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Carrie Prejean calls sex video a solo “mistake”

Beauty queen Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California who became the darling of conservatives when she spoke out against gay marriage at this year’s Miss USA pageant, has another work getting her plenty of attention. No, it’s not her memoir, the defiantly titled “Still Standing,” that has people talking. It’s a sex tape that few have seen, but that plenty of people are jabbering about.

On Tuesday, Prejean herself went on television news shows and talked about the sex tape. In this interview with NBC’s “Today” show, Prejean defended herself and said that “nothing is private anymore.”

“It was me by myself, there was no one else with me, I was not having sex,” she told NBC News. “I sent it to my boyfriend at the time. I was a teenager, I cared about him, I trusted him.”

She added that it was “for private use” but that making the solo sex video was the “biggest mistake of my life.”

After Miss California firing, what’s next for Carrie Prejean?

Now that Miss USA beauty pageant runner-up Carrie Prejean has been ousted as Miss California, what is next for the college student who became a poster woman for supporters of traditional marriage? It has been a tumultuous couple of months for Prejean, ever since her televised answer in response to a question about gay marriage, in which she said that she does not agree with it.

Miss California pageant officials say that the 22-year-old Prejean’s firing has nothing to do with her political stance on gay marriage (even though they disagree with it) and everything to do with her violating her contract and refusing to make appearances. For her part, Prejean told celebrity news website TMZ.com on Wednesday that her elimination by pageant officials was, indeed, political.

Verdict looms on Miss California’s title

For Miss California, first there was the gay marriage controversy. Then it was the breast implant flap. Now it’s the “semi-nude” photo imbroglio. And that last one could be the one that causes the Miss California pageant organizers to strip Carrie Prejean of her sash.

Keith Lewis, co-director of the Miss California USA pageant, said in a statement on Wednesday that he was “absolutely stunned” to learn there were four photos circulating on the Internet of Prejean in her underwear with no top. Apparently, he believed there was only one photo out there. All the photos were taken long before Prejean became Miss California, and they are apparently taken in the style of a Victoria Secret advertising spread.

Miss California pageant targeted by gay, anti-gay forces

In a sign of how controversial Miss California’s campaign against gay marriage has become, the organizers of the Miss California pageant say they have been targeted from both gay rights advocates and foes of same-sex unions, with the former slamming them for not denouncing their tiara-holder Carrie Prejean more forcefully and the latter targeting them for distancing themselves from the comments at all.

“We’ve gotten it from both sides,” the openly gay Keith Lewis, co-executive director of the Miss California pageant, told Reuters.

Miss California vs. Perez Hilton = Marriage debate

On Sunday night, Miss North Carolina Kristen Dalton was crowned Miss USA, but all the talk on Monday was about how runner-up, Miss California Carrie Prejean, fueled the gay marriage debate by saying during the telecast that she does not agree with same-sex weddings.

On Monday, Prejean told Access Hollywood that she sticks by her answer, despite the uproar from gay rights supporters.