renatodoxaguia: March 2010

By NOORSILA ABD MAJID

metro@thestar.com.my

THE search for Miss Universe Malaysia 2010 continued with the organising committee travelling to Penang for a casting call at the Cititel Penang last weekend.

But who would have thought that the Pearl of the Orient would pose such a great challenge for former Miss Universe Malaysia Andrea Fonseka, who now serves as the pageant’s national director, and her team of judges, comprising actor/director/producer Hans Isaac, FlyFm DJ Phat Fabes and former Russian beauty queen Julia Dolmatova.

The Penang beauties were just too shy with only four turning up for the casting call, which required them to go through an audition process.

Speaking out: FlyFm deejay Ben Ibrahim (left) interviewing one of the four who showed up for the casting call.

What was even more daunting was that they had to go on camera during the audition, because the Miss Universe Malaysia 2010 pageant would be made into a five-episode reality show aired over NTV7.

“Our local beauty queens have got it easy.

“In most of the pageants, the contestants come in with rehearsed answers and win,” an observer commented.

For the uninitiated, most Penangites grew up on a staple diet of traditional beauty pageants like Miss Pesta Pulau Pinang and Miss Chinatown Penang, where the selection process was a lot simpler and straightforward.

“We had it easy during our first audition in Petaling Jaya,” said Fonseka.

“Penang is like a wake-up call. We’ve overlooked the fact that Penang girls are different from PJ or KL girls. They are not as exposed yet. So they need a lot of coaxing, especially when it comes to going on TV.

“We should have used a different strategy here,” she added.

The former beauty queen and her creative team, including creative producer Eugenie Chan and director of marketing and communications Mae Leong, had distributed leaflets at hotspots like Gurney Drive before the casting call.

They even visited a hip club, Slippery Senoritas on upper Penang Road, to promote the overhauled Miss Universe Malaysia pageant.

Out of the four Miss Universe Malaysia hopefuls who came for the audition, 17-year-old Laureen Quah commanded the most attention.

She bowled the judges over with her pleasant personality, high spirits and eloquence.

Quah is also a trained pole-dancer who took up the sexy routine as a good workout.

“I got to know about the casting call from a friend,” said the former student of St George’s Girls’ School.

Quah is a regular at local beauty contests and admitted that she usually ended up as one of the top five.

“I know I’m a bit too young for Miss Universe Malaysia,” she added, “But I’m just pushing my luck. I hope such a prestigious beauty pageant could help me land a career as a TV presenter some day.”

The winner of Miss Universe Malaysia 2010 will walk away with RM50,000, and big career opportunity in entertainment, broadcasting and modelling.

For those who have missed out on the Penang casting call, you can head down to the Royale Chulan Hotel in KL tomorrow for the final round. Audition is run from 10am to 4pm.

To read more about Miss Universe-Malaysia 2010, visit dailychilli.com.