Honey Lee for Dulcolax

A familiar face on a recent commercial that aired on American television during the CBS evening News, caused me to do a double-take. The face was that of former Miss Korea Honey Lee, who’s featured in the above Korean-produced commercial for the laxative Dulcolax, that’s currently airing on network TV in the United States. 

Reportedly, the commercial has been airing in Korea since February and Dulcolax made the decision to start airing it in the US, after a consumer survey yielded positive feedback, which isn’t hard to see why. Since her pageant days, the 2006 Miss Korea and 2007 Miss Universe third runner-up, has established herself as fairly prominent TV, stage, and screen actress in Korea. Here name in Korean is 이하늬 and Google is our friend.

The 2013 Miss Korea Pageant Contestants

It’s no secret and certainly not news, how common it is for South Korean women, particularly those in the entertainment industry, to have facial cosmetic work done. The most common being the “double-eyelid” surgery, which is intended to give a more big-eyed “Western” appearance. So, when I caught an article stating that all of the contestants in the 2013 Miss Korea Pageant looked alike, I thought it was nothing new and I didn’t even bother reading it. However, when I recently caught the now viral GIF image (right) of seven of the contestants, created just to illustrate how they all look like they rolled off the same plastic surgery assembly line, it did make me stop and take notice. It practically looks like the same girl with different hairstyles and clothes. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I suppose. Just an observation. Excellent article at KoreaBANG that includes photos of all 20 contestants before and after makeup here.

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Margaret Ann Garza

May 31, 2017 Author's Addendum: It is with much sadness I write this, as I learned today of the sudden and untimely passing of Margaret on May 30th, 2017. I didn’t know Margaret personally, but my interactions with her for this interview left no doubt that she was a joyful human being, who was a pleasure to know on a professional and personal level, in addition to being a talented actress and singer. Needless to say, she will be deeply missed and never forgotten by her family, friends, colleagues, and fans. The Texas indie film community lost a very bright star.

 - Chris Charles

Margaret Ann Garza began her show biz career competing in pageants in her native Texas, where she earned the crown as Miss Texas Latina. She subsequently caught the eye of a marketing director and was soon appearing on billboards and in print ads in and around her hometown of Laredo. She's since branched out to acting, where she's currently among the several talented ladies appearing in Twitchy Dolphin Productions.

Bright, outgoing, and personable, Margaret would get very nervous when she first started doing interviews but now says she loves being interviewed, thanks to all her pageant experience. It was no surprise to hear that she also loves horror movies, as most of Twitchy Dolphin films are of that genre, but it was a big surprise to hear that she doesn't even like shopping and malls. Read more about Margaret in my interview with her after the jump.

1993 Lakeport Revival Bikini Contestants

Back in 1993, the band I was in at the time, was booked to play a weekend at a club in Lakeport, California, which is about a two hour drive north of San Francisco. While I was up there, I caught a poster advertising the Lakeport Revival Classic Car Show (now defunct), which included a bikini contest, at the Lake County Fairgrounds. Me, being a fan of classic cars and an even bigger fan of bikini contests, decided to go check it out and I made sure to bring my camera along. (35mm, this was the pre-digital age.)

Most of the contestants were from  Northern California (Santa Rosa, Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, etc.) and were obviously professional or semi-professional models, with one notable exception, who gave away her amateur status with her less-than-perfect posture. I don't remember who won, or even the names of any contestants, but "Stars and Stripes Girl" here, was the show-stealer who got the biggest response from the crowd once she dropped her white blazer to show her patriotism.

As I look at these photos now, I notice there doesn't seem to be any real differences between the hair and fashion styles of these ladies vs. those whom would be competing in such contests today. However, I can point out the absence of tattoos and piercings (visible ones, anyway) on these ladies vs. the inked and body jewelry-laden bodies you'd be likely to see in bikini contests these days.

Leena Nguyen

Despite feeling she doesn't have the "model look," 24-year-old Viet-Chinese part-time model Leena Nguyen was among the top ten finalists at the 2007 and 2008 Miss Vietnam USA pageants and at the 2007 Miss Norcal Vietnam pageant. She was also crowned Miss California Asia and "Miss Talent" at the 2007 Miss National Asia Pageant. Achievements she is very humble about.

Leena, whose first passion is singing, was a Viet Idol finalist in 2006 and also made the March 2007 cover of the popular Viet lifestyle magazine, BN. She says she currently works with disabled children and plans on going back to school later to pursue a career in dentistry rather than compete in any more pageants, which she had previously considered doing.

An admitted pool addict, she jokingly told me that she "spent most of her high school and college years shooting at a billiards hall" and is an avid video gamer, making time specifically for them every day. And for those of you wondering if she can cook; she can and desserts are her specialty. "Name 'em, I can probably bake 'em," she says.

Kelly Siew

I first caught medical intern and singer Kelly Siew at her Xanga blog and immediately thought her worthy of a inclusion here, so I contacted her about it and she immediately replied saying she was fine with the idea.

Having studied singing since she was 8 years old, the 5' 8", 24 year-old Malaysian native currently lives in Australia, where she's a first-year intern at a small hospital in Melbourne. Kelly's trying to decide between OB/GYN, psychiatry, or family medicine. However, she tells me singing is still her first love, which she does semi-professionally. Some of her achievements include being named first runner-up at this year's TVB International New Talent Singing Championship and 2nd runner-up at this year's Chinese Melbourne Miss University Contest, which the photo at right is from. She's also quite and amateur chef and even shares some of her many personal recipes at her Xanga blog.

New Miss Korea Lee Ji-sun

It doesn't seem like it's been over a year since Lee Ha-nui was crowned Miss Korea but it has and on July 30th, Miss Seoul, Lee Ji-sun succeeded Ha-nui (also spelled and pronounced as "Honey") by being crowned the 51st Miss Korea. Brief article here.