Former Miss California Sues for Religious Discrimination
By ANTHONY McCARTNEY
AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP)—Former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean sued pageant officials Monday for libel, slander and religious discrimination, accusing them of telling her to stop mentioning God even before her controversial remarks against gay marriage.
Prejean sued California pageant executive director Keith Lewis and actress and former Miss USA Shanna Moakler, who served as a co-director before resigning in protest of Prejean.
Prejean was fired in June by pageant officials who said she missed several scheduled appearances.
Her attorney, Chuck LiMandri, said that wasn't true, and Prejean was ousted because of controversial remarks in April during the Miss USA pageant that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
She was named first runner-up, and many believe she lost her shot at the Miss USA crown because of her answer.
LiMandri said Prejean filed suit only after he sought detailed information on what events Prejean missed.
"I wanted to give them every opportunity to provide the basis for those claims," LiMandri said.
He said he found no proof that Prejean missed events. "There were no contract violations," he said.
The lawsuit claims Lewis and Moakler both told Prejean not to mention God on her Miss USA application or at public events at least two months before she gave her anti-gay marriage answer.
The suit also claims Moakler and Lewis improperly revealed that Miss California USA had paid for Prejean's breast implants.
Moakler's attorney, Mel Avanzado, said in a statement that Prejean's lawsuit was without merit.
"More importantly, as everyone who watched or read her public statements is well aware, Ms. Prejean's unfortunate and bigoted statements are responsible for any public humiliation or damages to her reputation that she has claimed to have suffered," Avanzado wrote. "Ms. Moakler strenuously denies that she did anything wrong and looks forward to proving that in a court of law."
Prejean is also suing publicist Roger Neal, who handles press for Miss California USA and Lewis.
Neal said he could not immediately comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses Lewis, Moakler and Neal of using Internet sites such as Facebook and Twitter to post disparaging remarks about Prejean.
The lawsuit does not name Donald Trump, who owns Miss California USA's parent organization and who in May refused to fire Prejean, a decision he reversed a month later.
The suit states Trump authorized Prejean's appearance on the "Fox and Friends" show in May and a Shape magazine interview, both of which were sighted by Lewis as unauthorized public appearances by the beauty queen.
The complaint does not state a specific dollar figure that Prejean is seeking. It claims she has been subject to public ridicule and humiliation and lost out on modeling work because she lost her crown. She has also suffered anxiety, depression and loss of sleep since her firing, the lawsuit states.
Reader Comments
Just to clarify
Just to add, if you oppose this lawsuit, it doesn't mean you think it's OK to discriminate on religious grounds, just that this particular case just doesn't seem to make sense in light of the other types of open discrimination surrounding the rules for contestants.
Ms. Prejean is certainly within her rights to speak freely, as a citizen of the United States, but it sounds like she is arguing that her religious opinions are the primary reasons as to why she was fired (lost her crown).
Much of America, for whatever reason, supports the traditional view of marriage (not making a judgment call with that statement, as this poster has noooooooo interest in any type of marriage, thank you very much, though others can do as they wish, gay or straight). Thus, her opinion really wasn't as controversial as it was made out to be by many of the more socially progressive media outlets that covered the entire brouhaha.
It just seems outrageous to willingly enter into a position where the rules surrounding the contest already place limits on age, physical appearance and marital status, then turn around and argue against a totally different form of alleged discrimination.
Not a lawyer, but does a pageant contestant from a particular state get to sue based on the traditional civil rights violations that someone who perhaps was employed by state government would be? If that were the case with a state or national level pageant system, then surely none of the age or marital status rules would hold up in the first place.
Again, I could be incorrect, but the last time I actually took a look at the entry information regarding the Miss USA contestants, there was at least an age requirement, and I thought marital status, too (as in contestants should be unmarried when they enter).
As for the very real religious discrimination that does go on, it's the state universities that are always in trouble for this.
http://www.thefire.org
Many cases have come before The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education because a Christian student group could not get campus recognition, or because the pro-life law students were not allowed to be officially recognized (how can anyone have a debate about hot-button social and political issues with only one side of the debate actually allowed to even show up???).
So, look to the real instances of religious discrimination, first, as it is clearly a civil rights issue on a state university campus.
But a pageant where so many other biases occur as part of the whole culture? Good luck with that lawsuit.
Not a lawyer, of course, but it just sounds bizarre.
True religious discrimination, of course, is not at all appropriate. Not in America.
This whole case is kind of hilarious, actually
First of all, isn't it true that women cannot even enter the Miss USA pageant unless they are unmarried? So, right up front, your marital status is an issue with regards to whether or not you can enter the pageant.
Secondly, there's also an age requirement, too, I do believe. So, now you've got age discrimination, but of course, since it is not run by federal or state government, the pageant is free to stipulate whatever types of rules it wants contestants to abide by.
That said, you've willingly entered into a marital status and age discriminating contest (oh, and looks, too, because you have to be gorgeous to enter), so you then sue for some type of other alleged discrimination and claim to be slandered, but you're also a public figure, which raises the bar very high in terms of winning anything.
Will a judge just please throw the whole lot of them out of court if if ever gets that far? That this nonsense is clogging up the dockets is an embarrassment to America's legal system.
IN SUPPORT OF MISS PREJEAN
HI I JUST WANT TO ENCOURAGE MISS PREJEAN,I LIKE THAT SHE STOOD UP AND VOICED WHAT MORE PEOPLE SHOULD BE SAYING ALSO,SHE IS A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN,INSIDE AND OUTSIDE ,MARRIAGE AS GOD RULES STATED IN THE BIBLE IS MAN AND WOMAN,AND NOW LAWS ARE BEING VOTED ON TO ALLOW SAME SEX MARRIAGES,ITS ALL PART OF THE DOWN FALL IF ISNT STOPPED OF OUR COUNTRY ,I FEEL MISS PREJEAN BASED ON ALL INVOLVED IN THE PAGEANT WAS THE WINNER,AND HOPE SHE CONTINUES TO TELL HER THOUGHTS AND TRUTHS DONT BUCKLE THE WAY LOTS HAVE DONE TO ALLOW A MINORITY OF TWISTED THINKING AND BELIEFS TO BECOME REALITY FOR ALL TO HAVE TO ABIDE BY,AND YES THE EFFECT THAT TODAYS CHILDREN SEE WHAT IS GOING ON WILL INSTILL UPON THEIR THINKING AS BEING NORMAL ,WHEN IN REALITY IT CREATES A EMOTIONAL AND UNSTABLE HOME AND LIFE FOR THEM,LOTS OF DEPPRESSION TO SAY THE LEAST ITS LIKE THEY THINK ANY THING GOES AND DOWN GOES OUR NATION,ITS A MATTER OF TIME ,GOD WILL NOT ALLOW IT FOR LONG HE DIDNT IN THE PAST TO LANDS THAT PRACTICED SUCH TWISTED BELIEFS OF LIVING,SO IM BACKING MISS PREJEAN 100 % AND WILL OFFER MY HELP TO HER IN ANY WAY I CAN,I WANT HER TO KNOW THAT SHE ISNT ALONE I DO HOPE SHE IS ABLE TO READ THIS AND WOULD REALLY LIKE TO MEET HER IF POSSIBLE,BUT FOR NOW SHE WILL BE IN MY PRAYERS ,THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING ME TO VOICE MY CONCERNS AND THOUGHTS.
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