If you’re somewhere where Miss Universe 2008 is not being broadcast live, head over to Michael Josh’s blog to get his live-blogging updates. Thank you, Michael, for this service for netizens. The updates are fairly regular.
   Lucire wishes to thank the Fairfax Press for its support of Samantha Powell, Miss New Zealand, this year—Stuff has a new article online today.

PS.: The top 15 are: Miss Venezuela, Miss Kosovo, Miss Mexico, Miss Vietnam, Miss South Africa, Miss Australia, Miss Japan, Miss Dominican Republic, Miss Italy, Miss Columbia, Miss Russia, Miss Hungary, Miss Czech Republic, Miss Spain and Miss USA. Good luck to these young ladies.

Tennis player Maria Sharapova has been busy—from endorsing Sony Ericsson a few weeks ago to Land Rover on Friday, celebrating its 60th anniversary.
   The tennis player went to Malibu, Calif. for the Indian-owned car brand’s celebrations, joining actress Camilla Belle, soccer players Michael Bradley and Clint Mathis, and actors Travis van Winkle and Luke Ford.
   In 1948, Rover Cars, looking to keep its factories occupied with a stopgap model after World War II, decided to remake the Willys Jeep using aluminium.
   But the model proved so successful than when the new postwar Rovers arrived in 1949, the Land Rover continued in production.
   British Leyland, which Land Rover was part of, released the Range Rover in 1970, marrying the off-road ability of the Land Rover with the luxury and power of Rover passenger cars.
   Eventually, Rover and Land Rover became part of BMW, which later sold Land Rover to Ford. This year Ford sold it to Tata Motors of India.
   The celebration is a sign that it’s business as usual for the famous British brand—and that Tata management is aware of its new unit’s heritage.

Samantha Powell’s “controversial” pose at Miss Universe

I knew it was too good to be true: a Miss New Zealand competition that can pass without a foreign-owned newspaper getting on her case.
   This time, it’s our Irish friends at The New Zealand Herald who have decided to put a bit of stress Sam’s way, for the usual tall-poppy agenda. I expected better as the Herald’s business journos, for example, are usually of a high standard.
   There are two competitions that produce a national beauty queen: Miss Universe New Zealand and Miss World New Zealand. This magazine is a sponsor of the former.
   The Herald article highlights Miss World New Zealand’s winner criticizing Miss Universe New Zealand over her performance of a haka—and the pukana which only men are meant to perform.
   Anyone who knows Sam will know that this was performed with a bit of naïveté and with good intentions, by someone proud of her country.
   All New Zealanders should be proud to propagate Māori culture as the alternative would be to ignore it and pretend we are mere facsimile of Great Britain, as many Kiwis did 50 years ago.
   And while no one in the pageant expected her to do the haka, I bear her no ill will.
   On culture itself, it is right for some to be upset if elements are being wrongly performed, but this does not make Māoridom unique. I’ve seen enough lion dances performed badly but choose to bite my tongue. It’s my choice. Māori are the same on this aspect: some will see Sam’s haka as a faux pas and others will see the good intention behind it. Again the story hints at some great chasm that one haka caused over in Vietnam. I doubt it.
   It is right we are talking about this issue—I wish it had been reported more fairly.
   I know of no Māori who, while rightly guarding against improper use of their culture, would deny a chance for it to be promoted or be rendered so “untouchable” to those who came later to Aotearoa. In fact, one kaumatua I spoke to says it is our duty, regardless of our ethnic origins, to be promoting Māori culture when we are abroad.
   Sometimes, because we have not been immersed in the culture, we err. It is to be expected. And, when the one who errs is not of our own race, we forgive and we educate, but we do not criticize.
   I also question whether Miss World New Zealand Kahurangi Taylor would have been so critical of Samantha Powell because launching into a fellow beauty queen would tarnish her own chances at her international competition. I have a feeling she was probably more diplomatic than the article made her out to be.
   The two pageants have always had a respectful co-existence, not what I see reported in the Herald, which actually do not help Miss Taylor’s own position.
   The international Miss World competition, as with the Miss Universe competition, do not have judges and administrators who are well versed in New Zealand’s cultural issues and one risks being painted as intolerant—even if one’s own position is right.
   The article paints a negative light and says pageant director Val Lott hung up the phone rather than comment to the newspaper. This, I understand, did not happen.
   Fact: the journalist hung up on Val after she refused to give the telephone number for Suzanne Tamaki, the costume designer. Fair enough: Val may well have learned of Suzanne’s number privately. This looks like a poor attempt at getting back at Val.
   I believe Val did the right thing given that even this matter of who hung up on whom is questionable.
   I would have not bothered with answering the Herald if I knew my comments would be taken out of context, and many New Zealand broadsheets have been guilty of doing that in their quest to move into tabloid journalism.
   Val’s own husband has Māori blood and to suggest that anyone in the pageant is insensitive to the Māori culture is far-fetched.
   In fact, the same pageant recently connected with a magazine promoting Māori culture so they could highlight Rhonda Grant, the second runner-up who is fluent in te reo. It is important to promote culture in a cultural competition.
   And if Val did say people who took a great interest in the story are ‘empty-headed,’ then that is not an unfair opinion.
   Two words were quoted—but we simply don’t know the context.
   Val means that the story is trivial and we should treat it as such, rather than a matter at the centre of some national crisis, as the newspaper tends to believe.
   But exaggerating a crisis is an easy way to get a story past a sub-editor or editor—or, the journalist reported everything accurately and someone higher up decided to have a bit of fun for commercial reasons, in the quest for ‘empty-headed’ readers.
   It’s yet another reason to question our fourth estate: if the mainstream media cannot get their facts right on a beauty pageant, can we really trust them to report greater issues?
   And if it were about trying to harm Sam’s chances (the timing, days before the telecast, is suspicious), then the story is ineffective: the final 15 were selected days ago. After all, the pukana photograph has been around for nearly a month and was even run by the Fairfax newspapers then—with no complaints.
   Sam, having the strength of character that made her Miss New Zealand, is still going to wow the judges during the telecast.

Dorian Leigh, who graced numerous McCall’s, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue covers and Revlon advertisements in the 1940s and 1950s, has died aged 91 in Falls Church, Va., according to her family.
   Leigh was married ?ve times and her life during her modelling years was well documented by the gossip magazines of the day.
   She was born Dorian Parker on April 23, 1917 in San Antonio, Texas. According to her daughter, Young Eve Paciello, as reported in the International Herald–Tribune, Parker’s middle name was Leigh.
   Parker attended Randolph Macon College, majoring in English. She had a stint helping to design aircraft wings for the Eastern Aircraft Corp. before joining Republic Pictures as a copywriter.
   At 27, she went to the Harry Conover Agency, where Conover told her to go to editor Diana Vreeland at Harper’s Bazaar. She wound up on the June 1946 cover.
   Because her father did not approve of her career, she was asked to drop her surname, according to the Herald–Tribune.
   She stood at 5 ft 5 in, and had an hourglass ?gure.
   Her most famous Revlon campaign photographs were shot by Richard Avedon.
   In her post-modelling years, she opened an agency in Paris and was involved with restaurants and catering. She attended the Cordon Bleu cooking school. She also authored numerous books about food. Her son, T. L. Hawkins, says that his mother collaborated with Martha Stewart on recipes.
   Hawkins also said Leigh was an active Democrat in the 1990s.
   She was the eldest sister of Suzy Parker, herself a model. 
   Leigh is survived by three children, three grandchildren and two step-grandchildren.

The winner of Britain’s Next Top Model has been announced as Alex Evans, 18, of Cranleigh, Surrey, after winning against Catherine Thomas, also 18, in the Cape Town-set ?nalé.
   Stefanie Wilson, 22, came third.
   Miss Evans takes home a contract with Models 1 and appear in a £100,000 campaign for Max Factor. She will also appear in a cover photo shoot with Company.
   She says, ‘Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I could achieve anything like this … but now I have proved myself wrong.’
   The 14 contestants in the reality show’s fourth series on Living TV were coached by experts including Zandra Rhodes. Judges included Lisa Snowdon, photographer Huggy Ragnarsson and stylist Gerry DeVeaux.
   Miss Evans had plans to become a journalist if she had not been successful in modelling. She recently completed her A levels and is waiting for the results.

July 7 marks the anniversary of the passing of our friend Colin Morley, who was killed in the 7-7 terrorist bombings in London three years ago. Since then we’ve tried to keep Colin’s memory alive by giving an award named for him at the Medinge Group, for the best branded non-profit organization. My wishes go out to Ros and their children: Colin remains a great influence with his kindness, generosity and expertise.

Preliminaries for Miss Universe began Sunday, where the contes­tants model in their bikinis; and the inter­views on Monday are three minutes long, with three judges.
   This surprises me, because we inter­viewed the contes­tants in New Zealand over a mini­mum of 10 minutes with ?ve judges—and I dare say, though I never timed the sessions, that we might well have hit 15 minutes in some cases.
   I do know that the meet-and-greet and inter­views took us well into 11 p.m. this year and midnight last year.
   It’s certainly harder for judges to know the candid­ates based on a cursory interview, but I imagine with a larger group of girls, time is more limited.
   Samantha Powell, Miss New Zea­land 2008, will have less time to wow the judges in a three-minute pitch, which in some respects goes against the more relaxed way New Zealand­ers, in general, conduct even busi­ness meetings. It’s not about the pitch, but getting to know someone.
   Nevertheless, every contestant is on an equal footing.
   What we tried to do was ?nd someone who could remain con?dent regardless of the situation, and I think Sam—who can think well on her feet—was the right choice. 
   Reading her email back home, details of which I won’t reveal for privacy, Sam isn’t fazed and she will do well for Aotearoa.
   I’m sure readers in New Zealand join me in wishing her well as the competition kicks into high gear—with the major presentation show on Wednesday. Good luck, Sam!

As reported earlier, Kylie Minogue has been to Buckingham Palace to collect her OBE, which was presented by HRH Prince Charles.
   Minogue arrived in a chauffeured limousine and had chatted and joked with the Prince during the investiture. She wore a cream dress with gold high heels.
   Attending in support of the Australian-born singer were her parents and her sister Dannii, who had rushed from the filming of The X Factor.
   Minogue said, ‘It was surprisingly emotional. I expected to be a little nervous, obviously very excited, but it was very emotional seeing all these people from different walks of life joining together for this event.’
   Her OBE was awarded for services to entertainment by HM Queen Elizabeth II as part of her New Year’s Honours.