The beauty queen gig is hard work if you can get it. Not only must you rock a bikini, now you have to think on your stilettos with the social values savvy of a pol running for office. Answering "world peace" to every question, like the running gag in Miss Congeniality, won't cut it any more.

FOLLOW:Faith & Reason blog on Twitter, Facebook

This has the contestants for Miss USA, in preliminaries for the June 19 finale, quaking, according to Fox News Entertainment.

In on-camera interviews set to be posted on the official Miss USA website, 2011 pageant hopefuls are being asked if they believe evolution should be taught in schools, and if they would ever pose for nude photographs.

According to Paula Shugart, President of the Miss Universe Organization (MUO), which also operates Miss USA, these "topics are very relevant and in the news."

But pageant pro Keith Lewis, who directs the extravaganzas in California, New York and New Hampshire, told Fox:

The girls are scared to death. They witnessed with Carrie Prejean how a firestorm can create a road kill, and nobody wants to be part of a situation like that again ... The girls are concerned that there is a right or wrong answer. Polarizing questions often create a situation where you suffer ... if you agree, and if you do not. The girls need to answer in a way that brings them to a common ground."

Publicist Angie Meyer complained that the new online voting by the audience feature also means that liberals could stack the audience with gay marriage supporters (who are meeting in Las Vegas the same weekend as the pageant):

The pageant officials are intimidating contestants into answering questions a certain way that are deemed 'politically correct' while discriminating against their own belief and opinions. The Miss USA organization is choosing topics that are not only controversial, but intimidating."

Come now, says Miss Maine USA's Executive Director Mackenzie Davis:

Miss USA is a spokesperson for the nation, and should not be intimidated by any organization.

Miss California Carrie Prejean, you may remember, was hot in the running for Miss USA until she said she opposed "opposite marriage" and gave the exact same position as President Obama on the issue.

"No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised," she said.

That cut no ice. She didn't win and later, in a dispute over whether she was spending too much time on the evangelical values support circuit instead of laboring as Miss California should, Donald Trump said off with her California crown.

At the pageant website, they stress that Miss USA has a real job to do.

In 2010, Rima Fakih of Michigan made history and broke several barriers as the first immigrant, Arab American and Muslim to be crowned Miss USA. Since being crowned, Rima has been traveling the world as an advocate for breast and ovarian cancer awareness, education, research and legislation

She's also going to appear on Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader (fill in your own comment below on that but be civil).

Huffington Post wanted to know if readers thought the Q&A was a waste of time. Do we tune in to see the smart ladies in swimwear? But no, folks replied 63% to 37% that they wanted to hear what contestants have to say.

Well, if you can strut in a bikini and stilettos, and simper in a fishtail gown, why would you quake at a mere question? Unless... unless they ask the God question. Could an out-front atheist conquer the crown?

DO YOU THINK beauty queens are your representative on social issues?