A beauty pageant or beauty contest is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants, although most contests have evolved to also incorporate personality traits, intelligence, talent, and a contestant's ability to answer judges' questions on various subjects as judged criteria. The term refers largely to contests for women such as the Big Four international beauty pageants. Hundreds of thousands of beauty contests are held annually, but the Big Four are considered the most prestigious, widely covered and broadcast by media. The Wall Street Journal, BBC News, CNN, Xinhua News Agency, and global news agencies such as Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse collectively refer to the four major pageants as "Big Four" namely: Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss International, and Miss Earth.
Miss World is the oldest-running international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's widow, Julia Morley, has co-chaired the pageant. Along with Miss Universe, Miss International and Miss Earth, this pageant is one of the Big Four international beauty pageants—the most coveted beauty titles when it comes to international pageant competitions.
Miss Earth is an annual international environmental-themed beauty pageant competition promoting environmental awareness, conservation and social responsibility affiliated and supported by the United Nations Environment Programme. The contest is the third largest beauty pageant in the world in terms of the number of national-level competitions to participate in the world finals. Along with Miss World, Miss Universe, and Miss International, the competition is one of the Big Four international beauty pageants — the most coveted beauty titles among all the international pageant competitions.
A Playmate is a female model featured in the centerfold/gatefold of Playboy magazine as Playmate of the Month (PMOM). The PMOM's pictorial includes nude photographs and a centerfold poster, along with a pictorial biography and the "Playmate Data Sheet", which lists her birthdate, measurements, turn-ons, and turn-offs. At the end of the year, one of the 12 Playmates of the Month is named Playmate of the Year (PMOY). Every Playmate of the Month is awarded a prize of US$25,000 and each Playmate of the Year receives an additional prize of US$100,000 plus a car and other discretionary gifts. In addition, Anniversary Playmates are usually chosen to celebrate a milestone year of the magazine.
Miss India or Femina Miss India is a national beauty pageant in India that annually selects representatives to compete in Miss World, one of the Big Four major international beauty pageants. It is organised by Femina, a women's magazine published by The Times Group. Since 2013, Femina also organizes Miss Diva separately which sends representatives to Miss Universe.
Ali Germaine Landry is an American actress, model, and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss USA 1996. She played Rita Lefleur on the UPN sitcom Eve and was the Doritos Girl in a 1998 Super Bowl commercial. In 1998, she was named by People magazine as one of 50 most beautiful people in the world.
Lara Dutta is an Indian actress, entrepreneur and the winner of the Miss Universe 2000 pageant. She was previously crowned as Miss Intercontinental 1997. In her career, she has primarily worked in Hindi films. She is the recipient of several accolades including a Filmfare Award.
Miss Teen USA is a beauty pageant run by the Miss Universe Organization for girls aged 14–19. Unlike its sister pageants Miss Universe and Miss USA, which are broadcast on Fox, this pageant is webcast on the Miss Teen USA website and simulcast on mobile devices and video game consoles.
Zuleyka Jerrís Rivera Mendoza is a Puerto Rican actress, TV host, dancer, model and beauty queen who won Miss Universe 2006 in Los Angeles. she previously crowned Miss Puerto Rico Universe 2006. She made her debut as a telenovela actress in Mexico's Telemundo's soap opera Dame Chocolate in 2007, which was followed by several other soap opera roles. In 2017 she appeared in the music video for "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi.
Miss USA 2007, the 56th Miss USA pageant, was held at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California on March 23, 2007, after two weeks of events and preliminary competition. The winner of the pageant was Rachel Smith of Tennessee.
Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American comedy-drama road film and the directorial debut of the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was written by first-time writer Michael Arndt. The film stars Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin, and was produced by Big Beach Films on a budget of US$8 million. Filming began on June 6, 2005, and took place over 30 days in Arizona and Southern California.
Miss Teen USA 2007, the 25th Miss Teen USA pageant, was held on August 24, 2007 in Pasadena, California. At the conclusion of the final night of the competition Hilary Cruz of Colorado was crowned Miss Teen USA 2007 by outgoing titleholder Katie Blair of Montana.
Miss Universe 2008, the 57th Miss Universe pageant, was held on 14 July 2008 at the Crown Convention Center in Nha Trang, Vietnam. Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela was crowned by Riyo Mori of Japan as her successor at the end of the event. 80 contestants competed in this year which was broadcast and distributed globally via NBC in English and Telemundo in Spanish to TV outlets in more than 180 countries.
Miss Universe Latvia is a national Beauty pageant that selects the Latvian representative to the Miss Universe pageant. The contestants represent the 7 cities and 26 Districts of Latvia. There they would select the top 15, then the top 10 and the final 5. So far the pageant was held only twice: in 2005 and 2006.
Miss World 2008, the 58th edition of the Miss World pageant, was held on 13 December 2008 at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. Originally, the pageant was going to take place in Kiev, Ukraine, but because of the ongoing 2008 Russo-Georgian diplomatic crisis in neighbouring South Ossetia, the Miss World Organization decided to move the pageant away from Eastern Europe. 109 contestants from all over the world compete for the crown, the second highest turnout in the 59 years of the pageant. Zhang Zilin of China crowned Ksenia Sukhinova of Russia as the brand new Miss World.
Miss Universe Albania is a national beauty pageant in Albania. The pageant was founded as Miss Albania in 2002, until rebranding as Miss Universe Albania in 2006. Since 2006, winners of the competition have competed internationally in Miss Universe, while some runners-up have competed in Miss World.
Miss Serbia is a national Beauty pageant in Serbia.
Miss Israel is a national Beauty pageant in Israel.
Miss Earth Ecuador is one of the official preliminaries to the international Miss Earth beauty pageant. The pageant focuses mainly on promoting environmental causes and winners are chosen equally on their physical attributes as well as their understanding and knowledge of the issues affecting the Earth.
The Big Four refers to the four major international beauty pageants for women – Miss World, Miss Universe, Miss International and Miss Earth. The group was first described by the China Daily newspaper in 2004 as "the world's four major beauty contests", Chosun Ilbo newspaper in 2010 described them as "the world's top four beauty pageants". In 2017, the Latin Times considered the group as the "most important pageants in the world". In 2018, NBC News referred to them as the "four biggest international pageants", while Agencia EFE delineated them in 2019 as the "four most influential beauty pageants in the world".
