AGONY OVER ‘MISS DISS’SS
Colombians fear breakdown by ‘wrong’ winner
Colombians fear their beloved beautypageant queen, Ariadna Gutierrez, will be left an emotional wreck, after cruelly having the glory of winning Miss Universe ripped away because host Steve Harvey mistakenly read her name as the champion.
“I do think that she’s very affected by all this,” Maria Isabel Nieto, Colombia’s consul general to New York, told The Post on Monday. “I just think that when I was in my 20s and was in her situation I would take a little while to recover.”
The bungled announcement also caused a national trauma for the people of Colombia.
“To me, as a Colombian, she is still Miss Universe,” said President Juan Manuel Santos. “They put the crown on her head. The photos are there to prove it.”
Gutierrez’s short reign as Miss Universe began at the climax of the formerly Donald Trumpowned pageant, held at the Planet Hollywood casino in Las Vegas.
Harvey read Gutierrez’s name as the victor, when really, Miss Philippines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach had won the contest.
He was forced to sheepishly take the stage minutes later and admit his error. Gutierrez spent two full minutes thinking she had won, but put on a brave face as the crown was removed from her head and placed on Wurtzbach’s.
Reaction online to Harvey’s blunder was vicious. One meme showed a picture of late drug lord Pablo Escobar writing an ominous note that said, “It’s so that I can give him a little surprise.”
Even Trump weighed in from the GOP presidential campaign trail, calling on pageant officials to split the crown.
“I’ll tell you what I think I’d do. I think I’d make them a cowinner. It’d be very cool,” Trump told NBC’s “Today.” Dual winners would be “good for the brand and good for Miss Universe,” he said.
Harvey apologized profusely for the humiliating error and even showed viewers the card he was supposed to read from.
It clearly showed that Gutierrez was just the first runnerup and that Miss Philippines was the real winner.
When Harvey (right) admitted the mistake, cameras caught the thirdplace finisher — Miss USA Olivia Thomas — whispering in Wurtzbach’s ear
“If it appeared I knew what was going on, I was acting,” Thomas told The Post on Monday. “I think my exact words [to Wurtzbach] were: ‘I think you’re the new Miss Universe?’ ”