Miss California: "Satan Was Trying to Tempt Me"
Carrie Prejean remains Miss California
By JOHN CADIZ KLEMACK and OLSEN EBRIGHT
Updated 7:45 AM PST, Wed, May 13, 2009
Miss California blamed Satan for Perez Hilton asking her about same-sex marriage.
Carrie Prejean said on the "Focus on the Family" radio show this week that Satan was trying to tempt her. However, Prejean did make it clear Satan and Hilton were not in cahoots together.
Dr. James Dobson: Why did you give the answer you did with regard to the affirmation of marriage?
Prejean: "Honestly, I felt as though Satan was -- and I don't want to say that this person represented Satan, but -- I felt as though Satan was trying to tempt me in asking me this question. And then God was in my head and in my heart saying, 'Carrie, do not compromise this. You need to stand up for me. You need to share with all these people. If there were 95 percent of the people in the audience that were gay, you need to witness to them, and you need to show that you're not willing to compromise that for this title of Miss USA.'"
Prejean said that she knew right there, that it was no longer about winning.
"It was about being true to my convictions," she said.
Prejean sparked a firestorm of criticism with her answer to a question about same-sex marriage during the pageant. Miss USA Pageant Owner Donald Trump explained that her answer was the same sentiment of the president of the U.S.
But that's only half of the Miss California controversy.
Donald Lets Prejean Keep Her Crown
On Tuesday, "The Donald" allowed Prejean to keep her crown even though semi-nude photos surfaced of the beauty queen.
The photos were taken when she was 17.
"We have determined that the pictures taken are fine," said Trump.
With those words, the fate of Miss California was sealed: she will remain the Golden State's Golden Girl, regardless of unauthorized photos of her in semi-nude poses.
"We've made a determination that everything we've seen to date -- some beautiful, some risqué -- but we're in the 21st century. We've made the decision the photos were fine, acceptable, in many cases actually lovely, and they are modeling pictures," said Trump.
"A girlfriend took some shots of me at home to include in my portfolio for application, not publication," she said, claiming when she applied for Miss USA, she did not lie about them.
And yet more photos surfaced Tuesday, this time with Prejean topless. She answered those photos with a direct attack on the photographer: "I find it appalling that a professional photographer would publish shots from a shoot on a windy day which I was unaware of."
Trump and Prejean reiterated their position in a Today Show interview with Matt Lauer Wednesday morning -- with her blaming the photographer, and the fact that she was standing on a cliff, and Trump saying that for this day and age, the pictures weren't that racy.
On the streets of Los Angeles, reaction to the news was mixed. Vinton Wolf called her a beautiful, honest girl who should keep her title. Others, like Erica Grossman of Burbank, was surprised by the news.
"I don't think she represents all of us in California," she said. "Maybe that wasn't the best choice."
And Richard Dunne said Prejean should've been reprimanded.
"She broke the rules, beside the fact of her ridiculous views on marriage, but even without that, she broke the rules," Dunne said.
But it was Prejean with the last word, as she told reporters, "Not everyone may like or agree with me. But I hope they respect my rights as I respect theirs."
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First Published: May 12, 2009 11:25 AM PST
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