National
Prejean Fired As Miss California
By Susie Kopecky
Jun 14, 2009 - 6:42:31 PM

CALIFORNIA —On Wednesday, June 10, Carrie Prejean was instructed to step aside as Miss California. The blonde bombshell, who was in the eye of a political storm, says she was not fired on the up-and-up.

In a statement released on June 10, pageant director Keith Lewis blamed contractual violations as the reasoning behind Prejean's termination as a beauty queen. Prejean, 22, has countered that she was fired because of her stance against gay marriage. Prejean also alleges that Lewis was not forthcoming with a complete listing of all offers of work. Prejean also insinuated that Wilson was trying to coax Prejean into posing for Playboy, to the tune of over $100,000.

Prejean gained national attention during the final rounds of the Miss USA pageant, in which a celebrity blogger, Perez Hilton (a fake name riffing on socialite Paris Hilton's name) AKA Mario Lavandeira was allowed to ask Prejean one of her final questions. Lavandeira asked Prejean about her feelings on gay marriage (as California's Propositon 8 was a particularly hot-button issue in November). Prejean answered that she felt marriage should be a relationship best defined as it had previously been defined. Prejean came in second place in the overall contest. Lavandeira later blogged about the experience, calling Prejean a number of derogatory names.

In separate appearances on network television news shows, Prejean and Lewis each explained their side of the story. FOX obtained alleged emails between Lewis and Prejean, which it published online. One of Lewis's allegations, that Prejean did not live up to her contract, appears to refer to Prejean's decision to attend the Special Olympics, not set up through Lewis.

By Wednesday, former first runner-up Tami Farrel had already been crowned as the new Miss California, and appeared with Lewis on "Your World With Neil Cavuto" to discuss the decision. In a press release from the Miss California organization, dated November 28, 2008, it was noted that Farrel, Miss Malibu, "will assume the duties of Miss C alifornia USA ® 2009 if the titleholder is named Miss USA ® 2009 or for some reason cannot fulfill her responsibilities."

Prejean, a former Miss La Jolla, had been crowned Miss California on November 23, 2008.


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