Shannon Marketic

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Image:Usa1992s.jpg

Shannon LaRhea Marketic, the fifth Miss California USA to win Miss USA (1992)

Shannon Marketic, a resident of Malibu, California, was crowned first Miss California USA, and then Miss USA 1992. Marketic's victory was remarkable in light of the fact that she entered the semi-finals with the lowest score. She also won the Miss Photogenic award in the pageant by the vote of the audience.

Later, she placed 8th in the Miss Universe pageant, held in Bangkok, Thailand.

She has written many books about Christian subjects. She has acted in many movies and is currently working as a model.

In 1997, Marketic filed a lawsuit against the ruling family of Brunei for $90 million.^[1] In the case, Shannon alleges that she and 6 other young women were paid $127,200 each for a modeling job in Brunei (whereas on the ABC news program "20/20", Marketic said she was supposed to provide "intellectual conversations" with visiting guests of the royal family). These other women include former Miss Teen USA and future Miss USA Brandi Sherwood, who was invited along by Shannon, and Miss United Kingdom runner up Paula Bradbury.

Marketic maintained that she and the women were held as "sex slaves" and were "intimidated and coerced into performing physically and morally repulsive acts of prostitution."^[2] They were apparently ordered to dance for 5-6 hours every night at parties during which their bodies and private parts were groped and grabbed by men. During the dances Shannon was also allegedly verbal abused with comments made about her bare breasts.^[3] The women were often told to go with a man to have "tea" with him and then had sex with him.^[4] In her interview on "20/20", Marketic said that after 32 days of being held against her will, she managed to smuggle a letter out to the US Embassy; shortly afterwards, she was allegedly paid $10,000 and forced to fly back to the United States alone.^[1] The case was thrown out due to the immunity of the ruling family as heads of state.^[4] There has been no further investigation into this case although there are allegations both supporting and refuting her claims. Paula Bradbury separately sued the Sultan and won 500,000 pounds in settlement.^[5]