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.”

Prejean added that she does not know how officials with Miss California got the solo sex tape, as was reported gleefully in recent days by celebrity website TMZ.

One reason the video is just being talked about — and not viewed on the Web or DVD or any other medium — is that Prejean was apparently 17 at the time, which would make her underage and a crime to distribute the footage.

On “Today,” Prejean said she has been under attack for criticizing gay marriage at Miss USA, and she hit many of the conservative talking points, slamming the news media for being too “liberal,” name checking Sarah Palin and taking a glancing shot at right wing punching bag Keith Olbermann.

Meanwhile, some of Prejean’s critics are sharpening their knives for her.

Business mogul Donald Trump, who runs the Miss USA pageant, was one of those critical of Prejean. In her book, the beauty queen said that Trump would divide beauty contestants based on looks.

Wait a minute, isn’t that a big part of what beauty pageants are about? … Beauty?

The Donald wasn’t having any of Prejean’s accusations. “Carrie should be ashamed of herself,” he told celebrity news show Extra.  “… I don’t stand the ones that are less attractive to one side, and the beautiful ones on the other side. It was total nonsense — it was fiction in her imagination.”

And model Shanna Moakler, who left her job as an official at Miss California but came back after Prejean was replaced by another woman, told chat show host Wendy Williams that despite Prejean’s comments that she was targeted based on her views on gay marriage, the problem was that she breached her contract by posing topless and not being truthful about that to pageant officials.

“We have tons of religious conservative beauty queens all over the country, there has never been a beauty queen who has been dethroned because of her religious views,” Moakler told Williams. “But there have been many that have their crowns taken away for breaching their contract.”

But has there been a beauty queen who has turned a normally staid beauty pageant question-and-answer into a book deal and more? No, it seems Prejean has accomplished that one all by herself, going solo.

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.

“They don’t agree with the stance that I took …” Prejean told TMZ. “They don’t like me. From day one they wanted me out and they got what they wanted.”

A spokeswoman for Prejean was not immediately available.

Gay rights advocates describe Prejean as simply a telegenic spokeswoman for discrimination. But she also has her supporters among conservatives, who call her public support for traditional marriage brave. As a result of the gay marriage controversy, her public profile has far outstripped that of Miss USA, Kristen Dalton of North Carolina. Will Prejean’s being stripped of her title by Miss California pageant organizers simply raise her profile more than if she had kept the sash?

Back in April, Prejean signed on with the National Organization for Marriage, a group opposed to same-sex marriage, to appear in a political television advertisement that re-broadcast her comment about gay marriage. But at the time, Prejean made it clear that her appearance in the TV spot did not mean she was a spokeswoman for the organization. Following her firing as Miss California, the National Organization for Marriage said that “Carrie will be free to define her own mission and message from now on.”

Does that mean that she will once again take to the airwaves to support traditional marriage? If so, will her views have a real effect on the national debate over gay marriage? Or will she just be another pretty face?

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.

“This completely changes things for us,” Lewis said. “Yesterday, we thought she had explained things accurately. We need to revisit this issue with her.”

On Wednesday, business magnate Donald Trump, the owner of the Miss USA pageant, told Los Angeles radio station KISSFM that he planned to review the racy pictures of Prejean and that a decision could come on Wednesday or Thursday on whether to take away her sash.

A spokeswoman for Prejean was not immediately available.

The emergence of racy photos has created problems for other beauty pageant winners, including former Miss America Vanessa Williams, who in 1984 relinquinshed the crown because organizers of the pageant were upset over erotic photos of her circulating at the time. Of course, that’s all a distant memory for Williams, whose career as a singer, model and actress has thrived, and who these days enjoys a starring role on ABC comedy “Ugly Betty”

Prejean, a Christian college student, has many fans, especially among supporters of traditional marriage who have praised her for rejecting gay marriage during the question-and-answer segment of the Miss USA pageant last month. The Miss California pageant organizers have made no secret of their disappointment in those remarks. And all the while, the controversy has pitted conservative Christians against gay rights advocates.

Could being stripped of the Miss California sash only help Prejean’s profile? The verdict awaits.

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.

Organizers of the Miss California pageant are likely to have their phone ringing even more now, after Lewis went on CBS program “The Early Show” on Friday and said that before the Miss USA pageant, in which Prejean finished second, his group helped her get breast implants in an attempt to propel her to the Miss USA crown, as had been reported earlier this week.

“The Early Show” co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez asked Lewis, “Can you settle this once and for all? Did you pay for or help pay for Miss California’s breast implants?”

“We assisted when Carrie came to us and voiced the interest in having the procedure done, yes,” Lewis responded.

Lewis had previously told Reuters that his group only supported Prejean’s decision to have the surgery, and he would not say who paid for it.

Regardless of who paid, the fact that Lewis and model Shanna Moakler, co-executive director of Miss California, have talked about Prejean’s surgery on TV points to how much of a rift has emerged between them and Miss California, after she said in response to a question during the Miss USA pageant that she did not agree with gay marriage. The Miss California pageant organizers have also criticized Prejean’s comments in media statements, but they have stopped short of saying they would strip her of her Miss California crown.

Still, the rebuke that the 21-year-old Prejean has received from the pageant backers pales in comparison to what gay celebrity blogger Perez Hilton said about her. It was Hilton, who as a judge at the Miss USA pageant, asked Prejean the question about gay marriage that has made her a hero to many conservatives, and the scorn of gay rights advocates. Afterward, he said in a video blog that if Prejean had been named Miss USA, he would have leapt on stage and ripped the tiara from her head. Those comments even prompted a Miami drag queen to denounce Hilton.

Hilton said he believes that Prejean will capitalize on the controversy, the way some celebrities he follows on his blog have done.

“She’ll probably cash in on this and charge a lot of money to go on the lecture circuit, might possibly write a book and may possibly use that money to get even bigger breast implants than the ones she already has,” Hilton told Reuters.

Prejean announced this week that she will star in a TV ad campaign from the National Organization for Marriage, aimed at convincing voters in states where gay marriage could soon become legal that they should speak out against it. The ads will air in New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and elsewhere.

So in light of the flare-up over Prejean’s comments, it’s worth finding out who she is.

Raised about 10 miles from the coast in the largely conservative town of Vista, California, Prejean is a student at San Diego Christian College, an evangelical school, where she is studying special education, her spokeswoman Melany Ethridge said. For now, her plans are to continue with college, Ethridge said.

Ethridge said that Prejean was not available for an interview.

Last weekend, Prejean received a hero’s welcome when she returned to her mega-church, The Rock.

Lewis told Reuters that he has always known Prejean to be friendly to gays like himself, and that he believes she has more liberal views about gays apart from the gay marriage issue, which he disagrees with her about.

“I would be excited when people really start to flesh out how she feels about civil unions and about civil rights and about a lot of the other issues,” Lewis said.

Some good has come out of the controversy for Lewis. He said that more women than ever before are applying to try out for Miss California this year, with some wanting to promote gay marriage and others wanting to denounce it.

Given that beauty pageants often feature nothing but platitudes, maybe it’s a good thing that this year’s Miss USA has sparked a debate, instead of more empty calls for “world peace.”

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.

“It did cost me my crown,” she said. “I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I said what I feel. I stated an opinion that was true to myself, and that’s all I can do.”

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, who was one of Miss USA’s judges and asked Prejean the question about gay marriage that got her into trouble, had a different take. In an expletive-laced online video blog, the gay self-proclaimed “Queen of All Media” said after the telecast that Prejean should have just avoided the question. “She lost not because she doesn’t believe in gay marriage, she lost because she’s a dumb (expletive),” Hilton said.

It’s significant that Hilton asked Miss California about gay marriage, because the state’s voters approved a ballot measure in November banning same-sex weddings. Since then, the Iowa Supreme Court has legalized same-sex marriages and the Vermont legislature has made the unions legal in that state.

Hilton and Prejean gave the country something to talk about, other than gowns and make-up. But since many of those in the audience at Miss USA are gay, perhaps Hilton was right that Prejean just did not know how to play to the home crowd. As model and Miss USA judge Claudia Jordan told celebrity Web site TMZ, “She should have known her audience better. There’s only like five straight guys in the audience at the pageant.”