Miss Statement Then there’s the case of Miss California, Carrie Prejean, the almost winner of the Miss Universe pageant who grabbed an extra fifteen minutes of fame with her answer to a question about same-sex marriage: “We live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage and, you know what, in my country and in my family I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman.” While losing the contest—possibly because of this statement—she became the instant darling of the anti- marriage equality crowd, and even signed on as a spokesmodel for one such group. Only then did a bevy of photographs come out showing Ms. Prejean posing topless in a photo shoot. That put her in violation of Miss Universe rules, meaning she had to have lied to enter the pageant in the first place. But no, there was a perfectly logical explanation, she insisted, claiming that she’d been caught by a photographer and, just at that moment, the wind picked up and… yeah, that’s the ticket! So what if she’s looking straight at the camera and her hair remains unblown? At that point she’d bought herself another fifteen minutes—as fodder for the late-night comedians.