Former Miss California Carrie Prejean settles with Miss USA Pageant - is there a Prejean sex tape?

Miss California USA Carrie Prejean (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)

Christian author, speaker and former Miss California Carrie Prejean is in the headlines again, this time for an alleged sex tape. Reports have been circulating on the web, even making it to the CBS News Crimesider website, that the legal battle between Prejean and the Miss USA pageant organizers reached a sudden conclusion out of court, reportedly because of a sex tape allegedly starring Carrie Prejean.

Carrie Prejean "Topless" Photos

Certainly, it looks like Prejean made some poor judgment calls as a teen and into her young 20s as private teenage modeling photos of her in panties, covering her breasts with her arms turned up on the internet. These were followed by a photo shoot from Bliss magazine where Prejean's skimpy vest slipped between shots as she shifted positions in the breeze. The photographer kept shooting and the resulting photos, which were never meant for publication, again turned up on the web. Now TMZ claims it had a Prejean sex tape months ago but didn't post it because it was "too graphic for their taste."

Carrie Prejean - When an Opinion Is Not PC

This sudden reticence on the part of TMZ to produce the alleged sex tape has news sites like CBS pondering the validity of the claims. Certainly it appears TMZ has had a vendetta to discredit Prejean, and it is no secret that the Miss USA pageant gay-rights activist director Keith Lewis has been making personal attacks against Prejean since she was asked the now infamous politically-charged opinion question by Perez Hilton and replied with her honest opinion.

Carrie Prejean - Miss USA Pageant  Court Settlement

According to www.nydailynews.com, the settlement worked out in Prejean's favor, which casts some doubt on the sex tape claims. Pageant officials will pay Prejean's lawyers and a publicist $100K, with nothing going directly to Carrie Prejean. The settlement also relieves Prejean of any financial obligations to pageant organizer K2Productions, including repaying her breast augmentation surgery. That's over $105,000 Prejean's team won in the settlement.

"We’re so glad to be back in the business of beauty and out of the litigious system that is Carrie Prejean," Keith Lewis, of K2 Productions, told the Daily News. "It’s wonderful to put this behind us."

The Litigious System That Is the Miss USA Pageant

Lewis has conveniently forgotten about Christina Silva who was crowned Miss California on November 25, 2007, but whose title was taken away by pageant officials three days later because of an “accounting error.” In 2008 Silva filed a lawsuit claiming K2 Productions engaged in fraud, breach of contract, misrepresentation, negligence, false advertising, and intentional infliction of emotional distress (Miss California lawsuits and counter suits). "The litigious system" in question appears to be the Miss USA Pageant.

Carrie Prejean Not Off the Hook

In spite of the Miss USA Pageant's best efforts to discredit Carrie Prejean, she has remained a popular figure at Christian events. Many if not most Christians believe Prejean's youthful indiscretions, while in poor taste, do not negate the sincerity of her message today (see Carrie Prejean Miss California - when Christians Stumble). If a sex tape were to surface, it would definitely impact Prejean's credibility as a  Christian speaker and author.

Prejean has a book due out this month (see Former Miss California Carrie Prejean: beauty contestant, Dove Awards presenter, and book author).