Beauty pageant wants Prejean breast money back

Former beauty queen turned icon of the religious right Carrie Prejean is being counter-sued by the organisers of the Miss California pageant that she won earlier this year. Keith Lewis claims that she still owes them $5,200 which they loaned her to have breast implants.

Prejean shot to fame when she expressed her opposition to gay marriage during the Miss America pageant in April and was championed by Fox News host Sean Hannity and other right-wing groups. She was subsequently stripped of her state title last June after semi-nude photographs of her were found by the TMZ gossip website, in violation of an agreement she had signed with K2 Productions, the pageant's organisers.

In September, the 22-year-old launched a lawsuit against Lewis and Shanna Moakler, co-directors of Miss California, stating that "her title was taken from her solely because of her support of traditional marriage". But the pageant organisers have hit back, claiming that Prejean requested the money for surgery so she could become "more competitive" at the event.

K2 say there is a lot more to the Bible student than meets the eye, pointing out that "had she heeded the guidance of the Gospel of John, who admonished only those who are without sin to cast stones in judgment, she might have avoided this legal battle". Their deposition states that "even before she became notorious for that answer and the ensuing media storm, Ms Prejean was already causing difficulty.

"With her new-found notoriety [after the gay marriage storm at the Miss America event], an inflated sense of self, and the lure of financial gain available to her, Ms Prejean turned even further against the Miss California USA organisation." Keith Lewis is asking that the $5,200 and the proceeds from Prejean's book, Still Standing, be paid to K2.