No mistakes at 22. Or so claimed Miss Phillipines during the Miss Universe pageant last night. Pageant pundits believe that this may have cost the very talented and beautiful young crown-holder the chance for a title as Miss Universe.

Miss Mexico won and her articulate answer to a different question impressed the judges- she was questioned about Arizona's Immigration law and answered that, "Every country has the right to impose and enact their laws, but I tell you that all the Mexicans and the Latins that are living here in the United States are hardworking people — people who want to improve on their quality of life."

In the recent past and since the advent of Youtube, more attention has been given to the interview portion of pageants- thankfully the ability to juggle in a bikini is not the only requirement a woman must have to succeed in the outdated pageants. Examples that come to mind are last year's runner up for Miss America, Carrie Prejean who many believe lost the competition for her bigoted answer regarding same sex marriage and of course, the bumbling idiot to match all bumbling idiots, Miss Teen South Carolina, whose answer about South Africa and "the Iraq" demonstrated superior knowledge rivalling only Sarah Palin's statement about the threat of Putin and his angry head with hard-nosed journalist Katie Couric.

In an age when every verbal mistake is captured on video camera for all of the world to watch repeatedly set to techno beats, the ability to articulate and verbalize thoughts in an intelligent manner is increasingly important. As a woman, I have mixed feelings about beauty pageants in general because of outdated segments such as the bikini competition, and how young children (as seen in movies such as Little Miss Sunshine) are pushed into pageants at a young age, but making intelligence a requirement for spokesmodels and beauty pageant winners is definitely a step in the right direction.

So, back to Miss Philippines. What should she have answered? As a writer for Slate wrote, there aren't many mistakes of major significance to impress a judge at such a young age. Should she have answered that she shouldn't have made fun of her brother when she was an elementary school student? Should she have answered that she felt sorry about saying no to the many boys that probably asked her for dates when she was younger?

Miss Philippines obviously couldn't say that she regretted joining the beauty pageant in the first place or that she was disappointed in being asked a standard job interview question instead of the political questions that she had probably been preparing for. No mistakes, obviously, was not the correct answer, but in all likelihood, the media is exaggerating the stupidness of her answer by quite a bit. Sarah Palin, afterall, was once on the Republican ticket for President of the United States.