As 2009 draws to a close, The Hollywood Gossip staff is proud and excited to present 10 finalists for its prestigious, Third Annual Celebrity of the Year award.

These stars have given us their best, their worst, their naked photos (sometimes) and their hilarious, ridiculous scandals (often). It's time for THG to pay tribute to their greatness.

Earlier this week, we continued the '09 countdown with Molly Malaney and Melissa Rycroft in the #9 spot.

Today: Celebrity of the Year finalist #8 … Carrie Prejean!

When Barack Obama took office in January, who would have guessed that a blonde beauty queen would create more diversion between Republicans and Democrats than the nation's first African-American President?

But after Prejean took her stance on "opposite marriage" on April 19, all heck broke loose. Perez Hilton called her a "bitch," Carrie claimed she lost the Miss USA title due to her opinion, and every conservative alive chose this woman as their cause's role model.

She was discriminated due to her beliefs, they cried! She's a poor, defenseless, targeted Christian, they insisted!

After all, God was testing Prejean and while she passed, the rest of society failed. So said Carrie's supporters.

They stuck by her through rumors of a boob job; through blatant lies over topless photos; and through the eventual loss of her Miss California crown after Donald Trump grew sick of Carrie's act.

But Prejean continued to play the role of victim, even though her religion is the most popular in the country and even though her stance on gay marriage is agreed upon by a majority of voters. That wasn't enough. She was wronged dammit!

And you know who will pay for those wrongs, don't you? The consumers that actually bought Prejean's memoir, which recounted her harrowing story in detail. It's a nightmare many of us still can't awake from.