The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com the b sid e Thursday, November 9, 2006 - SB
Meet the
'Queen
of All *..
Media'Y
O,
By JACQUELINE E. HOWARD;-
For the Daily i i JE
Its morning. You wake up -
naturally, not to an alarm clock, --
but with the Southern California -
sunrise. Your favorite cafe - the>- -
morning's first stop - plays doublev
duty as your office. Settling down r-r4f
at a table overlooking Sunset Bou- -
levard, you open your laptop and -1
start to type away. Juicy details .
from last night's star-studded par-
ties are all documented - you have
no deadline. But this is still work, -
serious work, because you are
America's "Queen of All Media." -
Welcome to the world of Perez,-
Hilton.
For the better part of the past ,--
two years, celebrity publicists only
entered this arena in an attempt to -
minimize bad press for clients. But
today the world of Perez Hilton is
slowly moving up from the D-list-- -
and becoming the place to see and
be seen. -
Those of you perplexed at this
point obviously haven't heard that
PerezHilton.com is the new go- *
to blog for celebrity gossip. The
eponymous website and nom de
gossip belong to 28-year-old Mario
Lavandeira. Lavandeira - or as he
prefers, Perez - uses the website
to break the latest entertainment
news straight from Hollywood. '-
Occasionally he becomes the butt -
of his own jokes, since he often
club-hops alongside his A-list -
subjects in search of his next big
story. -
The New York Post famously -
sued him for use of its gossip page
name - Page Six - in his original " . .4 , orjvos >r-
website, PageSixSixSix.com. (The .h
site became Perezhilton.com in-
2004.) His notoriety soared after
the lawsuit and continued to grow
when Perez was the first to post
photos of Angelina Jolie and Brad
Pitt early in their relationship.
Details magazine named him one°%
of the most influential men under
42 soon after.
Perez is now a celebrity in his -
own right, registering up to two
million hits a day on his website -
big numbers in the blogging world..
I took itcupon myself to track down - -
the Queen himself.
k th Quen hiself ^Courtesy of Pere zhlton.com-
Getting a hold of him wasn't as Perez Hilton with the typical bevy of starlets
simple asexpected. Inkeepingwith
traditional Hollywood protocol, I exactly 12 minutes." Perez Hilton is simply his micro- - -r
went through "friends of a friend" Perez must have mistaken him- phone.
for his contact information, and self for Paris, because I'm still "Perez Hilton is a brand now,"
soon fell into the excitement sur- waiting for that phone call. he said. MY
rounding the talk-hungry blogger. "I don't take days off," he told me The Associated Press ran a pro-
Before my search for Perez, I used through e-mail. "This is my life." file on the gossip blogger this past
to visit his website every couple of Considering that Perez juggles Monday, reporting that the flashy
days. Now I check his website even a schedule that seems almost as alter ego conflicts with Perez's - -
before I check my e-mail. Mario Lavandeira side.
And it'sperfectlyaproposthate- "Perez is louder, crazier, will
mail is the best way to contacthim. two wear wackier things, will stay out
Within five minutes of my inquiry, Thettill three or four in the morning,"
the infamous gossiper replied. He curious lives of he told the AP. "But Mario will just
was more than willing to chat with stay home and go to sleep and wear
me, he said, and we confirmed a Perez Hilton. jogging pants and a hoodie."
time and date for an interview. I But Perez, not Mario, serves as
wasn't all that surprised when the the driving force behind what is
job title in his e-mail signature arguably Hollywood's most hated
read "gossip gangsta." hectic as his heiress namesake's, I website. The blog not only serves
Not long after I dialed Perez's appreciated that he took the time as a news source for celebrity gos-
number on time for our appoint- to answer my questions via e-mail. sip, but also as an electronic diary
ment. The phone rang, then went He was prompt. He was forth- for Perez. The blog is Perez and
straight to voicemail. I re-dialed right. He called me "kitten." Perez is the blog.
- no luck. When Perez finally But after our online correspon- And he knows this full well. I
answered he explained he was dence and teasing rounds of phone tried to contact him again, after
shooting his upcoming reality tag, I could tell there wasn't else coming to this realization. Perez
television series and offered to call much to unveil in the world of gave only a two-word response,
me back in 10 minutes. Perez. Behind the curtain, Mario "Love it!" the brief note punctu-
"No, make it 12," he said. "OK, Lavandeira is Mario Lavandeira; ated with a pair of Xs and Os.
Davy Rothbart is the creator of Found magazine, has y
're' appeared on NPR's "This American Life" and had a
great phone-sex story in September's issue of GQ And
he won nine Hopwoods when he was here. Really.
Anvil (featuring NowOn) Dykehouse
He likes these "Blood Red Sea" "Western Lands"
songs. And who
can arg ue with
Davy Rothbart? Okkervil River Classified (with Royce da
"No Key, No Plon" 5'9")
"Unexplainable Hunger"
Public Enemy The Original Brothers
"Black Steel in the Hour of and Sisters of Love
Chaos" "Michigan and Trumbull"
4 Devon Sproule Bon Jovi
' "Keep Your Silver Shined" "Wanted Dead or Alive"