Miss USA 2010, Rima Fakih, Arrested On Drunk Driving Charges

From the moment she received her Miss USA crown, Rima Fakih has been embroiled in controversies.

She initially grabbed headlines in 2010 when she became one of the only, if not the first, Arab American and Muslim to win the Miss USA crown. Hailing from Michigan since 2003, Fakih is a Lebanese immigrant who moved here when she was a baby and celebrates both Muslim and Christian faiths.

But despite the feel-good nature of her 2010 win, Fakih got caught up in scandal after scandal ― including a new one just last night.

TMZ reports that the beauty queen was arrested in Highland Park, Michigan on Saturday for suspicion of drunk driving. Fakih tried to deny the incident initially, tweeting on Saturday, “Let’s clear things up now.... I’m NOT in Michigan and I’m NOT in jail! Wrong Fakih.”

But Doraid Elder, her attorney, told the Detroit Free Press, “Unfortunately she was.” The tweet has since disappeared and Elder commented that Fakih is “very saddened and very apologetic for the situation that she is in right now.”

We should say so, given the trouble she’s gotten in before. Just the day after winning the Miss USA title, Fakih was revealed as the winner of an amateur pole-dancing contest hosted by radio show MojoInTheMorning.com (a promotional event solely for female listeners that did not involve removal of clothing). She later came under fire for some late-night partying, which doesn’t seem like a big deal to us but had some critics wagging their fingers.

Now she’s actually gotten into trouble with the law. But her lawyer tells the Detroit Free Press that the arrest was based merely on “allegations.” Further investigation by the Highland Park police will happen tomorrow.

Clarification: Language has been updated to indicate that a pole-dancing contest in which Fakih participated was a radio show’s promotional event for female listeners only and did not involve removal of clothing.