CALIFORNIA

Everyone wants a picture with the new Miss California. Everyone.

Wilmer Valderrama To Replace Prejean As Miss California

NEW YORK (CAP) - Less than a week after announcing that Carrie Prejean would be stripped of her title as Miss California USA, pageant chariman Donald Trump revealed that the crown would not be passed to runner-up Tami Farrell as expected, but would rather be awarded to former Hollywood character actor Wilmer Valderrama.

"The whole issue with Carrie was that she was fighting with us on the terms of her contract," said Trump. "With Wilmer, that won't be an issue because he's just so happy to have work of any kind that he will attend every appearance we schedule for him.

"Wilmer is such Hollywood kryptonite these days, there's no chance that he'd be able to book a gig without our approval," Trump added. "There's just no one asking for him."

Trump also noted that photo ops won't be an issue for the 29-year-old actor, something that Prejean fought with pageant officials about. The real estate mogul claims to have in his possession several semi-nude shots of Valderrama taken by a clerk at the Wetzel's Pretzels in Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport.

"Please don't ask me how I came to have them," Trump said after a pause.

For Valderrama, the appointment provides the chance to climb back to the top of the entertainment industry - a place he has not even smelled since the end of his popular sitcom That '70s Show in 2006.

"Thank you very much," Valderamma said when asked about his new role, in a seemingly hybrid accent of his "Fes" character and Andy Kaufman's "Latka" character from the show Taxi. "I will do anything Mr. Trump wants me to if I get to be famous again. And I mean anything."

Valderrama pointed to the continued success of his former That '70s Show castmates as an indication that it was time for his ship to come in: "I mean, Topher [Grace] was in the Spiderman movie, Ashton [Kutcher] is the king of Twitter, Mila [Kunis] and Laura [Prepon] are still incredibly hot chicks, and Danny [Masterson] is the biggest herion dealer in L.A."

Miss USA Pageant outside legal council Mervin Liebowitz said that there's nothing in the pageant's official rules that prohibits Trump from naming a man as Miss California.

"Look, I'll level with you," said Leibowitz, "the whole thing, it's just about selling advertising. The so-called 'rules' are whatever Donald Trump says they are - he owns the pageant, so he can pretty much do anything he wants to.

"Hell, he could name Kirstie Alley as Miss California if he wanted to, and she's an old cow!" Leibowitz said.

Valderrama kicks off his reign next weekend with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Stuckey's in Bakersfield.