The latest blunder by yet another beauty queen has been making the internet rounds these days. At the Miss USA pageant a couple of days ago, Miss California was held under fire for answering Perez Hilton's question about how she feels about gay marriage by calling it "opposite marriage" and then going on to say that she thinks marriage should be between a man and a woman. Most people seemed to show outrage on the "opposite marriage" comment, passing her off as yet another ditz who has no idea what she's talking about.
Normally, I'd be the first one to catch wind of this news and probably have the infamous speech memorized already so that I can re-tell the story to my friends and acquaintances (I'm kind of a gossip girl like that) but there's been so many of these that I didn't even pay close attention to the story for the past few days.
But a couple of minutes ago, I finally watched the Youtube video (shown above).
First thought: "What the hell, I KNOW HER!!"
...flashback...
The year was 2004. It was sweltering hot at the Fresno Convention Center where over 100 girls and their various pageant parents and coaches gathered for the orientation of the Miss California USA and Miss California Teen USA 2004 Pageant. I was overwhelmed by all the flowered sun dresses and heavily hair-sprayed blonde tresses. Me in my stark blue and white retro-printed polka dot top and jet black straight hair seemed so out of place, with my petite mom beside me. Some girls seemed to have already known each other, catching up and giggling over this and that as they waited in line to sign in. I turned to the girl behind me.
"Hi, I'm Janice, what's your name?"
The girl beamed a toothsome grin and very easy-goingly replied, "Caroline. Caroline Prejean but you can call me Carrie."
She was from Southern California (San Diego) and it was also her first time competing in Miss Teen California USA pageant but that was pretty much where our similarities ended. For the rest of the weekend, she racked up so much popularity points, making friends with all the "cool" pageant girls and I mainly tried to disappear into a wall. Caroline-excuse me-Carrie went on to score second place in the pageant. She was a favored shoo-in to take the crown but her last question screwed her over (deja vu...).
...end flashback...
When I first saw the video, I didn't even recognize her. This girl is my age! But she looks like she's 30! And when I heard her speak, gone was the mellow and breezy San Diego tomboy I remembered and in her place was this Nashville cowgirl. Where did she pick up that twang from?
As for her actual claim to 15 minutes of fame speech? I do find that she made a mistake in saying "opposite marriage" because it shows a lack of knowledge on her part on the terminologies of one of the hottest topics in society today but I feel like she is entitled to say how she feels about the subject that was asked of her. I even give her props for saying how she feels even though she is aware of the state she is representing and who is asking her the question (Perez is homosexual and one of her judges.) I don't personally agree with her convictions but I find her respectable to be able to speak her mind.
Perez has been very open in his reaction to Miss California, calling her a "dumb b*tch," and even Prejean's own pageant managers including Shanna Moakler, former pageant queen and ex-wife of Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, have turned their backs on her but on the other hand, she has been given invitations to speak with FOX and various other news outlets and it's also rumored that she is now dating Michael Phelps (maybe he doesn't believe in opposite marriage either?) I don't know whether this will be beneficial or harmful to Prejean and her career in the future but as for now, it is what it is. I still finding it weird that I knew her. Who's the next tabloid fodder that I'm going to know?
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