Former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean says losing the Miss USA pageant and later her state crown was part of God's plan.

Prejean also told a group of young voters at a Republican Party of Florida event in Orlando yesterday that she was "sick and tired of being called a bigot."

She says she lost her title because of her opposition to gay marriage. California pageant Executive Director Keith Lewis has said that Prejean was skipping Miss California USA events while speaking out against gay marriage at unsanctioned appearances.

Prejean says she knows God wanted something different for her than a materialistic crown. She says she is now able to travel the country and speak about issues that she is passionate about.

ELIZABETH EDWARDS GOES INTO RETAILING

The wife of former North Carolina senator and presidential candidate John Edwards has opened a furniture store.

Multiple media outlets report that Elizabeth Edwards opened the store called Red Window in downtown Chapel Hill yesterday. Edwards says the store will be similar to The Red Door, a charity store her mother managed in Japan.

John Edwards also attended the opening.

He confessed last year to an affair with Rielle Hunter, a videographer on his 2008 presidential campaign. Elizabeth Edwards says she's trying to ignore tabloid reports that her husband fathered Hunter's child.

A federal grand jury is investigating whether the candidate's campaign funds were illegally paid to Hunter to keep quiet about the affair.

STILL A BIG BAND, BY ANYBODY'S RECKONING

Pioneering rockabilly guitarist James Burton led an ensemble of about 800 guitar players yesterday in a celebration of his 70th birthday, but failed in his attempt to make the Guinness Book of World Records.

At the Hirsch Memorial Coliseum in Shreveport, La., roughly 30 miles west of his hometown Minden, Burton led a battalion of pickers through the Elvis Presley hits "That's All Right, Mama" and "Hound Dog."

Guinness lists the world's largest guitar ensemble as 1,802 participants, led by Andreas Vockrodt in Germany in 2007.

'ONE TREE HILL' ACTOR PLEADS GUILTY

"One Tree Hill" actor Antwon Tanner has pleaded guilty to selling more than a dozen Social Security numbers for $10,000.

Tanner told a federal judge in Brooklyn on Friday that he was a middleman, selling numbers someone else provided. He and his lawyer didn't comment on how he got involved in the scheme.

Tanner is expected to get as much as a year in prison at his sentencing, set for Nov. 20.