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"