Miss USA

Miss USA
At a ribbon cutting, Crystle Stewart dishes
By Glenn Yoder
Globe Staff / September 12, 2008

"You need to spend a week with me," reigning Miss USA Crystle Stewart says during our few hours together last week. "See if you can take it."

One thing's for certain: A week with Stewart would mean a week's worth of ideas about how she could change the world, a plus for a beauty contestant who is often asked that very question.

"I came up with an invention," she boasts to the photographer, eyeing his camera, immediately upon meeting us in the Lenox Hotel lobby. "It's a video camera where the eye part can flip to the other side, in case your shoulder gets tired."

After being told that the invention already exists -- and is quite expensive --Stewart frowns and looks legitimately perturbed. But all is forgotten a few hours later at a luncheon at the New Balance headquarters in Brighton. She again mentions her rotating viewfinder invention, as well as ideas for starting a "charm school" and an "America's Next Top Model"-type reality show about beauty pageants.

"I swear, if y'all steal my idea, I will hunt you down," the Missouri City, Texas, native says of the reality show, with a faint Southern drawl.

Stewart is naturally beautiful --she's 26, tall (of course), and has light black skin and the flawless lips, eyes, and teeth you'd expect of a Miss USA. She's worn out after arriving at Logan Airport on a red-eye from Los Angeles earlier that day and claims she didn't even brush her hair after a quick nap. But later, after quickly doing her makeup, she looks pageant-ready.

The looks you'd expect; her candid personality is what's surprising. Stewart tells one politically incorrect story (which I was asked by her public relations people not to print) twice over the course of the day. And despite jumbling her words -- she says her previous job was as an "autistic teacher" before correcting herself, teacher of autistic kids-- she seems, for all the silly invention talk, truly interested in making a difference.

"I try to do things that are possible," she says, adding that she is writing a motivational book. "I have so many ideas, and usually I get them done."

Seemingly without trying, Stewart can turn negatives around. In July, she took a much-documented fall at the Miss Universe pageant in Nha Trang, Vietnam -- the second American in two years to trip during the evening gown competition. She quickly jumped up but ended up in eighth place. Soon after, letters started arriving, praising her composure.

"A blind man said, 'You helped me keep going and pick myself up," she tells a group of New Balance employees and public relations folks as she picks at potato chips and a cookie. "Even if it's not at a pageant, but like a financial fall, you have to pick yourself up."

"You fell. What's the big deal?" Stacey Blaine-Caswell, the Miss Universe travel manager and a former Miss Massachusetts, reassures her. "It's not like you lost a limb."

Stewart laughs. She is well composed, and has to be. Her typical day is spent appearing at a long list of media events, most of which she doesn' know about until she receives an itinerary the night before. Much of her time goes to meet-and-greets with mostly male admirers, and as expected, several men nervously sidle up to Stewart at a ribbon cutting in recognition of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

After she cuts the 12-foot-long pink ribbon, a group surrounds Stewart. One man bursts to the front of the line, saying his wife gave him a camera to get his picture taken with Miss USA. However, he realizes after much winding, the disposable camera is full.

"Of course my wife gives me a broke camera," he says with a smile.

Patiently, Stewart greets everyone with a two-handed shake and repeats their names. Most smile shyly.

"Oh, you're wearing pink,"she says to one of the men, Porter Hayes, 25, of Charlestown, noticing his pink shirt in support of breast cancer awareness.

"I am wearing pink!" Hayes squeals, as if amazed she took the time to notice.

After about 45 minutes and plenty of smiling, Stewart heads back upstairs for a short break before an autograph signing. En route, I ask her if it's strange to hug strangers every day.

"Being from Texas, we always hug and kiss to greet,"she says. "But men always touch my butt. It happens a lot. It's like, 'Do I give an aura off?'"

Did any men touch your butt today?

"Yeah, a bunch of them,"she says, laughing.

Par for the course, I guess. If I don't take Stewart up on her challenge to hang for a week, I know plenty of other men who would be willing to give it a shot.