Miss Sri Lanka New York blasts rumors about wild brawl after beauty pageant
The newly crowned Miss Sri Lanka New York lashed out at the rumors circulating about the chaotic brawl at the pageant’s after-party on Staten Island.
Angelia Gunasekara aimed to quell the apparent hearsay in a video statement posted to Facebook on Wednesday, where she said the pageant’s 14 contestants had “absolutely nothing to do with” Friday’s melee.
“It’s very upsetting to see articles written about us saying that this altercation had happened because we were fighting for the crown, because there were boyfriends involved and I was fighting. All these rumors are false,” Gunasekara said.
Gunasekara said the fracas was instigated by “two individuals in the audience” at The Vanderbilt in South Beach — not anyone who was directly involved in New York’s first-ever Miss Sri Lanka beauty pageant.
A pageant organizer told The Post Tuesday that all the contestants were inside the building while the scuffle took place outside.
Video captured the melee, which began with shoving but quickly erupted after several men began throwing punches, sending their victims to the floor. Some partygoers tried to intervene, but couldn’t stop the barrage of firsts being thrown in the kerfuffle. Screaming could be heard as the men pounced on one another.
At least one tiara-wearing woman was caught in the tussle, video shows.
The fight caused widespread criticism, much of which descended into racial stereotypes that fighting is “typical behavior of village Sri Lankans.”
Gunasekara pleaded with her Facebook viewers to push back against the rumors, which she said are overshadowing the money the pageant raised for a Sri Lanka hospital amid economic turmoil in the nation.
“It would be very helpful because we haven’t had a single moment to feel or just embrace the success, all the effort, all the support that we had given and had gotten from all the people around us,” Gunasekara said.