Wow. Who knew that this year's Miss USA contestants were totally out of gas had they not been up on current national and international events? When did that happen? Note to next year's contestants: start watching C-SPAN, MSNBC and CNN now.

Then, enter the fallout from this year's controversy about the response to a question on gay marriage posed to Miss California, Carrie Prejean, by celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton. Oh, my.

I must say I applaud Prejean's courage and honesty in her response. It would have been difficult to answer that question without backlash from one group or another. She could have taken the easy way out and catered to the judges by saying she supported gay marriage but she stood by the courage of her convictions. Like it or not; she gave an honest answer. We need a lot more honesty in the world even if we disagree with the opinion.

On the other hand, Perez Hilton did little to further support for the gay marriage movement with his vicious and derogatory comments about Ms. Prejean. Hilton apologized for his comments later but the damage had been done. It's also important to understand he thrives on controversy so this brouhaha was right up his alley.

Miss California was named first runner-up but she has totally overshadowed Miss North Carolina Kristen Dalton who actually won the title. The real winner in this situation is Donald Trump, owner of the Miss USA pageant. He knows that controversy sells and his pageant has gotten loads of free publicity. Wonder what drama next year's event will bring?