Did the Philippines’ second Miss Universe titleholder get a “peek” at the pageant results before it was officially announced?
A clip of Miss Universe 1973 Margie Moran with the pageant host and Miss Universe USA Amanda Jones prior to the coronation this week gained traction on local Reddit as some Filipinos wondered if such was the case.
“The moment when Margie Moran had a peek of the result before it was announced,” a post in Reddit Philippines reads.
It featured a GIF of Moran and Jones standing close to each other with pageant host Bob Barker reading something by the Filipina’s side.
The moment when Margie Moran had a peek of the result before it was announced from Philippines
“I don’t know what will (happen) if something like that happens in the modern Miss Universe,” a Reddit user wrote in the comments.
Another online user answered a question posed by a different user who asked why Moran was “eye-rolling.”
“She had a glimpse of the result. lol,” the Reddit user quipped.
“That iconic eyeroll,” wrote another online user with a laughing-with-tears emoji.
The original poster later shared a link to the video clip of the actual coronation moment and the context behind Moran’s talked-about reaction, as explained by the former titleholder herself.
Barker was “reminding the two that the first runner-up would assume the duties if Miss U was unable to,” according to a 2015 report by The Philippine Star.
Moran and Jones were the only contestants left on the stage at that time before the big announcement.
The STAR asked how the Filipina beauty “guessed that she was ‘it,” pertaining to the viral clip.
“How funny that someone just noticed it. In the ‘70s, there was no YouTube yet. If I can recall 42 years ago, when Bob Barker stood so close to me, I saw a short word first on his cue card and then a long word as ‘Miss Universe,'” Moran said.
“So I presumed then that the short word was ‘USA’ and the long word was ‘Philippines.’ But, of course, I was not 100 percent sure until Bob’s announcement. My expression on video in both the ‘silip’ and the announcement were still with great excitement,” she added.
Moran also won the “Miss Photogenic” award in the beauty pageant.
She was appointed as chairperson of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in 2018. Prior to that, she was the president of Ballet Philippines, a resident company of CCP.
