The Detroit News
“That’s how Rima made everyone feel comfortable getting on stage.”
And that’s how Miss USA, Dearborn’s own Rima Fakih, addressed the photos of her dressed in a T-shirt and short red shorts from a women-only 2007 stripper class and radio station contest with Regis & Kelly this morning. The photos appeared on the Internet shortly after she was crowned Sunday night in Las Vegas.
Friendly was the tone for her appearance on “Live with Regis and Kelly.”
The 24-year-old was the second featured guest on the show and began the show by addressing her post-pageant treat.
The light conversation about dieting and the cost of being in a pageant then turned to the controversial photos splashed on the Internet.
“It didn’t take them long to find this picture,” said Regis. “All of the sudden here’s the latest controversy involving Miss USA. It looks like a simple girls’ night out. I don’t see a man in the background.”
Fakih added that it wasn’t a girls’ night out and that the Stripper 101 class was held in the morning. She attended the event with a couple of friends, she said.
Later, they moved on to chatting about her slight stumble during the pageant — Fakih said she felt confident enough about her performance up until that point that she wasn’t thinking a little slip would make the judges say, “Hey, let’s give it to that girl who doesn’t know anything” — and her meeting Donald Trump
(she teased Regis about their friendship).
