Carrie Prejean Stripped of Beauty Queen Title: Fox

After a month in which she helped make a beauty pageant the unlikely frontline in the gay-marriage battle, Carrie Prejean is to be stripped of her crown. Fox News is reporting that "K2 Productions, the independent producers of the Miss California USA pageant, under license from Miss Universe, cites continued breach of contract issues as the reason for Prejean's firing."

In a packed news conference less than a month ago, Donald Trump, who owns the pageant, told reporters that he would let her keep her Miss California title. "This was a business decision, based solely on contract violations," Keith Lewis, executive director of K2 Productions, was reported to have said in documents obtained by Fox. "After our press conference in New York we had hoped we would be able to forge a better working relationship. However, since that time it has become abundantly clear that Carrie has no desire to fulfill her obligations under our contract and work together."

Prejean burst on public consciousness after she Perez Hilton one of the celebrity judges of the pageant, asked her her views on gay marriage. Prejean gave a confused, but ultimately negative, answer to the question. When she didn't win the title but came in as first runner-up, some attributed it to her answer--not exactly negated by Hilton, who called her a bitch on a national morning news program.

The ensuing controversy made Prejean more of a media star than she ever would have been as a beauty queen. She became a darling of anti-marriage movement. She was treated as a hero when she prayed at her home church in San Diego, and went on a speaking tour as the prettiest spokesperson the anti-marriage had probably ever had.

The organizers of the Miss California pageant struck back. First came the revelation that they had paid for her breast enlargement. Then came a website's publication of photos of her that were rather, well, cheeky. Then, after that, came photos that were, if not nudies, close enough.

The ongoing publicity put Prejean on the front pages of the entertainment magazines, but it also caused confusion and consternation among beauty pageant organizers. Another of the judges, a straight woman, publicly condemned Prejean's answer, thus buttressing Hilton's decision.

More to the point, the Miss California organizers protested that Prejean's politics were a breach of her contract. Donald Trump, however, was the ultimate arbiter, and, after drawing it out for maximum publicity (we're talking about Donald Trump here), he came to her defense in that dramatic May 12 press conference attended by Prejean.

Now, according to Fox, it's Trump who's giving her the ax. "I told Carrie she needed to get back to work and honor her contract with the Miss California Organization and I gave her the opportunity to do so," Trump said in the documents obtained by Fox. "Unfortunately it just doesn't look like it is going to happen and I offered Keith my full support in making this decision."

First runner-up Tami Farrell, who has made a point of dodging the whole marriage issue or issuing what to some sounds like support for gay marriage, will assume the title of Miss California USA. Meanwhile, the Miss Universe Organization will make the reigning Miss USA, Kristen Dalton, and Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza, available to K2 Productions to fulfill appearance requests that were declined by Prejean.

Prejean apparently plans to write a book and try to stay in the limelight.