Miss USA

Miss Utah is beyond humiliated after her epic Q&A fail at the Miss USA pageant, and she's blaming her brain fart on a massive case of nerves ... TMZ has learned.

Sources close to Marissa Powell tell TMZ the beauty queen's mortified after babbling ... "we need to see how to create education better" while attempting to answer a question about salary inequality for women.

Marissa's now telling friends she botched the response because she was so anxious she spaced out during the question, and never really heard it.

Instead of asking the judge to repeat the question ... Marissa decided to fake an answer, but got more and more flustered as she tried to improvise.

Takes you back to high school, right?

Or maybe to 2007 with the South Carolina, and such as ...

Miss Utah Marissa Powell put on a clinic at the Miss USA pageant Sunday night -- but did she snatch the bumbling-stumbling crown from former Miss South Carolina Teen USA?

Time for a dumb-off ... enjoy!

Miss Utah is now in the beauty pageant Hall of Fame -- not because she won Miss USA, but because she bumbled through a cringe-inducing (and hysterical) 30 second answer that included the phrase, "create education better."

Judge Nene Leakes asked Marissa Powell about women in the workplace and equal pay -- which sent 21-year-old Miss Utah into a tailspin of a reply.

She starts out kinda strong, saying ... "I think we can relate this back to education, and how we are continuing to try to strive to ... " -- and then the fail begins.

Pretty sure you can see the smoke coming out of her ears as the implosion begins.

She's really pretty though.

Krista Clausen was plenty hot enough to be a Miss USA contestant, but she didn't have a chance in hell of winning ... because she's from Delaware. Sorry, Delaware -- stats don't lie.

Former Miss USA, and current DUI defendant, Rima Fakih is picking up some crisis management tips from two of her beauty queen sisters ... one of whom is no stranger to controversy.

Fakih was arrested back on December 3 for driving under the influence. Cops said Fakih's blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

Miss USA 2006 Tara Conner -- who almost lost her crown over "inappropriate behavior" and allegations of drug use -- tells us she reached out to Fakih because, "I know how horrible it feels to have the media air your dirty laundry and it is important to have a support system."

Fakih also got a call from Miss USA 1995 Shanna Moakler who says, "I told Rima the transition to life after the crown can be tough, but we’re a sisterhood and we help each other out."

A rep for TSA tells TMZ, "We have reviewed this passenger's screening experience and found that the officer followed proper procedures."

Castillo claims a TSA agent at Dallas Fort Worth Airport touched her genitals four times during an inspection last week.

A rep for the Miss USA Organization tells TMZ, it was Megan Burgess' resident assistant at her University of Arkansas dorm who called the cops on Megan for being a drunk nuisance -- and when police found her, she was sitting in the snow outside by herself.

But the Miss USA Organization isn't holding any grudge -- telling us, Megan "is a sweet girl who exemplifies the values of a Miss Teen title holder and is mortified about this."

The rep adds, "She even called over to us and said she was 'sorry if I brought any shame on my state.'"

Back in 2007, the sexy pageant queen won a stripper contest for local Detroit radio morning show Mojo in the Morning.

We're told Fakih earned some fabulous prizes for the victory -- which included "jewelry, gift cards, adult toys and a stripper pole for home use."

And despite the fact that she kept her clothes on during the pole riding, she still managed to walk away with a bra stuffed with dollar bills!

A rep for the pageant tells TMZ they have been fielding tons of calls, calling them out for the provocative pics. The pageant tells us, "You can have brains and be smart and still be sexy."

The Miss Universe Organization just told us they've fired off a cease and desist letter to the National Organization for Marriage -- after NOM used footage from the Miss USA 2009 pageant in an anti-gay marriage commercial.

The commercial -- which is currently still playing on NOM's website -- uses Carrie Prejean's pageant response to the gay marriage question as a selling point for the ad.

This doesn't mean the MUO is taking sides on the issue -- just saying NOM can't use the copyrighted material to promote their agenda.

Miss USA Rachel Smith took a butt-tacular spill last night in Mexico City at the Miss Universe competition, and if you haven't seen it yet, you won't quite believe the arse-shaking thud!

What's just as amazing as the actual fall is how quickly Miss Smith gets back up and into perma-smile mode, despite the jeers and titters of the crowd.

TMZ has uncovered footage from the Q & A round of the "2006 Miss USA Pageant," where the embattled beauty queen slammed the Britneys and Parises of the world for their risque behavior!

When asked if today's pop superstars were positive role models for young people, Conner replied, "I think that they're getting a little bit too much edgy [sic] I think that they are a little bit too risque ... I think they need to tone it down a little bit."

Hey, it sounded good at the time.