Trump fires Miss California

Donald Trump, the presenter of America's Celebrity Apprentice, had a message for Miss California yesterday: You're fired!

Keith Lewis, executive director of the Miss USA pageant, announced Carrie Prejean will no longer represent California after she failed to live up to contractual obligations.

Trump, the pageant's owner, backed the move: "I told Carrie she needed to get back to work and honour her contract with the Miss California USA organisation and I gave her the opportunity to do so.Unfortunately it just doesn't look like it's going to happen and I offered Keith my full support in making this decision."

Prejean has been embroiled in controversy ever since she said she didn't believe in gay marriage during the Miss USA competition in April.

Racy photos of Prejean surfaced on the internet after she made the comments, prompting a press conference by Trump in which he expressed his support for the beauty queen.

Prejean told TMZ she was sacked because she refused to appear on the US version of I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! or pose for Playboy. She called the firing a political issue: "They don't agree with the stance that I took [on gay marriage]. They don't like me. From Day One they wanted me out, and they got what they wanted."