The 2015 Miss Universe Pageant (Photo : Getty Images)
Because of the embarrassment to Colombia caused by host Steve Harvey's wrong announcement of the winner on Sunday of Miss Universe, two Colombian lawyers are filing a lawsuit against the Miss Universe organization.
The De la Espriella lawyers tweeted, "The crown is an acquired right that cannot be taken away from us. At this moment we're writing the lawsuit," quotes Miamiherald.
However, Colombia would likely have difficulty proving that the Miss Universe 2015 crown really belongs to their representative, Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez. Besides the cue card that Harvey showed on TV, other candidates also saw the word "Philippines" flashed on the teleprompter which shocked the 77 contestants since Harvey said "Colombia," reports GMA News.
"It said 'Philippines, please take your first walk as Miss Universe' after Colombia was crowned. So we were looking at each other thinking, "What are we waiting?" recalls Miss Australia Monika Radulovic, the fourth runner-up.
The gaffe has placed the pageant in a bad light because it happened after the Miss Universe franchise was taken away from Donald Trump because of his anti-immigrant stand. It has divided now the beauty pageant world into Colombia versus Philippines after Miss Universe 2014 Maria Paulina Vega, a Colombian, removed the crown on Gutierrez's head and transferred it to the rightful owner, Miss Philippines Pia Wurtzback.
Understandably, Colombians were upset with the error and some insist that the $300,000 crown be given back to their bet. A change.org page, "Give Miss Universe Colombia back her crown" got almost 17,000 likes as of Monday afternoon.
Even Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has joined the fray and while congratulating Gutierrez, tweeted, "For us, you will always be Miss Universe! We're very proud!"
Meanwhile, Miss Germany Sarah-Lorraine Riek believes Miss France should be Miss Universe 2015, not Wurtzbach who is half-German. In an interview that what uploaded to the Facebook page of Missosology, she says, "I was very happy for Miss Colombia because she really deserved it. I'm really not happy with the result and so are the other girls ... No one of us voted for Philippines," quotes Mirror.
