Miss Utah gets a second chance to answer that pesky question

Miss Utah Marissa Powell, she of the flubbed Miss USA interview, got cut a little slack on Tuesday by the “Today” show: She got a second chance to answer that troublesome question.

She also got a chance to explain what happened when she was in the spotlight Sunday night.

“I was so excited, and I was so nervous, and I got up to this top-five question,” Powell said. “I was the first one. I got up, and the question was a little bit confusing to me, and I just started speaking without really processing.”

And from that, alas, came the viral phrase “create education better.”

Judge Nene Leakes of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” who’d asked the question about women continuing to make less than men despite being primary earners in 40% of families with children, had sympathy for 20-year-old Powell.

“We all make mistakes that often result in a miscommunication,” Leakes told People, noting that in Miss Utah’s case the gaffe was “very public.”

“Hopefully with all the attention she’s getting ... she can turn this negative into a positive.”

Powell did turn her nonsensical answer into something that made sense while she talked with Matt Lauer on Tuesday.

“This is not OK,” she said when posed the question again. “It needs to be equal pay for equal work. It’s hard enough already to earn a living, and it shouldn’t be harder just because you’re a woman.”

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