“I am irredeemable in the eyes of most. No matter how much I change, grow, evolve, apologise, they refuse to see me for who I am today"
Perez Hilton doesn’t expect to be forgiven for his Noughties career as the world’s most notorious gossip blogger
thetimes.co.uk/article/perez-…
Perez Hilton doesn’t expect to be forgiven for his Noughties career as the world’s most notorious gossip blogger
thetimes.co.uk/article/perez-…
The original gossip blogger spared no one with his notorious, often malicious posts - and Britney Spears became a favourite target
Now Britney’s conservatorship hearings have returned that period to the spotlight, his actions are back under scrutiny - and they don’t look good
Now Britney’s conservatorship hearings have returned that period to the spotlight, his actions are back under scrutiny - and they don’t look good
Hilton's business was the demolition of celebrity reputations
Other people’s career problems, heartaches, eating disorders and substance abuse were all just content for him - something to be written up and published, with ads running alongside
Other people’s career problems, heartaches, eating disorders and substance abuse were all just content for him - something to be written up and published, with ads running alongside
When Lindsay Lohan was arrested for drink-driving in 2007, Hilton updated his website 60 times in one day
As Nicole Richie got dangerously thin, he said that she was doing it for “attention” and posted about her “zombie hands”
As Nicole Richie got dangerously thin, he said that she was doing it for “attention” and posted about her “zombie hands”
Almost no one, though, was a bigger target than Britney Spears. He called her a “mess” and an “unfit mother”. As she spiralled towards a breakdown in 2008, his numbers exploded
After Heath Ledger died, Hilton offered a T-shirt with the slogan “Why couldn’t it be Britney?”
After Heath Ledger died, Hilton offered a T-shirt with the slogan “Why couldn’t it be Britney?”
In interviews and videos on his YouTube channel he has apologised and offered his support for the #FreeBritney movement, but few have been convinced.
Did he ever feel bad about what he was doing at the time? No, he says. He believed that he was acting to remedy some kind of injustice
“In some naive way, I viewed what I was doing through that lens. Like, I’m just calling out the celebrities that need to be called out”
“In some naive way, I viewed what I was doing through that lens. Like, I’m just calling out the celebrities that need to be called out”
He thought of the people he wrote about as the cast of an “online soap opera” where “you have your heroes and you have your villains”
He saw himself as a part of the fiction too
He saw himself as a part of the fiction too
“I would say things like, well, Perez is not who I really am, it’s just a character. So if people don’t like me, it doesn’t bother me"
(When he logs in to our Zoom interview, his name appears briefly on screen as “Mario Lavandeira”, his real name, before changing to “Perez”)
(When he logs in to our Zoom interview, his name appears briefly on screen as “Mario Lavandeira”, his real name, before changing to “Perez”)
Has being ostracised made him feel more sympathetic to the celebrities he has tormented, such as the model such as the model Chrissy Teigen, who fell from grace this year after old cyberbullying comments resurfaced?
“Oh, absolutely. I reached out to her repeatedly.”
“Oh, absolutely. I reached out to her repeatedly.”
Read the full interview here: thetimes.co.uk/article/perez-…
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