Miss USA 2010 Winner Rima Fakih Pole Dancing Pictures Surface: Will They Jeopardize Her Title?

By: Jessica Derschowitz
Topics: Internet ,; News

(Credit: Mojo in the Morning)

NEW YORK (CBS) Updated 5:08 p.m. EST

Forget racy swimsuit photos. Miss USA 2010 Rima Fakih hadn't even held her title for a full 24 hours before pictures were uncovered that could land the beauty queen in hot water.

PICTURES: Miss USA 2010
PICTURES: Tarnished Tiaras

Detroit morning radio show Mojo in the Morning posted images of Fakih competing its 2007 "Stripper 101" contest. For the contest, strippers showed female listeners some moves and the "best student" was the grand-prize winner. According to the station, only women were in attendance and the performers were all fully clothed.

The pictures, which the station said have been circulating on their website for years, show Fakih dancing fully clothed and with dollar bills stuffed in her bra after winning the competition.

The radio station says it was all in good fun, but Mojo in the Morning wrote on its website Monday that Miss USA officials contacted them "requesting more photographs and information" regarding Fakih's involvement in the contest. When the show's producers asked pageant officials if the images would affect Fakih's title, they wouldn't answer.

"Mojo in the Morning fully supports Rimah Fakih as she represents Detroit and America in the Miss Universe contest," a Mojo staffer emailed Celebrity Circuit. "The radio show will not entertain requests to drag her name through the mud."

According to a report posted on TMZ.com, Fakih earned prizes including "jewelry, gift cards, adult toys and a stripper pole for home use" after winning the competition.

Other beauty queens have gotten in trouble and been able to keep their crowns. Miss USA 2006 Tara Connor almost lost her title over underage drinking and hard partying, but she entered a drug rehabilitation program and was allowed to keep her crown.

However, Miss Nevada 2007 Katie Rees lost her crown after scandalous pictures of her surfaced on the Internet.

Partially nude photos of 2009's Miss California Carrie Prejean didn't cause her to lose her title (Prejean claimed the photos were legitimate modeling). But pageant officials later terminated Prejean's contract after she made comments against gay marriage. Pageant officials said she didn't hold up her end of the pageant agreement. Prejean said she suffered discrimination for her views. Dueling lawsuits were settled out of court.

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by culturechang May 19, 2010 4:14 PM EDT

Americans continues to become more and more hung up on everything sex. And there is no realizable end or benefit to where its headed. We are a Victorian society now with fascist legal elements considering so much federal, state, local, societial, and religious control of sexuality.

The State of Missouri just passed an outright ban on all nudity in strip clubs. Basically used state authority to drive them out of business. It passed.

The ironic part is that the media continues to sell sex by putting nude (or nearly nude) photos of celebrities and models on the front cover of popular magazines in the grocery store check out isle.

Celebrities still appear nude for thier own private causes such as animal rights and PETA...probably at the same time they are protesting against the "objectification of women". It could not be more hypocritical.

We have little control over what our children see in public, but yet we control nearly everything behind the closed doors (at home and adult oriented clubs) where adults do thier thing.

Gay marriage is still not legal in most states. Prostitution, even between adults, is criminalized and sensationalized and demonized to the hilt. We cant even legally ask a Supreme Court nominee of her sexual orientation, but we can use the law to drive heterosexuality right of out existence.

We are getting it all wrong. And we are digging a huge hole for ourselves that has no easy way other than another cultural swing to a sexual revolution. It will happen and it will be equally destructive.

Reply to this comment


by poledancingpro January 26, 2011 6:49 PM EST: Seems like the perfect setup to me. Ban what everyone wants, drive it underground and then make a fortune marketing it. Remember prohibition?
poledancingpro - webmaster at http://poledancingforbeginners.com

by stn_sage May 19, 2010 12:29 PM EDT

Unfortunately, winning a beauty contest, whichever one it happens to be, is, for some women, a natural stepping-stone to appearing in porn magazines and adult movies and sex tapes! That people like avigil2 and others deny that, shows how successful the system is in programming them!
And people who can't acknowledge reality, certainly are in no position to improve it or help improve it! Have a good day!

Reply to this comment


by Empire-George- May 19, 2010 1:19 PM EDT: by stn_sage May 19, 2010 12:29 PM EDT

Why do you keep repeating the same nonsense over, and over and over again ?

Pagents don't make anyone into a porn star any more then anything else would.....These are models...you didn't know that ??

Did you think this was a spelling bee, or a academic contest ? it's chicks, showing their beauty, and being judged....wake up

You need to go and get yourself a girlfriend, a wife, something


by RedWings_ninety_one May 19, 2010 2:09 PM EDT: Sad day Joe, when they have those who dig DEEP into archives everywhere to find one little contriversial thing that could jeopardize a person's time of fame.


by stn_sage May 19, 2010 10:03 AM EDT: To Lawyers-Guns-n-Money06: continuation of; by stn_sage May 19, 2010 9:52 AM EDT

Surely her contract contains some such statement! You & I could discuss the specifics if we were certain of the particulars. Anyway, THAT is how she has violated her contract!

I do agree with you that you'll see more 'flesh' in an aerobics class, or the beach, or while outside jogging, etc..

Beside Cirque du Soleil, you can throw in 'Cats' and 'Hair', too!
But, regardless, shifting the focus on theater doesn't change the fact
she participated in a pole dancing contest, does it?!

Anyway, the pageant officials will decide what to do, personally, I don't think they have the guts to stand up for the very rules, that THEY set up to begin with! No, Rima will keep the title, don't worry!!!; Reply to this comment


by toldyouso21 May 19, 2010 9:22 AM EDT: Here's a hoot: If Rima is asked about illegal immigration and AZ's law and if she AGREES with it and thinks immigration should be restricted to legal applicants.

THAT would be a kick in the pants to all the thought police on that pageant's judging panel! LOL; Reply to this comment


by toldyouso21 May 19, 2010 9:16 AM EDT: Most of us will still wait for the naked pictures and fake body parts bought by the pageant--Like CARRIE PREJEAN HAD--and still kept her job...

then we will wait for more nudie shots and watch this girl STILL Keep her job (like Carrie Prejean).

We only expect this Arab_AMERICAN beauty to be subject to firing, when she fails to make her appearances properly and sends disrespectful emails back and forth while she schedules controversial interviews LIKE CARRIE PREJEAN.

those who are smearing this girl and eternally whining about Affirmative Action or this none pole--pole dancing--are PATHETIC; Reply to this comment


by toldyouso21 May 19, 2010 9:01 AM EDT: Speaking of which--the winner is repeatedly described as an Arab-American. We KNOW how much whites are bothered by that hyphenated description when blacks (who are not a color and who are rarely the color black) refer to themselves as African-American.

SO WHERE ARE THE SCADS OF POSTINGS COMPLAINING ABOUT WHY RIMA IS NOT SIMPLY DESCRIBED AS AN AMERICAN? The hypocrisy and thin veneer for discourse shows.

There. This should be broadcasted across the networks and in all media outlets until White America catches a clue that it IS shrinking and as it goes--the veneer of superiority in any field fades. It's merit time boys and girls and guess what? More and more whites will know longer set the standard.

Maybe the judges picked this girl because she represents multiethnicity and is more what people are gravitating to. Brown or golden skin that is natural not gotten from a tanning bed.....silky straight hair--that is not a wig or weave...strong lithe limbs...

and then there is this pole dancing business. The people who call this woman a"pole dancer" are as stupid as people who see someone in a pool one time and label them "a swimmer" One is a profession (how they make a living) the other is just an event.

by all accounts this was an event. So she is NOT a pole dancer--she is just a young woman who danced on a pole at a radio station. does she dance there often? We all know she does not.

Stop whining--this time the white candidate lost. Get over it--the rest of us had to learn to get over white dominance, discrimination and bias CENTURIES ago.; Reply to this comment


by DawnBroderick40 May 19, 2010 6:35 AM EDT: You all make it sound like she was dressed in pasties and a thong with a strobe on her, flying around the pole dancing to Girls, Girls, Girls. I mean come on. She's fully dressed, being silly in a contest, several years ago. GET A LIFE PEOPLE. The pictures the pageant took, with all the young ladies dressed like skanks on the prowl was FAR WORSE than the innocent and silly pics dug up about this woman.; Reply to this comment

by wdh3007 May 19, 2010 3:13 AM EDT

This should be the very last miss America padget ever and if not then it should be boycoted. It only seems to promote controversy and to much BS isn't worth it just for some lousy ratings for Trump who doesn't need money or ratings anyway.

Reply to this comment


by andie52 May 19, 2010 7:23 AM EDT: I agree with you and the pictures of her that I don't think she wants shown are just starting to surface.she may be hot but she doesn't qualify for the title.


by toldyouso21 May 19, 2010 9:08 AM EDT: If not this, as whites lose out in other fields the whining about affirmative action or why it is unfair because THEY will not chosen will continue...

WHATS THAT NOISE? It is the collective WHINE and SHOCK of millions of white people discovering the universe really does not revolve around them and now, they will have to work to be considered the best at another thing instead of having institutionalized social bias let them pretend the top is their birthright.

CONGRATS TO RIMA AND WHITE PEOPLE: WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD where (GASP) some people (like the majority of the world) might just relate more to a person of color than to the minority of blonde hair and blue eyes . Maybe the judges are judging GLOBALLY. Another "benefit" of NAFTA, CAFTA and globalization.


by krotec54 May 19, 2010 1:58 AM EDT: She violated her contract - something about any type of ?provocative dancing?.
In other words, She lied on her contract.; Reply to this comment

by JayAdler1 May 19, 2010 12:58 AM EDT

I'll say this, Miss Oklahoma issued a cohesive and very impressive statement that is of the most part a rare occurrence for a beauty pageant. Her phrasing, elocution and poised and uninterrupted delivery and content was that of a college professor. The pole dancer as far as what I saw because I do not have the time to review these displays for too long because I have to work and support my family is fine. I saw nothing there to object to. One thing I do know whether it is a pole dancer or Ms. Oklahoma or Carrie Prejean and all the girls that get into these beauty contests Bess Myerson included, win or lose never really get lost in life, I would not worry if I were you about their comfortable futures.

Reply to this comment


by toldyouso21 May 19, 2010 8:57 AM EDT: Trump said it best: this is a BEAUTY contest--not an intelligence contest, or a race contest or a business or political contest. The sole criteria is "beauty. Now they will tell you it is beauty both inside and out--but "beauty is a very subjective attribute. It could be, no matter the answers --that Miss OK's body ad looks just did not DO IT for this panel of judges.

The fact is, everyone is not partial to blondes and maybe ...just MAYBE no matter anyone who was watching and their PERSONAL preference...it just could BE that this particular panel wanted darker hair and skin or maybe they incline toward the exotic.

I said it before, and I will say it again--as this society becomes blended and more and more people of color are included, the protections whites automatically put in place for jobs, social status, beauty, etc will CHANGE.

Whites want to think Affirmative Action is their enemy--but the truth is all Affirmative Action should have done and was supposed to do is stop whites from tossing applications from other races into trash cans and not even giving other races the chance to compete.

sometimes a minority WILL be pretty, smarter, more graceful or atheletic. Think of Tiger Woods--years ago, he would never have been allowed to play golf with whites, think of the sports of baseballl, football, basketball and track--think of dancing/singing, etc think of how the face of who dominated in computer technology (now it is India) and Chemistry (Pakistan and China) have changed.

The PROTECTED position for CENTURIES of Whites in America allowed them the illusion of thinking they truly was superior. They are NOT. But they are not inferior either. They are just people--and as the playing field levels, they are no longer socially handicapped by 400%.

You will have to compete. YOu will have to actually be smarter, take better care of yourselves instead of resting on laurels that were NEVER entirely true. some whites will win--a lot will lose as other races pass you up.

because people are people. Blonde hair and blue eyes are only the ideal to SOME--but as people diversify, those attributes are NOT a sure win, no matter how one person feels.

As for playing the race card. No one plays it more than whites. It "colors" everything (everytime whites mention Affirmative Action--that is the race card--when they mention bring up LIncoln and how blacks should be in their party due to Lincoln they not only bring up the race card and the past....they DREDGE UP WHAT WORKS FOR THEM FROM THE SAME PLACE THEY CLAIM BLACKS CANNOT GO FOR REPARATION.

I believe the phrase is "I did not do what my ancestors did--so don't blame me for it or expect anything because of it"

Well Republicans--"you did not do the things and are not the same as the party of Lincoln from the past--so don't try to take credit for it or expect anything because of THAT either!!!"

See how that works?

As for wondering why "so many" blacks or hispanics have babies out of wedlock--why are so many whites sterile and they also have babies out of wedlock--why are you not talking about and answering that question?

Welfare? More whites on welfare than any other group but that means nothing since less than 3 million nationwide of all races in on WElfare.

Crimes? Keep asking blacks and Hispanics about why there are gangs or keep thinking only blacks and hispanics steal.

We'll own that while WHITES can own White female teachers being the ONLY females sexually deviant enough to molest junior high students and other minors--and WHITE MEN being the dominat (95%) group to rape and kill for pleasure. (The profile for a serial rapist and murderer is white male 30 to 50 years old)

While you wonder about minority crime, the rest of us will focus on the deviant nature of the crimes Whites dominate.

And when they meet with their "friends" that happen to be minorities and as STUPID questions about why their race is known for doing certain things--it is time for the other races to expect a White to be the spokesperson and head borg for all white crimes and social illls too.

MInorities should counter every "why do your people question.." with one for the white questioner to answer.