A 24 year old, Lebanese immigrant, Rima Fakih won the Miss USA 2010 pageant at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip after impressing everyone with her confident display of orange and gold bikini, a strapless white gown that resembled a wedding dress and making the remark that won everybody over with her- health insurance should cover birth control pills- answer.
When pursued by reporters seeking her reaction after winning the crown, she said, "Ask me after I've had a pizza."
Fakih had earlier told pageant organizers her family celebrates both Muslim and Christian faiths. Her family had come to America when she was a baby and was brought up in New York where she attended a Catholic school. Her family moved to Michigan in 2003. Fakih had to sell her car after graduation to pay for the expenses involved in contesting the pageant.
When questioned if Fakih was the first Arab American, immigrant , Muslim to win the crown, the Pageant officials said that the historical record of the event was insufficient to determine the answer. The pageant started in 1952 as a local bathing suit competition in Long Beach, Calif.
Fakih later told reporters that she had an idea that she was going to wear the crown after glancing at pageant owner Donald Trump as she awaited the results with the first runner-up, Miss Oklahoma USA Morgan Elizabeth Woolard. "That's the same look that he gives them when he says, 'You're hired,'" on Trump's reality show "The Apprentice," she said.
"She's a great girl," said Trump, who owns the pageant with NBC in a joint venture.
Fakih had a minor hiccup when she nearly fell while finishing her walk in her gown because of the length of its train but it took her very little time to regain her composure and went on to win the pageant.
"I did it here, I better not do it at Miss Universe," she said. "Modeling does help, after all."
Fakih takes over from Miss USA 2009 Kristen Dalton. During the interview session, Fakih was asked if birth control should be a part of health insurance and she replied in affirmative as the birth control measures are costly. "I believe that birth control is just like every other medication even though it's a controlled substance," Fakih said.
