Saucer of milk, table for 23, meow

On Sophie Evans’ blog, there are some people who are making false accusations about the judging at Miss Universe New Zealand. Of course I expected some backlash, but to actually say that the judges didn’t do anything and the pageant was a foregone conclusion? You can’t attack the integrity of five people and expect we will just lie down.
   Well, for the record, I got nothing from the sponsors. I flew myself up, I paid for my own hotel and food other than the dinner at the Langham on Saturday night, and my one of company logos was even missing from the slides due to an oversight! So if my judging didn’t count, I would have been the first to complain!
   I have commented publicly here and elsewhere about the process, which I believe was as transparent as it could be, short of my scanning my score sheets (which I kept, because I knew there would be some complainants).
   Val Lott never expressed to me if she had a favourite, and Allan, her partner, only mentioned Laural after the event. The only contestant Val and I ever discussed—and I initiated it—was not in the top three.
   And sadly, it doesn’t matter if the contestant was a lovely girl as a package. That is something I might note if I were pursuing her romantically. As a pageant judge, I had certain criteria to go by. It was all scored, just as it will be in Mexico. That is always a problem with the scoring system.
   It is Miss Universe New Zealand, not Who Jack Wants to Snog Once He Gets Her out of Her High Heels So He Doesn’t Feel Like Tom Cruise (which had a different ordering).
   Wow, pageantry is nasty! I am sure it wasn’t like this in Lorraine’s day!
   So I will make this offer: if you were a contestant concerned about the judging or how well you actually did, stop with the bollocks. Send me a private email via my personal website, and I will enter into a confidential dialogue with you, to the extent that my judging position allows. You in turn agree not to discuss the details of the resulting conversation(s).
   After all, I was in the room. You weren’t.
   I have already discussed this via telephone with one contestant who contacted me on email, and Jessica Body (second runner-up) seems pretty stoked, so that leaves 21 unhappy girls to go. I made the offer to a friend of Rachel Crofts on this blog earlier in the week, so maybe I only have 20 to convince.
   Gee, I bet Jerry Buss didn’t have this crap to deal with after judging Miss USA. Right, Jer?
   I tell ya, it’s easier running the Lakers.