Perez Hilton: Media Scapegoat or Huge Drama Queen?
It seems that celebrity “gangstaR” Perez Hilton (real name Mario Lavandeira) is being sued again according to this report in The Smoking Gun. This time for posting an “allegedly” stolen photo of Jennifer Aniston’s breasts. The photo (when I saw it), appeared to be scanned from a magazine, was cut from the film “The Break-Up,” a 2006 comedy which Aniston starred in with then boyfriend, Vince Vaughn.
The images were never meant to be seen and the Universal Pictures lawsuit against Lavandeira is seeking an “injunction barring further distribution of the picture and requests a court order ‘directing the U.S. Marshall to seize’ the copyrighted material from the blogger.” No monetary damages are being sought, which makes me wonder why exactly they are bothering with a lawsuit. The cat’s already out of the bag, or the bra in this case.
Unless, of course, they are trying to make a point. Aniston has been viciously targeted by Lavandeira many times and he’s not so playfully dubbed her “Maniston.” My guess it was more a bitchslap than anything- which is amusing in any case. I remember seeing the original picture on Perez’s site and he never said where he got it from, but I doubt he snuck in all Mission Impossible:2 style and stole it. Most likely it was passed on to him under nefarious circumstances.
To be honest, what celebrity writer wouldn’t post a picture like that? We’re all dirty rotten scoundrels.
He was also being sued by photo agency X17 Online for copyright infringement, and supposedly at one time, Colin Farrell was suing him for posting a link to a sex tape online featuring the actor. Lavandeira claims he is permitted to post these images as they fall under a statute or doctrine contained within our own copyright laws, often referred to as “fair use.” It’s a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo, but essentially it means if it’s in the public domain and you are applying it within the context of free speech, then you can use it. Or not. I am not a lawyer so don’t use my words as some sort of legal argument if you get arrested.
Which brings up a good point. So why is it Perez is entangled in so many lawsuits for crimes committed by all of us? And by us, I mean the greater celebrity blogging community.
The answer is pretty obvious, he has the most popular site. Just ask him if you don’t believe me. At least once a week he boasts about his traffic. And at last boasting he claimed to be getting 4 million + hits a day, and that ain’t chump change folks. I don’t even think CNN gets that many hits. He’s often being accused of plagiary - a claim extremely difficult to prove as there are so many sources available. Certainly I can’t prove this, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out where how it works. His stories go up within seconds of the original story from the original source. But, you know what, that how this game works.
It’s also no surprise he gets first dibs on scoops, as success breeds success. Mainstream media has NO clue what they are dealing with. This isn’t some professional journalist? Mario’s not a real writer. He’s some immature guy who’s been extremely lucky. Honestly, if I were a serious media outlet looking for celeb gossip, Michael K. at D-Listed does it much better. Oh, and he’s gay, too, if that’s some demographic they are trying to fill.
No, the issue here isn’t his techniques or his process. It’s all pretty formulaic. I’d say the real reason he is targeted - besides being the top site - is that people just don’t like him. Celebrities don’t like him. At least “real” ones. He’s slanted, one-sided, petty and mean. He’s embarrassingly phony and sucks up to people, only to double cross them later in his posts. He’s vain and arrogant, as demonstrated in this classic post on Gawker.
He’s also a terrible hypocrite. It escaped no one’s attention (including his readers) how he’s lectured the media and celeb sites alike to leave celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears alone when in rehab, but he can’t restrain his own need to spy on them.
You can’t be the judge, advocate, and jury while also committing the crime, my friend. I mean, I guess you can, but you will look like a total knob doing so.
He doesn’t share. Not once. I have never seen him link another competing celeb site. Mainstream media for sure, but not his peers. There’s a word for that…um, I think it’s call selfish. Oh, and being a greedy a-hole too.
For the most part you don’t see his peers link to him either, why bother? He doesn’t need the traffic and what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. I won’t deny I read his site. I won’t deny I read LOTS of sites. Any good writer should. There’s just too much information out there to limit yourself. But I come from OLD SCHOOL blogging. I am a granny compared to some of these young whipper-snappers. It’s always a good idea to share the love and be on positive terms with your competition- a lesson learned the hard way.
And, of course, the most glaring issue I have with Mario (I think he hates it when he’s called Mario) is that he REFUSES to report on certain celebrities, say like for example PARIS HILTON. I mean seriously, being a celebrity blogger and not talking about Paris Hilton is like calling yourself a gym teacher and refusing to play dodgeball. It just makes you look like total whipped pussy. What’s she gonna do, give you herpes?
And of course he’s mean and draws stupid third grade doodles on pictures and he doesn’t edit himself. How hard is it to spellcheck and edit two sentences. His writing is trite and NEVER, EVER FUNNY.
You know who he’s like, the big queer kid in drama club who everyone watched make an ass out of himself, but never took seriously. He’s popular, I will give him that. But guess what happened to that queer kid in drama class after high school graduation, when all the big kids went on to become college grads and do something with their lives? He shot himself in the head.
True story.
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>>So why is it Perez is entangled in so many lawsuits for crimes committed by all of us? And by us, I mean the greater celebrity blogging community.
That’s the point. Perez is NOT like the rest of you. He has ceased being that a long ago when moving mainstream; getting exposure in the press & Television; being cited as a credible news organisation; AND making millions of dollars at it in advertising, endorsements, appareances and so on.
Bottom line: Perezhilton.com is a BUSINESS. An enterprise. And a media giant.
It no longer has the excuse of hiding behind the ’small blogger’ label just because it allows the boss to slander and villify at guise (which even MichaelK doesn’t do much of anymore)
That’s the real problem with PH; the fact he misrepresents his site to all of his readers, and the media alike.
Comment by NE — February 24, 2007 @ 10:52 am
Yes, but unfortunately his readers are completely unaware of how they are being duped. And the mainstream media should be ashamed. Glomming on to a guy like that is like the US legitimizing the likes of Kim Jong Il.
Comment by dmdo1016 — February 24, 2007 @ 1:10 pm