“It Did Cost Me My Crown.”

Huh. I guess the interview matters more than I thought:

Miss California says candor cost her the crown in Sunday’s Miss USA competition.

Carrie Prejean, 21, probably knew she was in trouble when she acknowledged her opposition to same-sex marriages in response to a question from openly gay judge Perez Hilton, the celebrity blogger.

“In my country, and in my family, I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman,” Prejean replied. Later, she lost to Miss North Carolina.

“It did cost me my crown,” Prejean said of her response, on Monday’s ” Billy Bush Show.” “I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I said what I feel. I stated an opinion that was true to myself and that’s all I can do.”

In an appearance Monday on MSNBC, Hilton said he was absolutely “shocked and incredibly frustrated and disappointed” with Prejean’s stance.

“That’s not the kind of woman I want to be Miss USA,” he said. “Miss USA should represent all Americans and, with her answer, she instantly alienated millions of gays and lesbians and their friends.”

Earlier, Hilton had said on his video blog he would have run onstage and ripped the tiara off Prejean’s head had she won the title.

And the blogger would not have been the only member of the Miss USA family to go apoplectic had Prejean advanced in the competition. Keith Lewis, executive director of California’s Miss USA operations, said in a statement released to Hilton that “religious beliefs have no place in politics in the Miss CA family.”

“In my country, and in my family, I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman.” I can’t find any “religious beliefs” in that statement. Can you?