Miss California's Breast Implants Funded By Pageant: CONFIRMED

Friday morning a Miss California Pageant official confirmed previous reports that controversial contestant Carrie Prejean received free breast implants, organized and paid for by the pageant, weeks before the Miss USA competition.

In an interview on "The Early Show," Keith Lewis, the co-Director of the Miss California Pageant, admitted to helping Prejean get the boob job.

"We assisted when Carrie came to us and voiced the interest in having the procedure done," Lewis told "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez.

"We want to put her in the best possible confidence in order to present herself in the best possible light on a national stage."

Full transcript is below:

MAGGIE RODRIGUEZ, CO-ANCHOR: A question we're going to put to Keith Lewis, the co-director of the Miss California organization, who joins us this morning from Los Angeles. Good morning to you, Mr. Lewis.

KEITH LEWIS, CO-DIRECTOR, MISS CALIFORNIA PAGEANT: Good morning.

RODRIGUEZ: First of all, can you settle this once and for all? Did you pay for or help pay for Miss California's breast implants?

LEWIS: We assisted when Carrie came to us and voiced the interest in having the procedure done, yes.

RODRIGUEZ: Why?

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LEWIS: Well, you know, first off, it's not something that we endorse, nor is it something that we suggest. But when we meet with the titleholder when she's crowned Miss California, we put to her a litany of questions about how she feels about herself, what she feels she needs to work on, what she may need to change, what is good, what is not good. We want to put her in the best possible confidence in order to present herself in the best possible light on a national stage.

RODRIGUEZ: Why is the best possible confidence involve getting breast implants? Why does that improve her odds of winning? Why in that meeting don't you discourage her from going that route, rather than help her to pay for breast implants?

LEWIS: Well, we would never encourage her to go that route, but...

RODRIGUEZ: But why not discourage her?

LEWIS: ... it's a personal choice. Well, I think that it's about how a woman feels about herself. In terms of, for me, it's not a personal choice that I would recommend. But at the same time, I know so many women that have done the procedure and feel better about themselves and the way they present themselves.

And I think that's the question is, whether or not, when you're looking at that procedure as an option, am I going to feel better about myself? It's not about one night. It isn't about one night of competition. And doing a procedure like that for one night of competition would be foolish. But...

RODRIGUEZ: But don't the judges look at proportion when they're judging the swimsuits? Wouldn't she have a better chance of winning if she were more proportioned?

LEWIS: Well, of course she does. But there's plenty of ways of getting to more proportion without doing breast implants.

RODRIGUEZ: Well, but if...

LEWIS: Many of the girls use chicken cutlets.

RODRIGUEZ: ... if you have a flat chest, what are you supposed to do?

LEWIS: You use chicken cutlets. You use tape. You use anything that you can to enhance the line. There's lots of tricks of the trade.

It's just a matter of whether or not you want to go to that next level.

RODRIGUEZ: I wonder if you should change the rules and maybe not judge it so much on proportion.

LEWIS: Well, it's a beauty pageant, and the swimsuit competition is part of that beauty pageant. So, I agree with you, I think that we have to look at the way that we perceive real women and whether that needs to be changed in the media.

But you see it in television. You see it in advertising. It may be part of this pageantry, as well. But I think it's prevailing to everywhere, not just in one area.

RODRIGUEZ: It is, and that is unfortunate. Keith Lewis, thanks for your time.

LEWIS: You're so welcome.

Comments

[Jayplus]

Jesus loves boob jobs, and opposite marriage.....smh

[Deborah Noble]

So she cheated and got fake boobs to win. This is just like an athlete taking steroids.

[Counterpunch]

Who had the b0 - 0b job: the Donald or the California queen?

[TheMadBlacksmith]

Strange World

When a girl as pretty as Carrie Prejean has to get her hair bleached and her breast enlarged. According to what i have read almost all the candidates have various cosmetic surgeries. Eyes are enlarged, chins and noses are refined, Gums are peeled back to enlarge teeth, and the teeth are capped. And judging by their very lean but muscular bodies, I' suspect they use performance enhancing drugs like clenbuterol.

Beauty contests are kind of weird concept from the get go. I love pretty women-for that matter, not-so-pretty women-as much as anyone. But do we really have to say "This one is the prettiest in the State" How do we know there are not 10 even prettier ones who didnt go in the stupid contest?

And with the level of cosmetic surgery they have, it's not so much winning the title as buyin it. May the best surgical team win??? Maybe we ought to do what the body-builders do and have two levels-natural contests where surgery and drugs etc, are banned, and anything-goes contests for the plastic-fantastic crowd.

And by the way, if they didnt want Prejean's opinion, they shouldnt have asked her.

[NaturalWonder]

I will not back down for my right to take away freedoms from gay people.
I was punished on that stage. It was my assault on my freedoms and constitutional rights Which should not happen in America – unless you are gay. In which case you should quietly understand that God does not agree with you.
I am a model and a Christian.
First I forgive you all.
Watch this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwNHE3QXVc4

Sign this http://www.gopetition.com/online/27731.html

[JustAProgressive]

Rank hypocrisy of several magnitudes. It's as if MLB were supplying Barry Bonds with steroids.

[salblomo]

Funny thing is, California is the plastic surgery capital of the world. Getting breast implants was NEVER an issue even if someone else paid for it. Californians love plastic and fake things. It's their calling card. Now all of a sudden breast implants suddenly become a BIG DEAL, a 'no no". Selective criticism is a big problem in California. Right and wrong is no longer determined by what you do, but by how you think. Law and Punishment in California is pretty sad too. Basing the outcome on who you are as apposed to what you did. Just ask Paris Hilton who spent a couple of hours in jail for a crime that would have put others away for months. Their beloved OJ Simpson who was let go even though blood was found on his shoes and he tried to escape on the freeway. Of course, none of this compares to the evils of not agreeing with gay marriage. What a backwards state! No wonder they're $60 billion in the hole! But I guess this is what you get when emotional people are put in powerful positions.

[LLisaLL]

It's amusing when someone assumes that 37 million people all think, act and vote the same. Amusing and sad.

[hegdehog]

Corporate tatas.

[dgscol]

The main issue is her age : 17, still a minor.

[Boomerang123]

And being abused by the radical left media

[Wuud52]

The only problem with that is that she lied. She took many pictures past the age of 18.

Second, I have no problem with her stating her beliefs; I supported what she said on the stage. However, using her popularity to deny the rights that she has to others is where I draw the line.
She said it was great that people get to choose, but that she chooses man and woman, or "opposite marriage". Now she is campaigning against the choice that she said was good to have.

[11907281]

Are you surprised? Remember how "compassionate conservatism" worked out?

[hoppa]

The only implants that the pageant commision should allow is brain implants

[HRH]

Bingo!

[PsyGuy]

Come on be realistic here.
They would go broke if they did that! ;-)

[Boomerang123]

I am new to this site. I don't know for sure as to whether or not I am welcome here. I am not conservative, nor am I a liberal. I do tend tho to lean more to the right however. I kinda just call it as I see it. Thats it. I did try to register once on Democratic Underground and was informed that my views were not in line with theirs? So, they would not let me in. I laughed.

I have a question though......

Why the attacks on Miss California? It seems as though so many liberals scream about abortion being the womans right to her own body. "Its a Woman's right to do what she wants to her own body!!!"

Why is this not the same case over the boob job guys? It's her (Miss California's) body, and she wanted a boob job and got one. Where is the support for this female, and where are all of the radical feminists that should be coming to her defense???????

Someone enlighten me! Thats it for now. Hope my comment gets through.

[loria]

Do you think people would be screaming if the CA pageant helped fund an abortion? I do. I think it's a bit sick that she turned to CA pageant officials to get breast implants and that they paid for them. I don't have a problem with the implants. So, I don't see how these two issues relate to one another. Plus, why did she feel a need to get someone else to pay for them? Pageant welfare?

Plus, why does a good Christian girl who wants to be a spokesman against gay marriage alter the breasts given to her by God? Seems to me she does what works best for her.

[Boomerang123]

You dodged my question all together and have now gone onto a total seperate issue. "Good Christian Girl" "Breasts given to her by God".

I have come to this web-site to get input as to WHY the liberal and extreme left (hence, Keith Olberman, who I simply watch for laughs) are cracking jokes and making laughs about her having a boob job, when they are so fast to say that an abortion is a womans right, because it is her own body! I don't care if the pageant, her mom and dad, or one of her siblings paid to have the procedure done for her. Furthermore, I don't care if she's Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc....

Why are the liberals attacking her for having a surgery of any kind when "It's her OWN body"??????

[hoppa]

The question is not if she wanted a boop job.

The question is why did she have one?
Why is the organisation offering her one?
Why is any beauty queen having one?

What happened to natural beauty queens?

[Boomerang123]

Why did she have one? Why do women that want to have them have them?? I simply just do not judge.

Why is the organization offering her one? Maybe for their own benefit.......

Why is any beauty queen having one? Well Hoppa, honestly my opinion is simply that if anyone offered to pay for a boob job for a woman in that age range, that, may be lacking the size breasts they would like; that the woman/girl would take them up on the offer.

What happened to natural beauty queens? What happened to political and social/society questions NOT being asked to the pageant contestants??

[EndTheEcho]

On a personal level, I think I prefer natural to silicon enhanced.

That being said, it is her choice, and while I think it is sad, it is her choice.

But the big issue is that the pageant funded it, which is pretty sad in and of itself.

But what is really disturbing for Miss California and the pageant world, is that the reason for them to fund it is to help her with her confidence. Maybe a nice therapist can help her with these issues, and it might even be cheaper.

[terminallycharged]

Or maybe she should pray more...

[batspaul]

Boomer, I hope this helps: See, Ms. Prejean's procedure was cosmetic surgery, performed to help her win a beauty pageant. Nobody is saying it is, or should be illegal. No one is taking away her right to do it. You're right: it's her body (well, partially, now...) But forgive me if, since she keeps waving her religion around, I suggest she should quit thanking God, and thank the real person responsible for her success- her plastic surgeon.

But the termination of a pregnancy is something of a different order, something that serious people in this country are fighting to criminalize, and I have trouble equating the two.

Yes, Ms. Prejean angered some liberals, me among them, with her pageant answer about gay marriage. She said, "Americans are able to choose one or the other ... same sex marriage or opposite marriage..." Hello? Maybe someone should tell her, in case she can't read or was asleep for the past year, that this is untrue. In particular, California, THE STATE SHE IS REPRESENTING, rescinded (took away) that right last fall. There is no federal same-sex marriage in the US, and only a small minority of states recognize same-sex marriage. See, I believe she should be able to marry whomever she wants. But she believes that I should not be able to marry my partner.

[checkingfacts]

To Celtic Dragon

You've made a legal error in your response. You quoted the following:
Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival. Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535, 541 (1942).

While the court did give that opinion, it was referring to race which is a protected class under the constitution. And in the reference to Skinner v. Oklahoma, that case had to do with forced sterilization and the phrase "basic civil rights of man" was referring to the right of procreation - the court wrote "Oklahoma deprives certain individuals of a right which is basic to the perpetuation of a race the right to have offspring."

When the court then used the phrase "basic civil rights of man" it then said "Marriage and procreation are fundamental to the very existence and survival of the race "

So in the case you cited, the courts were talking about the right to have a family. It was talking about procreation. It was saying that the two individuals had the right to marry and HAVE CHILDREN regardless of race. It was not saying that can marry anyone.

Unless I was absent that day in biology, I don't believe gay marriage meets that standard.

Just wanted to let you remind you that when giving legal opinions, its best to read the original citations.

[CelticDragon]

Maybe you should actually read what I responded to before accusing me. The person asserted that marriage is not a right, and challenged anyone to show where it was. The SCOTUS did affirm marriage as a fundamental civil right. SSM was not addressed, and I never said that it was.

[checkingfacts]

I did read what you wrote and, as you correctly state, you did not specifically address SSM. But given the context of the debate, it was clear that the comment to which you responded, and in fact all those comments regarding marriage, were directed to SSM. The courts statement of marriage as one of a the "basic civil rights of man" was limited in that case to racial classifications. Just as "freedom of speech" is a basic right, courts have frequently limited that right in certain cases and with respect to certain classes. I wanted to make that clear.

I apologize if I misunderstood your intent.

[MaggieMamacat]

Oh dear. I'm past the age of childbearing. I shouldn't legally be allowed to marry again. Biologically, I don't meet the standard. And here I thought marriage and parenthood were supposed to be about love...I'm SO naive.

[checkingfacts]

Oh come on, now. I didn't bring up the issue of the what the Supreme Court said about the basic right of marriage. Take it up with them. Regarding the age of childbearing...it seems more and more possible!

http://www.pregnancy-period.com/pregnancy_after_50.html

Strange things have happened!

[keepgoing]

Does anyone really see what's happened here? A beauty contestant was asked for her opinion on a very controversial topic at a BEAUTY CONTEST of all places. Her answer was nearly identical to the answer given by Barack Obama on the topic of gay marriage:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/02/obamas-mtv-news-interview_n_140254.html

Obama told Sway, in response to a question sent in by Gangstagigz from San Leandro, California. "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman…”

But no one on the pro-gay marriage has attacked Obama like they've attacked this girl. Why? She did nothing but give an opinion that was asked of her. He is the PRESIDENT of the United States!

I find it troubling that a person can get personally attacked on unrelated fronts when they give an opinion. An opinion, btw, that apparently a majority of voters in her state agree with. What is going on?

Regarding the implants, these state pageants go nuts trying to get their representative to win. Especially California and Texas. You can bet your bottom dollar that the pageant wanted to do everything possible to improve her chances. I wouldn't be surprised if it was their idea - at least subliminally. And they can say anything they want now....who will believe the girl?

[hoppa]

Believe it or not, she is worthless for me with implants. Back to natural beauties por favor. And what is the obsension with these implants by men anyway. What is sexy about a boop with silicones....?

[Mayuki]

Her breasts are extremely unnatural looking.

[LBCityGirl]

I think it's really sad that the Pageant peoiple don't encourage young women to love their bodies the way God made them. They are guilty of helping reinforce the notion that a woman isn't pretty or valuable unless she has big breasts. The natural body, even if it's flat chested, is so much more beautiful.