Nicole Johnson
Gossip

The Miss California USA pageant came and went with nary a gay marriage controversy last night.

However, the winner of the 2010 crown actually does have a celebrity gossip connection: Nicole Johnson was romantically linked to Michael Phelps in October 2008.

Now, the brunette beauty from Ventura County can make news on her own. She follows Carrie Prejean as the state's title-holder, though that attention-starved author was eventually stripped of the crown.

“I think it was my presentation,” Johnson said, when asked why she won. “I was very confident on the stage, and I stood out in a red gown. I think maybe that was it.”

After the ceremony, Nicole added that she loved gay people and has never starred in a sex tape.

Last year, at the Miss USA pageant, Perez Hilton asked Prejean for her views on gay marriage. Last night, CSI's Hill Harper inquired about California's challenges as a state. Replied Johnson, profoundly:

“Focusing on what we truly believe in. Sometimes we are very divided, and I feel if we can unite and be one state and focus our beliefs in one thing, I think we can succeed and be a very dominant state.”

Seriously, folks, how stupid are beauty pageants?!? Does anything, The Bachelor included, set the women's movement back any further?

We have a winner in the Michael Phelps Girlfriend Sweepstakes!

While Carrie Underwood and Stephanie Rice appeared to be in the running, it's clear that Nicole Johnson has now come out on top... of Phelps!

The former beauty pageant contestant - Johnson was a finalist for Miss California 2007 - was spotted at the airport alongside the Olympic champion earlier this week:

But this isn't all!

We've uncovered a handful of pictures of Michael Phelps and Nicole Johnson together, looking cozy. Click on them now:

Michael Phelps is not dating Stephanie Rice.

And rumors linking him to American Idol champion Carrie Underwood appear to be fleeting.

The latest possibility for Phelps' girlfriend, thereforei, is Nicole Johnson, a former Miss California USA runner up. While she told People Magazine, that she and the Olympic icon are just friends, Phelps said:

"I never said I have a girlfriend, and I never said I don't have a girlfriend. My public and private life are separate. I keep my private life to myself."

Mickey Mouse is one of the only celebrities not to have been linked romantically to Michael Phelps.