Beauty and Plastic Surgeon: Pageant Raises Eyebrows

To the astonishment of Miss America Pageant officials, affiliates from the Miss San Diego contest have named a Culver City physician to serve as their “official facial plastic surgery consultant.”

Dr. Stephen P. Grifka was appointed to the unpaid position earlier this year. The agreement calls for the 30-year-old surgeon to advise participants on ways to “enhance” their physical appearances.

Grifka said cosmetic surgery is a legitimate option for today’s beauty queens.

“This is a competition,” Grifka said. “And in order to get the competitive edge, they want to enhance themselves to the maximum amount. I can’t change a couch into a chair. But I can certainly fluff up the pillow.”

Scar Removal

Grifka’s specialties include nose jobs, face lifts, chemical skin peels and scar removal. He claims to have already worked on other beauty contestants but is quick to add that no one is pressured to go under the knife.

“It’s entirely up to the girls,” Grifka said. “They (pageant officials) don’t tell someone they’re beautiful, but they need their nose worked on.”

Grifka was appointed to the consulting position by Dayna Waitley, executive director of the Miss San Diego Pageant, on the recommendation of some mutual friends. In a Jan. 5 letter to Grifka, Waitley said she looked forward to a “winning association” with him. Waitley added that Grifka’s expertise would assist “young women in maximizing their potential.”

The appointment, however, has drawn spirited criticism, and Waitley said she will ask her board of directors to review the arrangement.

As he gains experience, Grifka said he ultimately hopes to hook on with larger pageants, including Miss America. But news of Grifka’s aspirations created about as much enthusiasm in the pageant’s Atlantic City headquarters as a pimple on pageant day.

Leonard C. Horn, the chief executive officer of the Miss America Pageant, the parent organization that oversees warm-up events such as the Miss San Diego contest, said he had never heard of Grifka and said the very idea of having a plastic surgeon as a consultant is “crazy” and “laughable.”

“That’s the last kind of person who would ever be involved with the Miss America Pageant,” Horn said in a telephone interview. “What would we want with a plastic surgeon? . . . We have consultants on hair and evening gowns but to have a consultant on plastic surgery seems a little strange.”

Strange, perhaps, but not prohibited. Plastic surgery is permitted under pageant rules, and there were even reports that 1982 winner Debra Sue Maffett had extensive cosmetic work. But Horn said the pageant, which was rocked by a 1984 pornography scandal involving Miss America Vanessa Williams and later allegations that another contestant was a shoplifter, would never advocate plastic surgery.

‘No Chance’

Reaction at the statewide level was equally hostile. Robert Arnhym, chief executive officer of the Miss California Pageant, which oversees Miss San Diego, along with 41 other contests, agreed that a plastic surgeon has no place in a pageant. He also said Grifka will have no involvement in the Miss California competition to be held in San Diego in June.

“We do not know the gentleman,” Arnhym said. “And there is no chance in the world he would be associated with us. . . No one in the state of California has ever encouraged our winners to have plastic surgery--ever.”

Arnhym said he would speak to Waitley about Grifka soon.

“I would be very surprised if this relationship was anything beyond a counseling service for those considering having something done,” Arnhym said. “But I am not aware of any Miss San Diego contestant who has had plastic surgery.”

The heated reaction to Grifka’s appointment seems to have caught Grifka and Waitley by surprise. Grifka, a former whiz kid who graduated from La Canada High School at the age of 15 and was accepted to Creighton University Medical School at the age of 18, said he accepted the consulting job with the best intentions and said he would never do anything to harm the pageant.

“These contests are not strictly a show of beauty,” said Grifka, whose private practice is known as Aalpha Medical Group and is affiliated with Brotman Medical Center of Culver City. “If you attended a pageant you would be amazed at how talented these girls are.”

Surgery Guru

Waitley said that she probably should have given the idea more serious consideration before she anointed Grifka as the pageant’s official plastic surgery guru. Waitley said she always envisioned Grifka as more of a beauty adviser than a surgery advocate.

“We would never recommend that a contestant have something like that done,” said Waitley, a Miss San Diego herself in 1980 and 1982.

“I just didn’t realize that this would turn into such a big thing,” she added. “. . . I should have spoken to my board of directors about it.”

Waitley said Grifka had no involvement with the 1988 Miss San Diego Pageant, which took place March 19. She said it was her intention that he would serve as an adviser and possible financial sponsor for the 1989 pageant.

Under the circumstances, however, Waitley said she will now ask the board to decide Grifka’s fate.

“I guess I overstepped my bounds . . ,” she said. “I’m out of my league here.”