Maria Isabel Lopez on Journey to the Crown

If there ever was a controversial Binibining Pilipinas winner ever, that would be Binibining Pilipinas Universe 1982 Maria Isabel Lopez.

Who could ever forget her back-and-forth quips during her question and answer with Bb Pilipinas judge Rita Gomez? That has surely made her a stuff of legend. Thankfully for us we still have a transcript of that Q&A.
Rita Gomez: “Here’s your question hija, are you still a virgin?”
Maribel: “If I say I still am, can I bring home the crown tonight?”
Rita: “Good answer!”
Maribel: “How about you, ma’am, are you still a virgin?”
Rita: “Hija, I have five different children with five different fathers. What do you call that, immaculate conception?”
Maribel, as she is nicknamed, will later make headlines after she was asked to resign her title for being a Gerard Peters model. Being a student from the University of the Philippines, this lass was not to go down without a fight and she kept her title and was able to compete in Miss Universe in Lima, Peru. But controversy would not stop hounding her as she made headlines several years ago for complaining that she was forcibly removed from her seat during a Bb Pilipinas final. She grabbed headlines again recently after she made a divalicious entrance during the Cannes Film Festival in an emerald Albert Andrada gown.

Despite those controversies, she nevertheless has become a respected actress who reinvented herself from being a beauty queen, to a ‘bomba’ star, to an award-winning actress…