Charla and Mirna
Template:The Amazing Race contestant Charla Baklayan Faddoul and Mirna Hindoyan were contestants on the fifth and eleventh (all-star version) editions on the American multiple-Emmy Award-winning game show The Amazing Race.
Background
Charla, a manager and co-owner of ten sportswear stores across her home state, is from Phoenix, Maryland and was born in in the country of Syria of Armenian descent. She has a form of dwarfism.
Mirna was born in the same hospital a month after her cousin and is also Armenian. She works as an estate planning attorney in Towson, Maryland, and stated that, prior to her first race experience, she had to wrap up about fifty cases for clients before she left.[1] Her participation in The Amazing Race led to speaking engagements as well as an invitation to the Emmy Awards. Her first speaking engagement was at Towson University, of which she and her cousin are alumnae.[2]
Both Charla and Mirna are well-traveled and speak several different languages including Turkish, Arabic, Armenian, French, Mirnish and Spanish.[3]
The Amazing Race 5
The Amazing Race 5 started off in the Californian city of Santa Monica. Though slow off the starting line (because of Charla's dwarfism), the cousins still managed to get onto an early flight out of the city to their first destination, Montevideo, Uruguay. Throughout the first leg, the cousins performed unusual tasks, such as the much-famed 55-lb beef-carrying, which indicated to many that the cousins were capable of grabbing the one-million-dollar prize. Continuing their adventures across South America, Charla and Mirna blitzed through the legs claiming 2nd place (out of 9, 10 and 11) after setting the pace by quickly winning a Roadblock in Buenos Aires.
All the teams then flew to St Petersburg, Russia where a caviar-eating challenge was easy for Charla. She managed to eat nearly two pounds of salty fish eggs and her team came in fourth in the leg. In Egypt (legs 5 and 6), the cousins managed to get an early flight connection to Cairo to claim yet another 2nd place finish. After that leg, the cousins' ranking went downhill. In Luxor, they only managed a 5th-place finish (of seven teams) and in Lake Manyara, Tanzania, a delayed flight ultimately sealed their fate as they lost the leg by less than 10 minutes to the second-to-last team, twins Kami and Karli.
Throughout the series, Charla tended to complete the eating Roadblocks whilst Mirna completed the more physical challenges such as leg 2's Buenos Aires Roadblock, consisting of grabbing a red bandana off a running bull. Also during the race, two more dominant teams -- Colin & Christie and Marshall & Lance -- were in conflict with the cousins; neither the cousins nor the other teams came out of those conflicts looking very good. In legs 5 and 6, Charla and Mirna developed an alliance with bowling moms Linda and Karen, which lasted until the moment Charla and Mirna were "philiminated," which surprisingly brought the host to tears.
Post-Amazing Race 5 and Pre-Amazing Race 11
 |
Between the two races the cousins participated in, both Charla and Mirna got married. At the age of 30, Charla is planning to have a baby with her husband through the process of IVF. In an interview for The Amazing Race 11, Charla said if they won the all-star season of The Amazing Race, she would use the money for the IVF process. Since both of the cousins had noticed that Charla's speed had slowed them down in the first race, in the All-Star race Charla would be using a secret weapon: "Heelies," which would hopefully improve her speed in footraces.[4] Outside of The Amazing Race, the cousins have appeared on numerous game shows and interviews. These include the 'Price is Right', on which neither Charla nor Mirna made it into the contestants' row; MADtv, in an Amazing Race parody; and Bravo TV's Battle of the Network Reality Stars, on which they appeared with fellow season 5 contestants Chip & Kim. Charla & Mirna were both eliminated, but Mirna returned and ended up on the winning team. Charla also appeared on HBO's The Comeback starring Lisa Kudrow as well as the "reality stars" themed first game of Season 7 of Celebrity Poker Showdown. Charla & Mirna were both featured in recaps on various episodes of The Soup on E!.
Amazing Race All-Stars
Charla and Mirna were picked as one of the eleven teams that would again race for $1 million. In the first leg of the race, the teams began in Miami where surprisingly, Charla beat Drew (of Kevin and Drew of Season 1) in a footrace off the starting line. Though they got out of the course in 10th place, their navigation skills proved to be worthy and they managed to get on the earlier flight into Quito, Ecuador alongside Season 3's John Vito and Jill and Teri and Ian as well as Season 2's "Miami Boys" Oswald and Danny and reality stars Rob and Amber from Season 7. Charla and Mirna had been in the front of the pack for the first few tasks (encompassing the Plaza de San Francisco and Pim's Restaurant), but on the next day, they slid to the back of the pack after going to the south entrance of Hacienda Yanahurco rather than the specified north. In a race with David and Mary or "Team Kentucky" of Season 10, Charla and Mirna finished 8th (their lowest ranking yet) and David and Mary finished 9th. The race then flew to the Atacama Desert in Chile with a stopover in the Chilean capital, Santiago. In the Santiago museum, Charla performed the Roadblock. To everyone's surprise, all ten teams were gathered at the Detour, the only activity prior to the pit stop. It was "Beauty Queens" Dustin and Kandice, Teri and Ian, David and Mary, Charla and Mirna, and Kevin and Drew who drove through the dead desert to avoid elimination. Dustin and Kandice, Teri and Ian, Charla and Mirna, David and Mary and Kevin and Drew arrived 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th respectively with Kevin and Drew eliminated.
The race then went to the Southern Chilean town of Puerto Montt and Petrohue, where things went to the extreme. Battling from elimination, Charla and Mirna, Joe and Bill, and David and Mary had to whitewater raft through the river to avoid elimination. Luckily, the cousins managed to grab another 8th placing with former allies David and Mary subsequently eliminated. In Leg 4 in Punta Arenas (Chile) and Ushuaia (Argentina) the cousins fell behind the 7th-placed Rob and Amber. The roadblock at Isla Redonda, the southernmost point of South America, proved critical as the cousins and season 7 winners Uchenna and Joyce battled it out to avoid elimination. Uchenna and Joyce managed to snatch a 6th place finish while Mirna/Charla and Rob/Amber fought intensely at the Roadblock, held at the Isla Redonda post office. Mirna managed to finish the Roadblock earlier than Rob and Amber, so the cousins reached the mat in 7th place, leading to the elimination of Rob and Amber (winners of all three legs of the race up until that point). In the fifth leg, Charla and Mirna achieved their first leg win at the pit stop in Maputo, Mozambique, following their Detour choice to paint nails in a marketplace, rather than the much more time-consuming option of filling bags of coal. The cousins held onto their first place status in the next leg, finishing first in Zanzibar in a leg that saw all other teams fall far behind the cousins due to troubles getting a flight to Dar es Salaam during the Hajj.
However, their streak stopped in Poland on Legs 7 and 8, problems completing their detours led to delays, and they managed to finish fourth.
The racers then flew to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. Charla and Mirna used their hotel's computers to find the best flight itinerary—an itinerary involving many connections, and that none of the travel agents the other contestants consulted found. The cousins arrived in Kuala Lumpur almost three hours before the next teams. This leg featured a yield, but Charla and Mirna decided to not yield anybody, with Mirna saying they wanted to win on their own merits and not hurt anyone else. Unfortunately, a poor detour choice, which they eventually abandoned in favor of the other choice, caused them to lose their lead and finish second in this ninth leg. The tenth leg then flew to Hong Kong where managed to get a 3rd place finish. The race then flew to Macau where tasks involved skyjumping off the Macau Tower, preparing two bundles of noodles, driving a Mini Moke giving the cousins a 2nd place finish.
Criticism
 | This section contains weasel words: vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. |
Charla and Mirna have been criticized for their manipulation strategies throughout the Amazing Race All-Stars edition. This criticism has come from other contestants of the race (Dustin & Kandice and Oswald & Danny) as well as from fans. A specific manipulation strategy that has been employed by the pair, on numerous occasions, is the simplification of speech (also known as broken English) to project key words (often with simulated accent) to individual by-standers for potential help. This strategy elicits pity from 3rd parties because of a seemingly unknown language barrier, despite the usual 3rd party’s fluent understanding of English. A second strategy is the projection of helplessness towards key potential helpers of the game, such as airline sales personnel and taxi drivers. This method, again, elicits pity on the pair which can ultimately result in aid or favors granted to them. Defenders of the team will argue that the Amazing Race is a game and can be fairly played in any manner deemed necessary. Critics of the team reply, however, that Charla and Mirna are wont to accuse other teams of unfair tactics. This strikes some as hypocritical, since the tactics of which they are so critical (e.g. the blondes' use of a "yield") are clearly within the rules of the game, whereas Charla and Mirna have repeatedly told outright lies when doing so suited their purposes.
See also
External links
References
- ^ Tandy, Patrick (2005-01). "Around the World and Back Again". Maryland Bar Bulletin. Retrieved 2007-02-18.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Cite error: The named reference
barbulletinwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Amazing Race Biographies at CBS.com". Retrieved 14 February.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Staples, David (2007-01-25). "Charla has Secret Weapon on Amazing Race All-Stars". Edmonton Journal. Retrieved 2007-02-18.