According to the tireless celebrity watchdogs at TMZ, the 2010 winner of the Miss USA pageant was recently arrested for a DUI, which added an exclamation point to a scandal-ridden year for the beauty queen, Rima Fakih.
Sources indicate the Fakih was arrested last week in Highland Park, Michigan when the police suspected her of driving under the influence of alcohol.
Despite the official police report, and the fact that criminal arrests are part of the public record, Fakih bizarrely denied the initial report. This weekend, she tweeted, “let’s clear things up now… I’m NOT in Michigan and I’m NOT in jail! Wrong Fakih.”
Alas, cooler heads eventually prevailed, as her DUI attorney later told the Detroit Free-Press that his famous client was, in fact, the Rima Fakih who had been arrested for a DUI in Highland Park, Michigan.
Since her attorney admitted that she had been arrested for a DUI, Fakih removed the false tweet from her Twitter account and expressed remorse, through her attorney, for the “situation that she is in right now.”
The alleged DUI incident adds another scandal to an increasingly large list of public transgressions for the Miss USA winner.
Sources indicate that Fakih was exposed as a former stripper by a Michigan radio show just one day after she won the 2010 Miss USA contest.
While the news that she had been a pole dancer didn’t immediately disqualify her from serving as Miss USA, the image-conscious competition certainly lamented the fact that there were pictures floating around the Internet of the contest winner engaging in pole-dancing competitions.
In addition to the rumors and innuendos surrounding her past career, Fakih was also targeted by critics for allegedly partying too much after she won the Miss USA crown.
While Fakih now faces real legal trouble, which is potentially more damaging than rumors about partying and dancing, she entered the Miss USA pageant as a hero to many young girls, particularly those of Arab descent.
Sources indicate that Fakih was probably the first woman of Muslim and Arab descent to win the Miss USA competition. Fakih’s family had immigrated from to the United States from Lebanon when she was a baby and eventually settled in Michigan.
Even more interestingly, Fakih’s family celebrates both the Muslim and Christian faiths, which made her a particularly appealing candidate in the Miss USA contest.
Fakih was also the first Miss Michigan to win the competition since 1993. After she was crowned Miss USA, she participated in the Miss Universe contest but did not win.
Needless to say, Fakih has seen better days, but her DUI arrest does not necessarily mean that she will have to lose her car. Punishment for first-time offenders often involves some jail time, fines, or the possibility of a temporarily suspended license.
