I have to admit -- I'm addicted to Perez Hilton.
The celebrity gossip blogger, who has gotten so popular he reportedly gets 5 million visits to his site each day, is annoying, self-important, and totally full of himself, but the truth is, he breaks news. The comments from the readers on his site can be nasty, but generally the readership seems to know what they are getting into when they visit his blog, and they respond accordingly.
But yesterday, something interesting happened.
Early in the day on January 30, internet reports began to surface saying that there was an "explosive" video of Heath Ledger doing and talking about drugs. Then came word that Entertainment Tonight and other venues would show the video, followed by actual promos on these shows which showed footage from the video. Perez lambasted these shows, asserting that it was not their place to put this forth to the public.
Keep in mind, this is coming from someone who ridicules celebrities by drawing things on pictures of them and calling them juvenile names. It's also coming from someone who documents the Britney Spears mental health meltdown like he was a constitutional scholar. Just saying.
Anyways...last night, Perez posted a link to the Heath Ledger video.
I didn't watch it -- I couldn't. Apparently, I'm not alone -- within minutes, there were hundreds of comments from loyal Perez leaders genuinely upset with their blog guru for stepping over the line. Here is an example of one comment:
"u gotta be kidding me? even et and the insider are taking it back and you show it? that's it I am done with this site…
wow i thought nothing could surprise me in the media anymore but you leave me speechless.."
There were literally hundreds others like it.
Now, to be fair, Perez didn't actually post the video on his site, he simply provided his readers with a link. And, like it or not, it is news.
However, something about Heath Ledger's death, combined with the endless public deterioration of Britney Spears, seems to be making people a little tired with the celebrity mill. Will it be the case that, as many commenters suggested, people will give up on Perez now that they think he has crossed the line? Probably not, at least not in any immediate, significant way. But it'll certainly be interesting to see what happens next...
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Is The Tide Changing? Perez Hilton Lambasted for Posting Heath Ledger Drug Video
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1 comment:
While I appreciate you calling that Queen Of All Sleaze Hilton on his outrageous hypocrisy (he was also recently on a talk show criticizing others for exploiting Ledger before he was even buried), your admission about being addicted to his site calls your own judgement into question. You do realize, don't you, that the millions he brags about flocking to his site is actually millions of "hits", not readers? He has a small group of pathetic sycophants, but their constant daily hits on his site give him far more bragging rights than he deserves. Kind of like when Ryan Seacrest boasts that 50 million people voted on AI.... more like 500,000 voted 100 times. And many of his "scoops" are actually completely bogus stories or negative spins of incidents sent to him by morons who simply hate the celebrity target of the day. He's posted a few things that I personally know for a fact were total lies.
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