When celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, one of the five judges at Sunday's Miss Universe 2015, heard host Steve Harvey announce that the winner is Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez, his initial thought was "this is rigged."
Being one of the judges, Hilton was sure how the voting went. He reveals that all four judges picked Miss Philippines Pia Wurtzbach to be number 1. These are former Miss Universe Olivia Culpo comedian Niecy Nash, former American football player Emmit Smith and himself. The fifth judge was the global audience and the 77 contestants, reports the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Hilton admits that until the last round, he was unsure who would be select to become Miss Universe 2015. "I went with my gut and voted for Miss Philippines," he shares. The blogger adds that he later found it was a unanimous decision among them.
His statement should put to rest the claim of Colombians, who are planning to file a lawsuit against the Miss Universe organization, that they were cheated of the crown. It was all a pure and honest mistake that Harvey had admitted and apologized to both Gutierrez and Wurtzbach, although he is now blaming the teleprompter.
Perez also cited three reasons why he voted for the half-Filipina, half-German over Gutierrez whom he concedes the Latina is more beautiful. In his podcast with co-host Chris Booker, Perez says that Wurtzbach came to win, but Gutierrez came to lose because she came "as if she had already won" because of her intoxicating confidence. He adds that Wurtzbach surprised him, even if Gutierrez was among the frontrunners, because Miss Philippines showed her fierce and fabulous side, and she "came with something to prove."
Another reason he believes that Wurtzbach deserves the title is that Gutierrez came across to judges as bitchy and arrogant during the Q&A portion. He cites her "awful side-eye" glance at the translator because she was not happy with the pace or the way the translator was translating. Perez stresses that Miss Philippines also gave a better answer in both rounds of Q&A.
Lastly, Hilton says that Gutierrez was channeling Sofia Vergara, while Wurtzbach was just being herself. "I felt she earned it and won it fair and square," the celebrity blogger insists.
Meanwhile, E! News reveals that one of the reasons why Harvey flubbed, aside from initially admitting it was an honest mistake is that the TV game show host did not attend the all of the show's final run-through and practice. He, specifically, did not practice the ending which was when he committed the gaffe that just made beauty contest history.
Harvey is now blaming the teleprompter, saying it wrote "Colombia," although his version of the story - which he posted on Snapchat but later deleted it - differs with Miss Australia Monika Radulovic who says she and the other contestants saw "Philippines" written on the teleprompter.