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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.”

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.

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.

“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?

Miss California keeps her crown — and her opinions

So Miss California Carrie Prejean gets to keep her crown.

While Prejean, 21, hit the headlines last month for her opposition to gay marriage, it was the emergence of topless photos of the beauty queen that threw her reign into doubt.

At a packed news conference in New York City on Tuesday, Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump said he had viewed the photos, some of which he described as beautiful and others as risque, and deemed them acceptable.

Prejean said some of the photos — showing her topless but covering her breasts — were taken by a friend for applications for modeling agencies and not for publication. Others that showed her baring her breasts were taken on a windy cliff when she was not aware that she was being photographed, she said.

It was Prejean’s views on gay marriage, and the strident reaction to them, that threw her into the national spotlight in the midst of heated debates over same-sex weddings, which have recently been legalized in five U.S. states but banned in a California referendum in November.

Prejean expressed her opposition to gay marriage last month while answering a question from gay celebrity blogger and judge Perez Hilton at the Miss USA pageant where she came second. She said her answer cost her the Miss USA crown.

“I exercised my freedom of speech and I was punished for doing so. This should not happen in America. It undermines the constitutional rights for which my grandfather fought (in World War Two),” an emotional Prejean told reporters.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.”