Carrie Prejean has been embroiled in controversy since she opposed same-sex marriage at the Miss USA Pageant earlier this year, and even after Donald Trump announced a month ago that she could keep her Miss California crown despite numerous contract breaches he gave his “blessing” for state pageant officials to strip her of her sash on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old was not informed of her termination until it hit the press on Wednesday morning and was very shocked over the decision. According to insiders, Prejean had developed a strong relationship with Donald Trump and had been in regular contact with him since the press conference in May thus was surprised he gave the green light to have coveted crown taken away.

“I am in shock that K2 Productions and the Miss California USA Pageant have taken the steps to fire Carrie Prejean today. The claim that she has an unauthorized book contract is false. She does not. The claim that she is refusing to appear is false. Carrie has been in constant contact with pageant officials seeking to fulfill her obligations,” Prejean’s attorney Charles LiMandri told Tarts in a statement on Wednesday.

“I have emails in my possession tied to the pageant organization as recently as last Friday citing future appearance requests for Carrie. She represented the Pageant in Las Vegas the weekend before last, and is scheduled to appear at a Special Olympics event this weekend in California, a cause dear to her heart. Everyone has been pleased with her appearances and excited to see her. If you need any further evidence of who is in bad faith: A radio host, Billy Bush says he is the person who informed Carrie she was fired. What kind of employer alerts the media before they speak to their employee?”

Even though Prejean is no longer the reigning Miss California, she is still welcome as a presenter at the Special Olympics.

“Carrie Prejean had indicated that she wanted to come as a volunteer during our Summer Games weekend. Part of the volunteer duties included presenting medals at one of our venues,” a spokeswoman for the Olympics said. “We have not spoken with Carrie to confirm her attendance; however, since she has been a long-time volunteer with Special Olympics we would still welcome her participation.”

However Pop Tarts has learned that this isn’t the first time Prejean has been given the flick. Her former agent, Francine Champagne at Visions Model Management Los Angeles, released Carrie from her contract just over a year ago under claims she was “problematic.”

“It gets a little sticky and there are so many things that I would rather not discuss but there are certain specifications that we have to be a model and she was not keeping her commitment,” Champagne told Tarts. “I just felt like she was a little nutty and I’d rather not represent someone with that mind frame and I just think she is a problem, and I did not feel that she was of the utmost professionalism and she did not follow through on her side of the bargain so therefore we decided to cut our losses and let her go.”

Champagne also said that Prejean failed to act her age.

“She’s definitely a handful, she needs a lot of attention, she is a little bit bossy, her mother gets involved whereas she’s an adult, and she doesn’t need her mom to be calling us. At this point in time, we’re a professional agency that deals with professionals and if they are under 18, absolutely we deal with the parents, but once they’re 18 or over, we should be dealing directly with talent, not with their parents,” Champagne added. “She definitely had the potential to work well, she’s a very beautiful girl, but her personality and her uptightness gets in the way and it’s definitely a personality conflict with this business and her. She will not really bode well in this industry because she is too controlling and uptight and bossy. There are a lot of issues there with her and she’s not really an easy person to get along with.”

Carrie did not respond to a request for comment.

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It may be over for Usher and Tameka Foster. The R&B star and his wife of nearly two years are reportedly in the process of divorcing.

“The papers haven’t been filed yet, but we had a telephone conversation last week with an attorney asking how to file for them,” a clerk with Cobb County Superior Court in Georgia told The News’ Nancy Dillon. The employee added that she wasn’t sure which party the lawyer represented, or who had instigated the proceedings.

Reports surfaced yesterday that the singer and his wife had been living separately for the past year. News of the split came a mere four months after Foster suffered cardiac arrest during routine cosmetic surgery in Brazil. Usher flew to South America to be at his wife’s side, but the two have not been photographed together since February.

One thing is clear: Usher hasn’t been happy for some time. In March, he told pals he was dissatisfied with his marriage. “He was tired of how demanding she is. He always had to cater to her constant insecurities,” says one friend. “But now he’s ready to move on and take care of his kids [Usher Raymond V, 18 months, and Naviyd, 6 months].”

Confirms a second insider, “Everyone close to Usher knew how unhappy he was. [Tameka] is crazy. His mother didn’t even go to their wedding because she didn’t approve!”

Usher’s mom, Jonnetta Patton, has reportedly disliked Foster since day one — and the feeling may have been mutual. Just three months before the couple’s August 2007 wedding, Patton was dismissed from her job as Usher’s manager, with many blaming Foster for the firing.

Last week, the “Yeah!” warbler tellingly went wedding-ringless at the Do Something Awards in NYC. Although he wore sunglasses throughout the entire event, “Usher seemed to be in great spirits,” says an eyewitness.

A rep for Usher and Foster did not respond to repeated calls for comment.

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Brad Pitt was the star attraction at this year’s edition of the world’s leading contemporary art fair.

He was also a customer.

He bought a painting titled, “Etappe,” by the German artist Neo Rauch, said Art Basel spokeswoman Maike Cruse.

The David Zwirner Gallery in New York had advertised the work as an “enigmatic and dreamlike” representation of a race car being serviced mid-competition.

Its list price was about $960,000. The gallery refused to comment.

Rauch is among Europe’s top painters, drawing on traditions of Eastern Bloc realism and Western abstraction.

The 40th Art Basel fair opened to the public Wednesday.

It features works from over 2,500 artists. Pitt also attended last year.

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Paris Hilton and Doug Reinhardt broke up Tuesday night after the heir-head made a huge scene at the Darkroom club in Los Angeles by hurling fruit and ice cubes at a younger, hotter blonde.

According to a spokesperson for Texas beauty queen Kendhal Beal, Paris went into “a tirade” because Beal was partying with Reinhardt, Hilton’s beau of six months.

The rep told us, “Kendhal and a friend of hers ended up at Darkroom, where Doug and Brody Jenner were hanging out.”

Beal and Jenner have been reported to be dating on and off since last year.

“Kendhal knows Brody and Doug, and so they were talking and catching up. They all took a shot and were watching the Lakers game,” said the rep. “But Paris got word that Doug was at the bar, and she showed up and started going at it.”

Beal’s rep told Page Six, “Paris was picking up ice and fruit and throwing it at Kendhal — she was the victim. Kendhal did nothing offensive or aggressive. Paris was throwing accusations, calling her names. It was the same thing you always hear about Paris and her tirades.”

In true Hilton fashion, by the next night she had already moved on to another guy, Madrid Real soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo.

On Wednesday night, Hilton went to restaurant Nobu in West Hollywood around 10 p.m. with her sister, Nicky, and then hit nightclub MyHouse, where the soccer stud met up with them.

Photos have circulated online showing Hilton, with her skirt hiked up, all over Ronaldo, and Web site X17 reported, “They “couldn’t keep their hands off of each other.”

A rep for Hilton told us, “the events of this night are being greatly exaggerated. Paris and Doug had an argument but there was no one else involved.” Reps for Reinhardt and Jenner didn’t return calls.

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Like Iron Mike, Lakiha Spicer is an ex- con. As Philly gossip Dan Gross re ports, Spicer, 32, did six months in a federal pen last year for fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors say she raked in $71,000 for a no- show teaching job from Philadelphia’s Sister Clara Muhammad School. Tyson did three years for rape in the early ’90s. The former- jail birds- turned- lovebirds tied the knot Saturday in a private ceremony at the Las Vegas Hilton.

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Kanye West likes to hang out with ex-girlfriend Amber Rose, but he doesn’t appear to be a one-woman man. At Men.Style.Com’s “Women in Fashion” party at the Palace Hotel on Wednesday, West was getting cozy with model Chanel Iman, 19. “They were very chatty and laughed with each other as they nibbled on an order of fries,” says a spy. West, who gamely posed for photos with partygoers and hotel staffers before leaving with a gaggle of models, also appears to be one of the growing legion that finds American Vogue boring. Asked who his favorite fashionable woman is, he responded, “Carine Roitfeld” — the editor-in-chief of French Vogue, and a rumored replacement for Anna Wintour. Also at the party were New York Ranger Sean Avery, Rachel Roy, Charlotte Ronson and Julia Restoin-Roitfeld.

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Madonna can adopt a second child from Malawi, the southern African country’s highest court ruled Friday, overturning a lower court decision it said was out of touch with the times.

Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo, reading the three-judge panel’s ruling, also said the singer’s commitment to helping disadvantaged children should have been taken into account when deciding on Madonna’s request to adopt 3-year-old Chifundo “Mercy” James.

Madonna has founded a charity, Raising Malawi, which helps feed, educate and provide medical care for some of Malawi’s more than 1 million orphans, half of whom have lost a parent to AIDS.

Children’s welfare groups had expressed concern that rules meant to protect children were being bent because of Madonna’s celebrity, and perhaps out of gratitude for what she has done for Malawi, one of the world’s poorest and most AIDS-ravaged countries.

Madonna’s lawyer Alan Chinula said he called his client after the ruling.

“It’s the wee hours of morning in New York but she is excited at the news,” Chinula said. “As her lawyer I am happy that this has settled this contentious issue.”

Chinula said he would now turn to arranging a passport for Chifundo, which could take several days, and was awaiting word from Madonna on travel plans for the girl. The adoption may not be final for some time.

Madonna had appealed after the lower court ruled she could not adopt the girl because the singer had not spent enough time in Malawi. The lower court said residency rules had been bent when Madonna adopted her son David from Malawi last year.

The appeals court said that was a narrow interpretation based on old laws.

“In this global village a man can have more than one place at which he resides,” Munlo said in the ruling, which took more than an hour to read in court Friday. “The matter of residence should be determined at the time of application of the adoption. In this case, Madonna was in Malawi not by chance but by intention. She is looking after several orphans whose welfare depends on her. She can therefore not be described as a sojourner.”

The ruling also said the judges saw only two options for Chifundo, “either to stay at the orphanage without the love of family and live with the possibility of destitution or be with Madonna where she is assured of love.

“Every child has the right to love.”

But the chairman of the coalition of non-governmental organizations that criticized Madonna’s adoption efforts said they had “reservations” about Friday’s judgment.

Undule Mwakasungula said the judge “disregarded” international agreements on children’s rights and adoptions.

He also took issue with the argument that because Madonna has made an investment in the country and has interests there, she could be considered a resident.

“We are a bit surprised but we can’t challenge it because the Supreme Court has ruled and we have to go with that,” he said.

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The shocking damage caused to Michael Jackson’s ear by repeated plastic surgery has been revealed.

Jackson’s long hair normally hides it from view. But all was revealed as he left a medical clinic in California yesterday, where he has been receiving treatment for skin cancer.

The left ear looked as though the outer ring had been removed. It is thought cartilage has been repeatedly taken from the 50-year-old’s ear to rebuild his nose, which was damaged during extensive surgery.

A similar procedure is available on the NHS, usually to correct damage caused during accidents.

Yesterday a music promoter sued Jackson to stop him from performing in London this year, claiming his appearances would violate a prior contract.

New Jersey-based AllGood Entertainment Inc claims it signed a deal with the singer’s manager, Frank DiLeo, in November committing him to an appearance in the U.S. this summer.

Under the agreement, Jackson is not supposed to give another concert before that show, the lawsuit states.

Jackson has signed with AEG Live to play 50 shows at London’s O2 Arena starting in July.

AllGood Entertainment contends those shows violate the New Jersey company’s agreement with DiLeo, which it says predates the singer’s deal with AEG Live.

Representatives for Jackson and AEG Live were not immediately available to comment.

AEG Live, which is named in the lawsuit, has previously called AllGood Entertainment’s claims ‘meaningless’.

Jackson has been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the London shows.

AllGood Entertainment contends in its lawsuit its agreement with DiLeo also left the door open for Jackson to perform with other members of his show business family, which includes his brothers from the Jackson Five and sister Janet Jackson.

The company’s lawsuit alleges breach of contract, fraud and tortious interference with a contract. It seeks at least $20 million in compensatory damages and at least $20 million in punitive damages.

It also names as defendants Jackson’s production company, as well as DiLeo, his company and AEG Live’s parent company AEG, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Anschutz Company.

Jackson’s series of London shows have been touted as unprecedented.

AEG Live says that, all together, the shows will gather the biggest audience ever to see an artist in one city.

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