Hmmmm.......

Internet gossip king Perez Hilton doesn't like to be called a blogger. "I like to call myself an entertainer," he proclaims. "The way I try to present my website is as a form of entertainment." The way Hilton, 28, looks at life and work is also a form of entertainment. His schedule alone would exhaust a less enthusiastic pop-culture junkie; in the past few months, he's traveled to Sundance, the Super Bowl, Amsterdam, New York and Miami to do reporting for his site PerezHilton.com.

It all started when Hilton was a freelance journalist for gay publications. He had a lot of free time and started a website because it seemed easy. His first, PageSixSixSix.com, was a hit with readers but not with the New York Post gossip column. Thus Perez Hilton, a fictitious cousin of Paris, was born. His new site takes full advantage of the immediacy of the Internet, consistently scooping even the daily publications. "People come back because I only put stuff up that's true. I like having credibility." Celebrity isn't exactly everything Hilton imagined. "I wake up every morning at 5:30 a.m. and do tons of morning radio. I get almost 1,000 e-mails a day. I do it until 7 p.m. and have events at night. I work harder now than ever." And people certainly notice. A high point for Hilton was being recognized in print by gossip icon Michael Musto. What does Musto think of Hilton? "Perez is great because he's fearless, rambunctious, and gayer than Ikea on Super Bowl Sunday. He's the new me!" High praise indeed.
Mickey Boardman

Courtesy of Papermag.com