Though Phan, a model since her teenage years, has plenty of reasons to cop an attitude, she remains soft-spoken and Lone Star State-sweet.
“I feel the pressure already,” Phan says. “This pageant is very well-organized, and I've been working on my stage presence. I hope I do well.”
She's not the only local contestant. At least two other Orange County residents—Yen Le and Sharla Nguyen—have entered the pageant. They'll compete for $33,000 in prizes.
Second Annual Miss Vietnam Global at Mandalay Bay Resort n Casino, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas, (702) 632-7777. June 30, 7:30-11:30 p.m. For tickets, call (714) 531-4284. $60-$150.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.