Pageantry

Charles LiMandri -- Prejean's lawyer -- has filed a lawsuit against Miss California USA executives Keith Lewis and Shanna Moakler -- and their lawyer -- accusing them all of feeding top secret information to various news outlets ... in particular, TMZ.

According to the docs, LiMandri claims the two sides agreed that everything that took place during the mediation was to be kept private. But somehow, LiMandri claims, accurate details involving everything from negotiation tactics .. to the fact that Carrie's mom actually watched the footage of Carrie's solo exploits ... somehow made its way to us.

LiMandri states that he was particularly shocked at how quickly TMZ was able to publish accurate details -- in fact, he states, "Moments after the Settlement Agreements were signed, TMZ posted a report that the parties had settled, and quoted the agreed upon joint statement."

So why is LiMandri suing? Dude says the Miss Cali USA people agreed to pay for a portion of his legal fees -- which he reduced in exchange for their silence.

But since LiMandri believes they broke the deal -- he wants his full rate ... plus punitive damages.

We're told Phelps took a bunch of photos and signed autographs for fans ... in between gettin' real close and personal with Miss Cali.

TMZ has learned Margaret Skourlis -- the current Ms. NJ United States (yes, that's a real pageant) -- auditioned for the show last week.

Margaret -- who's not Italian, but Greek-American -- tells TMZ she thinks she'd get along with Snooki, and claims she can handle the "JS" crew after surviving beauty pageants ... "We're not as evil to each other but we're just as snippy in other ways."

Margaret's best credential: She told us pageants and "Jersey Shore" both "excenturate things." Your guess is as good as ours.

Rima Fakih was in ship-shape last summer on a lake in her home state of Michigan.

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!

Jungers just took home the $75,000 prize after exposing a bunch of personal information about Tiger ... like the size of the club, what he wanted from her sexually speaking, and on and on.

Jungers had stiff competition -- Jaimee Grubbs and Loredana Jolie -- but was able to take home the crown, because Howard felt she was "the true mistress."

Of course, Grubbs losing a tooth didn't help her chances. But she did get a $15,000 runner-up prize -- more than enough for a dental visit.

The official "Mistress Ring" is custom designed by Steven Singer Jewelers and features a 3-carat round black diamond in the center with another half carat in diamonds around it.

The ring -- the value of which remains undisclosed -- will be presented to the "Best Mistress" on March 10th along with 100,000 in cash prizes.

Good luck, "ladies."

Even though Stern hasn't released the list of actual competitors yet, Sportsbook.com has already listed mistress #1 Rachel Uchitel among the least likely to take home Stern's prize ... but we're guessing it's because her cardboard cutout will be participating in her place.

Meanwhile, Cori Rist and Loredana Jolie are tied as favorites to club the competition. Some other notables include Holly Sampson -- a close 3rd -- followed by Jaimee Grubbs, Joslyn James, and Jamie Jungers in 4th, 5th, and 6th.

The pageant is scheduled to go full steam ahead on March 10th -- with the contestants clawing for a $100,000 prize.

After Lauren started mouthing off about her Carrie Prejean-esque anti-gay marriage stance to the media recently (see the video), a rep from the city of Beverly Hills released a statement denouncing Ashley's opinions and making it clear that there is no "official" Miss Beverly Hills.

But the most personal attack was also the most subtle ... when the rep for the city made sure everyone knew, "Ms. Ashley resides in Pasadena ... She does not represent Beverly Hills in any capacity." Meeeeeeow.

The couple arrived at the San Diego airport last night -- where the St. Louis Rams back-up quarterback talked about one particular talent he can do from his knees ...

... don't worry, it's a football thing.

A former Miss Argentina died Sunday after elective surgery on her butt went terribly wrong.

According to several international reports, 37-year-old Solange Magnano suffered a pulmonary embolism after going under the knife Wednesday at a Buenos Aires medical center for a gluteoplasty – a procedure which normally involves placing implants in the buttocks to improve their outline.

Solange -- a wife and mother of 7-year-old twins -- suffered a pulmonary embolism the day after her surgery when liquid injected into her buttocks "went to her lungs and brain."

Authorities say the cause of death is still under investigation.

TMZ spoke with Johnson who said, "Now that it is after the fact, I will admit that we were together. We agreed to keep this private because it was the only thing that he could keep private ... we remain close friends."

Johnson claims the two dated for just over a year between 2007 and 2008.

Phelps was rumored to have dated the previous Miss California, Carrie Prejean -- so far, no cell phone video to back that up.

TMZ has learned Prejean's former cross-country booty call received an email from Carrie on 11/7/07 -- when she was 20 -- in which Carrie asked for help answering several brain-busting questions such as:

If you could have lunch with any one (1) person, who would it be and why?

What is your career ambition?

Name one personal achievement that makes you especially proud.

What is your most treasured possession (tangible object) and why?

What is the most interesting or surprising thing about you or that has happened to you?

After all those "special" tapes she made, you'd think she'd know herself better.

Choose wisely.

The Miss Universe sex tape is only half as authentic as once believed -- one of the women in the scandalous video is NOT a world-class beauty pageant winner, this according to the conductor of the 3-way naked train himself.

TMZ spoke with Wyatt Gallery -- the fine arts photographer who was literally caught in the middle of the drama -- who tells us some scumbag ripped the footage from his laptop computer in an attempt to sabotage Miss Trinidad and Tobago's career.

While Gallery confirms that his long-term girlfriend, Anya Ayoung-Chee aka Miss T&T 2008, did co-star in the video, the other woman -- believed to have been Miss Japan 2008 -- is NOT Hiroko Mima after all ... just a really, really, really close friend.

Now here's the real scandalous part of the story: Gallery tells us he believes the footage -- shot in New York back in 2007 -- was stolen from his laptop when he took it to a Trinidad computer shop for repairs.

Gallery says, "I feel horrible and embarrassed for Anya, her family and myself ... because this was a private moment that was never supposed to be made public." He adds, "This was an intentional, malicious sabotage against Anya and her career ... and I feel stupid for not deleting the files off of my computer."

Gallery tells us he has a legal team looking into the matter and plans on suing anyone who continues to distribute the tape.