THE bling on the Miss Singapore Universe tiara may well be thorns in disguise.

Barely 24 hours after she won the beauty pageant last month, photos of 22-year-old accounts executive Tania Lim posing with Caucasian men were splashed online by a local netizen.

It led to some people calling her a Sarong Party Girl (SPG).

Last year’s winner Rachel Kum was also embroiled in a racy photo scandal and admitted that she had undergone breast enhancement.

And you thought life on the throne was easy.

If anything, the advent of online platforms like Facebook and Twitter has made life for local beauty queens more challenging, Miss Singapore Universe 1999 Cheryl Marie Cordeiro told The New Paper.

She described how strangers would call her names “for no reason when they walked past me”.

“These days, I must say the girls have it tougher than I did, especially with these informal media outlets. Everything spreads so quickly,” said Cheryl, 35.

There’s nothing wrong with doing silly things and having fun, she said.
But beauty queens “always have to be on their guard”.

“I’d like to think that Miss Singapore represents our country in a positive way, so I’d definitely fault myself if I hadn’t conducted myself in a more sensible manner.”

She said she never writes about her personal life on her blog which she maintains regularly. Instead, she muses about hobbies like cooking, fashion and comments on social issues.

“You can’t be perfect. But if one can distinguish between the private and the public, it will be very helpful in minimising bad publicity.”

Cheryl’s reign wasn’t a bed of roses either.

She has also been called an SPG to her face by a guy whom she thinks was “possibly a jealous suitor”.

He had asked her out but she declined because she was not interested.

“I was very angry he called me an SPG because I was stereotyped. I’d prefer if he’d got to know me instead of (pigeon-holing) me.

“I have both local and Caucasian friends. I don’t befriend someone because he or she looks white. It’s all about mental compatibility.”

Cheryl now lives in Sweden with her husband whom she married in 2006.

She is here on business and to visit her parents and younger brother who live here.

There were also the indecent proposals.

Cheryl recounted how a Bollywood producer whom she’d met at a casting call offered her a leading role in his upcoming film.

She said he’d also wanted to make Cheryl – who was not married then – his muse.
The offer price: $250,000 – and she had to spend four days with him.

She said no. But the producer, whom she declined to identify, was persistent.
Cheryl, who has acted in Channel 5 sitcom Brand New Towkay (2001) and Eric Khoo’s One Leg Kicking (2001), said: “He called again a few years later. I’d already gotten married. He flew me and my husband to London to discuss the offer and even asked my husband to persuade me to take up the offer.

This article was first published in The New Paper.