified dress will depict landscapes of corn and cactus fields and decorative elements from Indian cultures. But the loudest cheer was saved for Miss Mexico, Rosa Maria Ojeda, whose dress was decorated with a montage of Mexican food, including corn on the cob and tropical fruit, and symbols of pre-Hispanic cultures. Rosa Maria Ojeda, Miss Mexico 2007, parades during a Miss Universe’s native dress fashion show in Mexico City, Sunday, May 20, 2007. They will compete for the 56th Miss Universe 2007’s title next May 28 in Mexico City. (AP)
“A beauty contest is very far from being the right place to vent political and religious ideologies”.
Miss Mexico is toning down her Miss Universe pageant dress _ not because it’s too slinky or low-cut, but because its bullet-studded belt and images of hangings from a 1920s uprising have outraged Mexicans.