The Carrie Prejean sex tape fallout. Plus: her lame new book

Remember Carrie Prejean? Yes, you do. Think back.

1. She was this year's Miss California pageant winner who didn't believe in gay marriage, or what she termed "opposite marriage."

2. Though Prejean espouses that "our bodies are temples of the Lord," she had a boobjob and posed topless and then claimed the release of her topless photos was an attempt to belittle her Christian beliefs.

3. She was fired in June by Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump for refusing to appear at 30 official events on behalf of the organization, "To me she was the sweetest thing. Everyone else--she treated like s**t." Prejean sued the pageant in August for libel, slander and religious discrimination. The pageant counter-sued, claiming the 22 year old owed them $6,000 for her new boobs and also because she didn't live up to the responsibilities of her job.

That brings us to the present.

Last week, things got even more interesting--or not, depending on how you look at this whole crappy situation. The Prejean-Miss USA lawsuit was, surprisingly, abruptly settled and the details of the settlement were sealed. But confidentiality, schmonfidentiality: Sources leaked the real reason within hours. Apparently, Carrie Prejean had made a sex tape, which would be in direct violation of her 12-page pageant contract, a document that contained a clause asking participants whether they'd conducted themselves "in accordance with the highest ethical and moral standards" and if they'd ever been photographed nude or partially nude. Um, no. And, yes.
(Can we just stop here for a second and ask how anyone even remotely famous in this day and age still makes a sex tape??? It boggles the mind! I'm looking at you McSteamy and Noxema Girl!)

And this sex tape--reportedly of Prejean alone pleasuring herself--quickly began to cause all sorts of hassle for the former Miss California. I mean, it sucked that she couldn't bilk any money (she wanted $1 million) out of the pageant, sure, but worse, her mom saw the tape (yes, we feel bad about this too).

Next, there was the pesky problem of her new book, 'Still Standing: The Untold Story of My Fight Against Gossip, Hate, and Political Attacks' coming out this week. In it, Prejean plays up her victim status in an Oscar-winning way, she denounces sexual perversion, talks a lot about her relationship with God, and says that she's been "Palin-ized," because all conservative, Christian women are unfairly vilified (let's note here that this is an insult to Palin). A masturbation sex tape just doesn't seem like a good partner piece to a book like this, now does it? But, from the looks of her appearances on the talk show circuit so far, Prejean has a plan to make us forget the bare boobs and the laziness and the amateur porn and the fame-whoring and the opportunism and look at her solely as the angel of selflessness and patriotism she really is. It goes something like this:
"There has been a campaign against me to try and silence me...to keep me from trying to spread that message that free speech still exists."

Huh? So, why did she make a sex tape? "No one's perfect," Prejean explained in this morning's 'Today Show' interview.

And wait! There's more. "If Sean Hannity said anything about Sonia Sotomayor or Michelle Obama, he would be off the air. And that's the reason I wrote this book."

Sigh.