Will Miss California Lose Crown After Leaked Nude Photos?

A Beautiful Mess: Miss California May Lose Crown

One minute, she was a step away from the Miss USA crown. The next, it seems, this year’s Miss California is a heartbeat away from losing it all.

The directors of the Miss California pageant, Shannon Moakler and Keith Lewis, are holding a press conference today to discuss the controversy surrounding Carrie Prejean, the current Miss California and Miss USA first runner up. Rumors have been flying that pageant directors might be stripping Prejean of her crown.

The hubbub began at the Miss USA pageant, when Prejean answered a controversial question about gay marriage during the interview portion. Her answer, which was that marriage was an institution between a man and a woman, was not well received by some. The judge who issued the question, Perez Hilton, sparked more debate when he suggested that her answer may have cost her the crown.

The controversy only intensified afterward. As Prejean spoke out to defend her stance and her answer, Miss California pageant directors were wary of her activism, citing that it could be in violation to the rules of the Miss California pageant. The rules explain that the winner of the pageant must have any interviews or endorsements approved by the board, a step that Prejean seemingly neglected after the Miss USA fallout.

The trouble does not end there, as Prejean also signed a clause that promised she had never previously compromised certain moral standards, a clause which she may have signed falsely as semi-nude photos of the beauty queen surfaced.