Nick Verreos Weighs In on Miss California USA, Carrie Prejean

Much has been discussed about Miss California USA's answer last night at the Miss USA Pageant and being a fan of pageants and having met Miss California USA 2009, Carrie Prejean, I felt that I needed to state my opinion on the issue.

I met Carrie twice, while she competed for the Miss California USA contest two years ago, as Miss San Diego County. The actual winner was incorrectly crowned and we all thought Carrie should have won--she eventually did (this year). And I also worked with Carrie when I appeared, along with Debbie Matenopoulos, in last year's E! Entertainment Academy Awards Pre-Show.

Pageant Girl: Nick Verreos poses with Miss California USA 2007, Meagan Tandy in a NIKOLAKI gown (she placed Third at Miss USA 2007)

First let me start by saying that I am so proud to live in a country where we have the right to free speech. And I applaud the Miss Universe Organization for bringing such hard hitting, politically relevant questions to this years pageant. We live in a world where being beautiful is not mutually exclusive from being intelligent.

I understand someone who has strong beliefs and has the ability to express those beliefs as a Miss USA should be prepared to do. But I do not feel she answered the question with any eloquence (Hello!! Opposite Marriage?) and obviously disagree with what she stated.

I hope that people's anger and outrage is not directed at Carrie speaking her beliefs but at the fact the she feels that Gay men and women do not deserve equal rights. Although I do not agree with Perez Hilton's extreme reaction to Carrie's answer I am thankful that outspoken advocates for same-sex marriage and more importantly equal rights, like Hilton, continue to bring this issue to the forefront of political discussions.

We still have an INCREDIBLY far road to travel and hopefully people will see that even in the pageant world, run mainly by gay men, we have to continue to educate and teach the importance of EQUALITY.

To donate and learn more about the ongoing battle for equality in California please click HERE.

And click HERE for a witty commentary by somebody who has "been there and done that", my friend and former Miss USA and Universe Brook Lee. She pulls no punches!! Love her.

My romantic long weekend in Lille.

Those of you following me on twitter may know that my lovely bf surprised me with a trip to France for Valentines day. Unfortunately we could not go until last weekend as he studies medicine so does not get very much time off around Easter. As I have not updated my blog for a while I thought I would share with you some pictures from the trip :).
On Friday morning we got up at 5am to catch the Eurostar, yawn! When we left London it was raining, and when we arrived in France it was pouring so we spent most of the day in museums and art galleries, as well as drinking plenty 'chocolat chaud' to keep us going. We also found a street full of dinosaur babies.. grrr.Thankfully our hotel was right in the main plaza (about 20m away from Sephora hehe) so after a lovely seafood dinner we decided to get an early night.

This is a picture of the makeup I wore on the second day and our room in the background. It had really old french furniture, which I love!

On Saturday we had an early breakfast at the hotel and went to explore. We visited the old citadel and the zoo. I love animals so it was a lot of fun!
(This photo reminds me of comparethemeerkat.com. If you live in the UK you will know what I mean hehe).

We then went to a fare, where my bf showed off his shooting skills and won me a giraffe, which is my favourite animal.
We then took a bus tour through town.We finished off our day with dinner in the student quarter and cocktails in a trendy bar.He loves taking awful action shots, I do not remember what was going on here, but this is a perfect example.. eek!!

The next day we visited a market and relaxed in the sun with a couple of tasty ice creams :). Surprisingly we were upgraded to first class on the way back so had plenty of champagne and wine to make the homeward journey more pleasant :). I hope you all had a lovely Easter break!! <3