We don’t care what you think, Drop Dead Gorgeous is one of the greatest film ever made and may be the pinnacle of Kirsten Dunst’s career so far (sorry Kirsten, but Marie Antoinette was pants). And now, 15 years (!) after the film’s release, it looks like life is imitating art on our very own shores, because a brawl has just erupted at a beauty pageant in Scarborough, in North Yorkshire. We know.
The Miss Scarborough seaside pageant descended into violence when some members of the crowd objected to the choice of winner. The ten-person gang apparently attacked security guards and threw glasses, believing that the beauty pageant was ‘fixed’ after their favourite contestant was eliminated. When the chaos broke out at the bar at a North Yorkshire holiday park, where the contest was being held, some of the other contestants wept in fear of being caught up in the violence. When 18-year-old student Jess Gale from Filey, North Yorkshire, came on stage to collect her tiara, the crowd booed and shouted ‘fix!’ ‘fix!’ – which sounds a bit harsh to us.
Audience members Jess and her brother Billy Coyne, Luke Burton and Ben Howram have been accused of starting the brawl because they wanted a model called Shanon to win the crown. Jess Coyne said: 'As soon as we got in the venue, the doormen were looking at us and they were targeted. They picked on us all night, and the bouncers were heavy handed, provoking us all night. Everybody was singing and chanting for Shannon, but once the contestants went down from eight to six and she was out, why would we boo? It doesn't make any sense. My brother even went to school with Jess Gale, so what reason would he have to boo her?'
Pageant organiser Diane Yalezo responded to the violence by saying she ‘cried for days’ after the crowd ‘completely ruined’ the celebrations for Miss Gale. Which is an amazing piece of hyperbole of Drop Dead Gorgeous proportions.
Event organisers have responded to the violence by planning to minimise the alcohol consumed at events by holding the next pageant at a hotel where cream teas are available. A statement which we will present to you without comment.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.