0 Pageant Minute: Miss Venezuela 2011--Favorites for the Crown!

Who. Will. Be. Venezuela's. Next. Top...Beauty Queen?

Ciao Vanessa: Miss Venezuela 2010 Vanessa Goncalves, last year, after getting her crown, sash and bouquet

This upcoming Saturday night, October 15th will be the LIVE Finale Telecast of the 59th Annual Miss Venezuela Beauty Pageant. Up until 2009, the pageant-known for its FANTABULOUS excess and over-the-top production numbers, had been held at the huge Poliedro, an indoor sports arena that can hold up to 13,000 people. But this year it will be held at Estudio 1 in the Venevisión Caracas Studios.

Since, 1981, The pageant has been owned by the Cisneros Group with multi-billionaire Gustavo Cisneros as its president. The charismatic Osmel Sousa has been the pageant's director since 1979, and has become known as the "Beauty Pageant Guru" and "Creator of Beautiful Women". Under Sousa's iron-hand/direction, it has accumulated more international beauty pageant titles than any other country in the world: six Miss Universe winners, five Miss World winners, six Miss International winners and one Miss Earth, among many many others. On a personal note, my sister, Rita was a Miss Venezuela contestant back in 1988, representing "Municipio Vargas". Sousa sent her to Ecuador where she also became the "Vireina del Banano" and did quite well representing Venezuela internationally.

Osmel Sousa and the Miss Venezuela 2011 Contestants

On the Final Live Telecast night, there are "official judges"--usually comprised of celebs, actors, former Misses, as well as top Caracas "society" Doyennes. It is pretty widely rumored, however, among pageant circles, that the Miss Venezuela Organization already "pre-picks" who the Top Winners are--meaning the ones who go on to Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss International--MONTHS ahead of the final pageant. It makes sense. They know who really is prepared to take the crown since they have been with them for well--a year of training...

Bella Alicia: Miss Venezuela 1995 and Miss Universe 1996, Alicia Machado, being crowned by Miss Universe 1995, USA's Chelsi Smith

Sometimes, however, there are "surprises", like when Alicia Machado won Miss Venezuela 1995. Beauty Pageant "chisme" has it that she wasn't supposed to win but rather another contestant. But the night of the pageant, she won the crowd--and the Miss Venezuela title-- with her natural charisma and non "Pageant Betty" personality. Machado went on to win the Miss Universe 1996 title in Las Vegas and, bring Donald Trump lots of press with her love of chocolate chip cookies and weight gain. But now, back to this year's contest...

Miss Venezuela 2011 Contestants: So...who are the Favorites this year? Twenty-four contestants are vying for the title...so who has Osmel's "eye":

The Favorite and Most-Likely To Win: Irene Sofia Esser Quintero, Miss Sucre. She's only 19 (a baby!) in pageant years, and stands 178 cm (5' 10"). Irene is the clear favorite for the title of Miss Venezuela 2011 to then go on and represent the South American nation in next year's Miss Universe pageant. Interestingly enough, she's the ONLY ONE with a Wikipedia page (are pageant organizers already preparing for her win?).

Future Miss Venezuela for Miss Universe 2012? Irene Esser, Miss Sucre 2011

Irene (pronounced Eee-rainay in Español) is a gorgeous brunette with brown eyes, a great body and an "international" non-Latina surname. I guarantee that she'll have a very nice gown by one of the top Venezuelan designers the night of the final competition. We will see Saturday night.

Second Favorita: Gabriela Ferrari Peirano, Miss Distrito Capital (The Capital City, Caracas) 20 years old and stands 176 cm (about 5' 9"). Dark blond hair and brown eyes. And yes, she's part Italian, darlings. She has that quintessential "Miss Venezuela" look to her. Lots of blond beauties have won internationally for Venezuela (Irene Saez, Miss Universe 1981, Pilin Leon Miss World 1981, etc.). the chisme is that she'll get the First Runner Up or Miss World Venezuela title, and go on to represent her country in the Miss World 2012 Pageant--which occurs in OVER a YEAR from now (lots of time to prepare!).

More Favorites: Miss Yaracuy Osmariel Maholi Villalobos Atencio. Osmariel is a model from Maracaibo (not in the State she is representing) and stands 5' 7". Short for "Miss Venezuela" standards...

But she makes up for it in her rather stunning natural beauty, as seen from her model photos above. I like her sooooo much better in these photos as opposed to the "Official Miss Venezuela" one.

Another Blond: Yes, kids, there are plenty more blonds that might make the Finalista cut on Saturday. According to some of my Missosologist (pageant expert) friends, Miss Carabobo, Isabela Ramos Cano, 21 is a favorite for the Top 5. Not the Winner, not the First Runner Up, but maybe for Miss International, Miss Earth, etc. She's tall--almost 6 feet (5' 11"). She has an AMAZING "Victoria's Secret" Swimsuit Model body (a year of training baby!). And oh, she's gorgeous!

We Need Some Color: Finally, we have Ivany Nayexy Guzmán Herrera, Miss Delta Amacuro. She's another favorite but again, not to take home the Top Crown but one of the "We'll send her abroad to represent Venezuela in some other international pageant". Ivany is ethnic (LOVE that!) and has that mestiza/bi-racial look to her, that is actually very indicative and representative of the fabulous Euro-Black-Indian mix of a lot of the Venezuelan population. She's 22, from Caracas and stands 5' 10".

We'll see who will be the next Miss Venezuela! Stay tuned here on my BLOG because you KNOW I'll be doing my "What Was She Wearing?" Gown Recap!!!!