No contest! Miss Polonia pageant fixed!

By Matthew Lysiak
The Brooklyn Paper




This year’s winner of the Miss Polonia contest, Inez Zuska (right), was actually last year’s runner up. Coincidence? Hmm…


Inez Zuska, the 21-year-old pride of Bay Ridge, was crowned Miss Polonia at Sirico’s restaurant on April 22 — but the decision wasn’t exactly a cliffhanger since organizers eliminated the formal judging that was once a Miss Polonia tradition.

Is this some kind of Polonia joke?

In years past, the Miss Polonia contest was a hotly fought over honor. Contestants, all of whom are single and have at least one Polish parent, had to first survive a first round. Next, they’d face a panel of Polish-American Simon Cowells, who rated them on their Polish heritage, future goals, how well they speak their native language, and, of course, beauty.

But this year’s event conjured up conspiratorial images of closed doors and smoke-filled rooms. Seven contestants — or eight, depending on whom you ask — showed up, but were quickly told that Zuska would walk off with the coveted tiara.

Contest organizer Margaret Zebro defended the Zuska coronation.

“We decided to make it more a presentation, then a pageant,” said Zebro. “The judging in front of all of those people can be difficult for a young girl.”

Then again, organizers claim, even if the judging had been fair, Zuska would’ve won anyway.

“The truth is she would have won if there were a hundred girls up there,” Zebro said.

Fellow pageant organizer Irene Rudis agreed: “Inez is just a beautiful person inside and out. She is just a perfect fit by every measure. We are all very proud of her.”

Like in most good conspiracies, this one is shrouded in silence: Zuska remains “unavailable for comment.”

Zuska will now have the honor of representing Bay Ridge at the Pulaski Memorial Day Parade in Manhattan on Oct. 7 — and fix or no fix, some are just happy to have beautiful Polish-American on a float at all.

Last February, organizers openly fretted that the rapid decline in Brooklyn’s Polish population would spell the end of the contest.