Larry King Gives Perez Hilton Pass on Vitriolic Attacks on Miss California

Want to appear as a champion of a cause without being held to account for the hateful name-calling you did in the name of your cause? Appear on CNN's "Larry King Live."

Perez Hilton, author of the celebrity gossip site PerezHilton.com, who advocates that gay marriage should be legal, got to do just that. Hilton, coming off his appearance as a judge for the Miss USA pageant on April 19, appeared on Larry King's April 20 CNN broadcast and explained why he asked Miss California, Carrie Prejean, what she thought of gay marriage (video embedded below the fold):

"Well, I was given the opportunity, on this national platform to ask a question that I thought was relevant. And given the recent setbacks and advances that we've made in the fight for gay marriage, I thought it was a very important question for me specifically to ask."

Hilton explained this wasn't him acting on his own either - that it was approved by the producers of the Miss USA event.

"I ran it by the producers beforehand and they signed off on it and everybody thought it was a good question," Hilton said. "It wasn't meant to be a big bomb. And I don't think it was that hard of a question, either."

However Prejean gave an answer contrary to Hilton's view. She said, "I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised."

Although the answer was honest - and she could have lied for the sake of political correctness, that wasn't good enough for Hilton.

"Honesty is great," Hilton said. "However, in an interview this morning, she said that the audience and the judges expected her to be politically correct. Yes. I do expect Miss USA to be politically correct."

According to Hilton's interpretation of what Miss USA should represent, Prejean didn't fit the bill.

"Do we want a Miss USA that's politically insensitive, that's politically offensive? No," Hilton said. "So I didn't disagree with her not believing in the right for gays and lesbians to good evening equal under the law. I disagree with how she answered the question because Miss USA should be all inclusive. She should be my Miss USA and when she answered that question that way, it was instantly divisive and alienating to gays and lesbians and friends and supporters."

Hilton's talk about inclusion and sensitivity was ironic, given his vitriolic attack on Prejean in a video blog immediately following the Miss USA event.

"When I asked Miss California her question and when she gave the worst answer in pageant history," Hilton said. "She got booed. That was the first time in Miss USA ever that a contestant has been booed. Now, let me explain to you she lost not because she doesn't believe in gay marriage, Miss California lost because she is a dumb [expletive]."

He later took it a step further, as Michelle Malkin pointed out, and invoked the "c-word," as she put it. But King didn't bring that up. Instead, Hilton took the opportunity to invite Prejean out for coffee - because he wants to enlighten her about her convictions.

"I would like to invite Miss California out to coffee," Hilton said to King. "That was a sincere invitation and I would like to talk to her because I think that when people don't know gays and lesbians as human beings, it's easier to feel that they shouldn't have equal rights."