Latina beauty Stefania Fernandez won the title of Miss Universe 2009 at the competition held in the Bahamas Sunday night. She makes history, as this is Venezuela’s second consecutive win in the international beauty pageant.

Dressed in a flowing red gown, Fernandez embraced runner-up Miss Dominican Republic as the announcement was made, and received the crown from last year’s winner, Dayana Mendoza, of Venezuela. The sparkling tiara fell to the floor at one point, as Fernandez danced in joy.

During a question-and-answer segment with the five top finalists, Fernandez said she believed women have overcome obstacles such as hitting the proverbial glass ceiling.

“I feel we have reached the level that men are at,” she said.
Fernandez, 18, beat out 83 contestants for the title, including first runner-up Miss Dominican Republic, Ada Aimee de la Cruz. Kosovo was named second runner-up, Australia third and the contestant from Puerto Rico was fourth runner up.

Venezuela is famous for its beauty queens and has more international beauty pageant titles than any other country, except for the United States, which has won seven titles. The South American nation had produced five previous Miss Universe winners in 1979, 1981, 1986, 1996 and 2008 and has also won the Miss World contest five times.

“I think this is the most beautiful group of women I’ve ever seen,” pageant co-owner Donald Trump told reporters. “In the old days, you got what you got. Now, Trump picks them. It makes a big difference.”

The top 15 finalists appeared in bathing suits before the final 10 were chosen for the evening gown segment. The final five answered questions from the judges.

The televised event included musical performances by Flo Rida, Heidi Montag, David Guetta and Kelly Rowland.

Montag gave her first live performance, singing “Body Language” from her debut album.

Fans cheered on the blonde star of MTV’s “The Hills,” although NBC, which is broadcasting the event in the Bahamas live, blocked out more than half of her performance as they introduced the 15 finalists.

“I think people don’t know what to expect, and how can they? It’s my first performance live and it’s in front of a billion eyes. So I’m very excited to show everyone what I’m coming with,” said Montag prior to her performance.

The hosts were Billy Bush, co-anchor of “Access Hollywood,” and Claudia Jordan, a former Miss Rhode Island USA who has appeared on several TV shows. Judges included actor Dean Cain and supermodel Valeria Mazza.

Miss China, Wang Jingyao, was named Miss Congeniality and Miss Thailand, Chutima Durongdej, won Miss Photogenic.

Many contestants have suffered from dehydration in recent weeks, and Jewel Selver, Miss Turks and Caicos, went home Saturday to recuperate, said Esther Swan, Miss Universe spokeswoman.

Credits to source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com

There are a lot of cool stuff on this movie. Perhaps too cool to even become believable. But who cares? The movie is supposed to entertain not something to really be serious about. I can say that I had a lot of fun watching the movie. I was in awe with eyes wide watching the GI Joe superhereos save the world from the warhead weapons known as nanomites. One of the most fun parts of the movie are the one liners. This may sound lame to others, but I find them very meaningful and easy to remember. Just as when General Hawk says, “When all else fails, we don’t.”

Techwise, this movie didn’t fail. The special effects were amazing and it was just like all over the place! Only that there was too much of it that I even forgot GI Joe was a military force. You know, it seemed like they were fighting against aliens when in fact they were just humans, but only geniuses. Not to mention scientifically inclined with all those cool gadgets invented by the M.A.R.S. troopers. Flying jets where everywhere even underwater! There were even no military tanks seen, I guess. For a military movie, you would expect to see bunkers, armored tanks, canyons.. but not on this one. Well, maybe those were too far old for a CGI invaded world as today.

The characters weren’t equally bad as well. Sienna Miller was hot playing Baroness, Channing Tatum was not that bad being Duke but I didn’t really find him to be soldier-like. But nothing beats Morlon Wayans’ slap stick moments and cheesy humor as Ripcord. He is just so hilarous! Snake eyes never said a word althroughout, but he really kicked ass (hell yeah!). Dennis Quaid as General Hawk gets to speak the famous wisdom lines. But of course, who would not notice Branden Fraser’s charm when he made his cameo.

I do not wish to add any more spoilers as I’ve read them all over the internet already. So there’s no point in telling the story when I guess everyone already knows about it. I just wanna say that GI Joe does not suck as what other reviews say. Some critics are just pre-occupied of being what they are - critics. But I am just a movie watcher. And this movie is definitely more than just worth it to watch. Pretty much one of the greatest I’ve seen.

The fourth installment of the ‘Resident Evil’ series is planned to be released on August next year. I was thrilled when I’ve read this in Coming Soon this morning while searching for new movie releases.

“Resident Evil: Afterlife” continues Alice’s battle with the diabolical Umbrella Corp. as she races to expose a virus that is threatening mankind with extinction before a new race of clones called the Undead finishes the job” — http://www.aceshowbiz.com

My brother and I are a big fan of the Resident Evil video game. I just usually watched while he played. It was too scary for me. I felt like watching a movie at the same time. I knew that a movie adaptation will definitely be awesome. The Umbrella Corporation had so many secrets that made it so interesting. Not to mention the horror of seeing character hereos fighting against walking dead people known us the Undead. I was very much looking forward to seeing the movie version when I heard its first release (Resident Evil 2002). However, the story plot was changed (I think). It’s been ages ago so I can no longer remember the entire story plot from the game version. Yet, I was expecting to see the real Resident Evil with the original characters on it. I thought I’d see Chris Redfield and her sister Claire Redfield, Leon Kennedy, Ada Wong, & the kid Rebecca Chambers, but the movie focused only on one character, which is Alice. I am a big fan of Milla Jovovich (Alice) as well, I’d love it if she still appears on this 4th sequel. Rumors has it though that actors to play the new set of character roles have been chosen. Here’s two of them.

Jensen Ackles (Dark Angel, Supernatural), as Leon Kennedy; Devon Aoki (Sin City, DOA) as Ada Wong; Ali Larter (Final Destination, Heroes) already appeared as Claire Redfield on the 3rd sequel Extinction.