CBS
The 47th Annual Miss Universe Pageant to be broadcast
from Honolulu features reigning Miss Universe Brook Lee
and recently crowned Miss USA Shawnae Jebbia. It will be
broadcast on Tuesday, May 12 on CBS.

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Going from queen
to commoner

After ruling the universe,
what's next for Brook Lee?

By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin

She has no interest in acting, believes she has more brains than beauty, jokes about never being "hit on" by Donald Trump, says outgoing pageant winners need a halfway house to adjust to real life, and "never, ever" considered breast implants to give her an edge in the Miss USA and Miss Universe contests.

"Obviously, I didn't have it done," laughed Brook Lee, the reigning Miss Universe who gives up her crown here May 12. "Can't you tell? I didn't do it because I don't see the beauty thing as my strong point."

This is pure prime-time Brook Lee, the "Pearl City girl" who won the title in Miami Beach last year for leading with her brain, fast answers, quick wit, $6,000 smile and candid honesty.

"I'm still having a good time, which is weird because previous Miss Universes have told me that by now I should be over it. Most check out a month before their reign ends; you're ready to walk."

But after a year of first-class travel, escorts, limousines, luxury suites and meals with presidents and potentates, Lee says she's ready to come home but worries big time about the transition from queen to commoner.

"I'm not sure how I'll handle this emotionally," Lee said from her West Los Angeles apartment. "Everyone says the change is so radical, night and day. One day you step off the plane and have 50 cameras in your face; the next day no one's there.

"Even when millionaires lose money they lose it gradually. People go crazy gradually. You don't just wake up one day and think you're a cockatiel."

Lee, 27, has no firm post-Universe plans. Besides postponing setting a marriage date two years, and returning to Hawaii tomorrow, she's at loose ends.

She had thought about working with the Hawaii Film Office, but isle film commissioners told her she'd be more useful in more visible ways. She's saved enough money in her year as Miss Universe to not have to work for a while.

One thing she doesn't want to do is act. "Most of the girls who leave Miss Universe or Miss USA to go into acting end up being the third Eskimo, or the girl who gets hacked to pieces after five days," she said. "I was Coconut Girl No. 5 in the episode of 'Baywatch' filmed in Hawaii. And that sucks."

Meanwhile, she's being bombarded by talent agencies advising her to seek representation quickly because her "commodity level drops daily."

"It's stuff I really don't want to hear," said Lee.

While still enjoying her reign, emotionally she's trying to separate herself so she doesn't fall to pieces when she passes on the "that shiny thing on my head."

"I think there should be a transition halfway house for outgoing title winners," Lee joked.

So she wasn't exactly thrilled early one recent evening when she received an unexpected telephone call from the Miss Universe president about a "must-attend" dinner that night with the new administration.

"I was knee deep in packing boxes and had my pajamas on," she said. "I'd been dodging this thing all year. I thought I was in the clear. Like, I'm two weeks out then I'm gone, so what does anything matter?"

But Lee emphasized that she has had the time of her life, traveling the world meeting with the rich and famous and influential.

"It never really seemed like traveling. I was always in first class, fed every four hours, had all the videos and Nintendo I could handle, someone to pick me up at the airport and someone to get my bag. It wasn't real."

Lee never set out to enter the Miss Hawaii USA where she had been a volunteer for two years. But it was the last year of eligibility for her and friends said she should at least try.

Would she do it again?

"Well, probably," Lee said. "I wish I had been more prepared. Now that I'm getting the hang of it it's time to leave.

"Before all this I was on a single path and now I have a lot of paths. I have so many more choices and that can be confusing."

Finding an even keel

Lee had such a difficult time pacing herself early on that she lost 14 pounds.

"In Hawaii you learn not to inconvenience people or be rude," she said. "But I learned when the whole world is asking things of you there may be a time when you do have to inconvenience people, or you'll die."

Eventually, Lee's travel managers would drag her out of lobbies and interviews because she insisted on talking to everyone.

"I wouldn't eat, sleep or go to the bathroom when I had to. They ended up hiring a trainer for me to go to put on weight for Universe because they were worried about what people would think and blame the company."

Being Miss Universe also meant she would never be left alone, and always escorted. She had an apartment manager in her apartment. No one was allowed to sleep there, including family members. And she had a curfew.

As for intimate moments with her fiance, well "not during the reigning year," Lee said candidly.

"Technically, the year belongs to the Miss Universe company. But I'm a 27-year-old woman and when I was in Hawaii visiting family and friends I would find a way to get out."

Lee knows many people consider all pageants beauty contests.

"With some that's true; they don't require much other than your measurements," she said. "But critics don't understand the power of the title of Miss Universe. You're a diplomat, even considered something of a peace messenger in some countries.

"In the U.S., no one knows who I am because we have Hollywood and stuff. But when I go to places like Paraguay I meet with the country's president."

It's those occasions where where it pays to be brainy and beautiful. Lee understood that the modern day Miss Universe had to be multi-dimensional.

"When you travel the world no one sees you in a swimsuit or the crowning gown again but you have to know how to carry on a conversation. You make that initial impression with all the bells and whistles; they look at you for about 50 seconds and take a picture, then if you can't hold their attention they're gone."

Not bad thinking for a woman who has lived in Los Angeles, a town which she describes as "90 percent plastic surgery."

"Certainly there were girls in my competition who had had plastic surgery. But there always has been that element."

But here's the thing, Lee says. The pageant playing field is filled with "turbo-charged, drop-dead gorgeous women."

"With that high level of beauty quotient, to get to the final 10 you have be able to step up the ladder. If you concentrate on one thing like developing your abs you're not going to make it past swimsuit."

For Lee, the interview portion was her "ace in the hole." Her ability to express herself was the clincher.

In the year of universal encounters, one meeting stands out in her mind, the one with actor Scott Baio of "Happy Days" TV fame.

"I freaked, just freaked and he's not even that big anymore," Lee said. "For God's sake he's Chachi!"