Free Republic

With all the California-centric beauty-queen action happening these days, it's been easy to forget that one young lovely was actually named Miss USA a couple weeks ago. But Kristen Dalton doesn't mind. The winner of the 2009 Miss USA Pageant told E! News that she thinks the Carrie Prejean hullabaloo has been good for the cause. "I really think that it's great for the Miss Universe Organization, because it's given us a lot of publicity," Dalton told E!'s Daily 10. "And there's gonna be a lot of people watching this Miss USA pageant next year." And as for Miss California,...

Los Angeles (E! Online) – Shanna Moakler is still worked up about how the Miss California brouhaha has played out. A day after she stepped down from her post as codirector of the state pageant in the wake of Donald Trump deciding Carrie Prejean would keep her crown, Moakler choked up as she explained herself to E! News' Ryan Seacrest this morning. "When I was at the press conference, I really believed at that moment in time that maybe things are going to change, maybe this particular situation can work out," she said. "I went back to my hotel room...

Just one day after learning that Carrie Prejean will keep her Miss California crown, state pageant director Shanna Moakler resigned. _________________________________ Prejean was named first runner-up at the April 19 pageant, during which she cause a firestorm by responding to a judge's question by saying she favored limiting marriage to a man and a woman.Shortly afterward, Moakler and her co-director Keith Lewis criticized the beauty queen for appearing in advertisements for groups opposed to same-sex marriage and for failing to reveal that she had posed in racy photos. Lewis slammed Prejean Monday, saying her actions caused the Miss California title...