By April MacIntyre Nov 10, 2009, 15:37 GMT
A lesson to be learned for all: Sex tapes, even ones where the only person having sex is you, tend to surface at the most inopportune times.
Ex Miss California Carrie Prejean, Prejean answered Hilton's question about same-sex marriage during the Miss USA Pageant last April. The fallout of her reply has fueled a volley of relentless sniping that led to a lawsuit, now dropped thanks in part to a sex tape of Prejean masturbating. EPA/JUSTIN LANE
So goes it for the surgically enhanced Carrie Nation of the right, who spoke against gay marriage and endured the wrath of the gay-dominated celebrity blogosphere, led by Perez Hilton, the blogger judge from the beauty pageant who asked her opinion of gay marriage and opened a can of worms.
Prejean answered Hilton's question about same-sex marriage during the Miss USA Pageant last April. The fallout of her reply has fueled a volley of relentless sniping that led to a lawsuit, now dropped thanks in part to a sex tape of Prejean masturbating. Prejean told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira she regrets making a sex tape and discusses her new book. Prejean has become a cause celebre within the conservative community, as she enjoys a welcome at The Rock Church, an evangelical church in suburban San Diego. Prejeam confirmed she filmed an ad for the National Organization for Marriage and has agreed to be a spokesperson for the group.
MSNBC revealed today that Prejean claimed that Miss California pageant officials urged her "not to discuss her Christian faith and to apologize for her statements on same-sex marriage."
Prejean tells TODAY’s Matt Lauer she will continue to fight for “traditional marriage.” After racy photos circulated of Prejean back in May, she issued a statement defending the photo. She says she was 17 when they were taken and that they are from a model shoot.
Then things ramped up. Donald Trump, on May 12 at a press conference, announced that Prejean will retain the title of Miss California USA. He also commends her for speaking her mind about same-sex marriage during the Miss USA Pageant.
Flash forward to June 10, when Prejean is stripped of her Miss California title less than a month after Donald Trump announced she would retain it.
Then in July, Prejean signed a lucrative book deal with conservative book house Regnery Publishing. Her memoir will be called "Still Standing" and will tell her side of the story, according to the publisher.
The summer ended with Prejean lawyering up in August, suing pageant officials for libel, slander and religious discrimination, accusing them of telling her to stop mentioning God even before her controversial remarks against gay marriage.
A counter suit was filed in October against her, by the franchise that operates the Miss California organization.
November sees the sex tape that Prejean claims is not a sex tape, surface and causes Prejean to drop her suit and settles with pageant officials, who reportedly paid her $100,000 to go toward her legal expenses.
Today on TODAY, Prejean appears on TODAY and said, “It was the biggest mistake of my life,” she told Vieira.
“It was me by myself. There was no one else with me. I was not having sex,” the controversial beauty queen told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira in New York. “You can call it whatever you want to call it. If you want to call it a sex tape, that’s fine,” Prejean told Vieira. “I sent it to my boyfriend at the time. I was a teenager. I cared about him. I trusted him,” she added. “I think now they call it ‘sexting.’ Prejean slung some negative things about pageant owner Donald Trump and promoted her book, "Still Standing."
Prejean still saw the beauty of having these pageants.
“I have learned so much and I’ve grown so much. There have been so many great experiences,” she told Vieira. “I wouldn’t be here today had it not been for the pageant.”
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