Miss New Zealand, Samantha Powell, flew out to Vietnam a couple of weeks ago and the Fairfax Press gave her a bit of a boost yesterday in the local media. It’s in stark contrast to the hatchet job the same publishing group gave her predecessor, Laural Barrett, last year.
   If you head to the Miss Universe site now, there is a good selection of images, plus Sam’s video interview. The more casual shots are the better ones, in my opinion—having photographed her myself there’s a good, real energy about her.
   But it’s hard to be negative about any of the shots of any of the contestants: we are talking Miss Universe here.
   The contestants get to Miss Universe and are given a photo shoot and their video interview fairly early on.
   I have had a brief email from Sam after her arrival and she is loving it. Both pageant director Val Lott and I agree that nothing seems to faze her.