Today is the day to feel some Midwest love.

Chicagoans: see the pretty.

You could argue that today's interviewee is also today's Walter Winchell (but is he a cookie full of arsenic? Probably so some people.) I had a serious love-hate relationship with his site for a while, checking it more than a few times a day and feeling very bad about it. But then I realized that if that's how most of his readers feel, then he's quite the evil genuis, so I stopped hating and started ingratiating. He runs the gossip site PerezHilton.com which is launching him an offline career as well, including various TV appearances and magazine gigs plus an upcoming reality TV show. And I don't think I'm the only person who ever had a love-hate relationship with Perez.

He requested that we do this interview via phone, which usually I don't like doing (I hate hearing the sound of my own voice back to me) but I had this awesome new toy I wanted to try out. Plus, I'm positive this conversation turned out much better in real time anyway. I caught him at his hotel in London Saturday, where he seemed to be painting the town red, seeing Ashlee Simpson in "Chicago" (no lipsynching apparently), the Scissor Sisters and Noel Gallagher in concert, amongst other things. It should be noted that when I interviewed him I had just come from a pancake breakfast at the local American Legion hall. Jealous?

The Mario "Perez Hilton" Lavandeira Jr. Interview: Over Twenty Questions

What blogs do you most enjoy reading?
The Drudge Report, and he's kind of an inspiration to me because he's somebody who just started an email newsletter and was just doing it for fun, and it just turned into this thing that's great than him, a phenomenon, definitely a huge pop culture entity--although his site is more news and politics. He's been doing it for over 10 years now, and it's just the go-to place for news and politics, and I hope that mine is like that go-to site for celebrity and silliness. I also read TMZ.com.  They're not even a year old, but they got to be who they are because of money, when they got backing from AOL and Telepictures, who poured millions of dollars of resources into starting up this online outlet, and it worked. I'll read the US Weekly blog, too. Those are really the only ones. I read the news stuff too, although the news papers and gossip columns like Page Six, the Mirror, the Sun, all that stuff.

Do you ever read The Superficial? 
Well...a lot of other guys don't post enough to keep my interest.

Oh--I really find the writing to be really funny on it.
 You see--I am my reader--I don't need to write paragraphs per story, because I don't want to waste my time. There are other sites out there that are funny and well-written, but they don't have as much traffic as mine. I think I've been able to do things that have set me apart.

What can you tell us about your upcoming reality TV show?

It's in negotiations right now. It's happening. It's going to be unlike anything you've ever seen before.

"It's not TV: It's Perez"

No, it's not TV. It’s like bringing the website to life. We’ve been able to successfully accomplish that. 

Will you be behind the camera or in front of the camera?
I'll be in front of the camera but I’ll also be behind the camera, since I’m also a producer on it. it takes a lot of my energy  and responsibility and effort and all that stuff, but it's worth it, because it's just so amazing to see all the footage  edited together and going "Wow, I totally remember that" or "That's so funny!"

Are the cameras following you, like a "Girls Next Door" kind of thing?
Yeah. It's cool. There are two things I hate about reality TV. When it's fake, which most of it is--Laguna Beach and the Hills, those things are totally scripted. Also, one time I did a half- second cameo for those new show that hasn’t' aired yet on A&E called "Sons of Hollywood," about Randy Spelling and Sean Stewart and some other guy named David who's an agent. They were having this barbeque party at their house and there all these people there, and suddenly everyone just turned into the most obnoxious people, because they were acting for the camera, trying to be big and larger and life. I'm not trying to do that--I was just being me. I wasn't trying to be funny, I was just trying to be me, and then seeing it all edited together, I said "Oh my god, that's great. It's so funny." Probably no earlier than January, more realistically, March or April. And it will be on one of the best cable networks. 

Fill in this sentence.  "The most surprising thing about hanging out with Paris Hilton in person is that she's so _____."
Sweet.

Which celebrities that you've hung out with thus far can you say seem like the most genuine/down to earth?
John Stamos.  He's a dear, dear friend, super nice, honest, normal, sweet, generous, amazing guy.

How about a girl?
My friend Amanda Bynes.  She's just super sweet. And Michelle Trachtenberg: the two of them have very similar qualities.

Are there any celebrities who you have been trying to--or wish--you could get dirt on but haven't thus far?
There are lots of people who I would happily write about who don't get gold stars in my book, but it's a choice. I'm so busy; I'm not going to waste my time trying to dig up information on people that I may not be their favorite person either. I could do that but that's a waste of my time. I'm not that petty. Celebrities can handle themselves in a way that shoes that you get it, that it's a business, they’re doing their business, I'm doing my business and we're all being professionals about it, and you can handle yourself in a way that shows that you've got a sense of humor about it. Shannon Elizabeth came up to me at a party once, and I had given her the nickname "Shannon 'F List' Elizabeth," and she said, I love your site, I read it, and I used to like it a lot until you gave me the nickname "f list," and that hurts my feelings not because I don't think I’m f list but because you said that Tara Reid is D-list, and I’m not below her," and I kind of loved that.

If a celebrity has a beef with you, what's the most effective way for them to deal with it? To contact you and ask you politely to stop? To ignore it?
It's such a simple thing, really. If somebody doesn't like what I’m writing about them, then don't read it. It's that simple. 

Does that really work?
Yes. I hope.  It's a choice they make. Madonna doesn't read anything--no newspapers, she doesn't read the news. Jennifer Aniston, herself, who is often a target of mine, says that she doesn't read the celebrity weeklies or any of that sort of media, although I think she's probably lying.

What is your problem with her?
I just don't think she's a nice person. I think she has a black soul. I think she doesn't have a sense of humor, I think she's marginally talented, adequately good-looking, doesn't do anything to make the world a better place, just sits home al day smoking weed, takes herself way too seriously, is unappreciative of her fans and the media who made her successful, and is just pretty much repulsive.

We in Chicago are kind of curious about the Jennifer/Vince Vaughn thing, although it's not like they're Seal and Heidi Klum.
Oh my god--they are such a great couple. And I never say anything bad about them, because they really seem like nice people. It's the little things. I remember reading something where somebody pointed out to Seal that Heidi has been pregnant the majority of the time that they're together, and he said [adopts British accent], she's the most beautiful when she's pregnant. I was like, "Oh my god!" I love it!

And the sick thing is that she is. Who are the people who most give you the dirt--publicists? Friends of celebrities? Why do you think they confide in you?
Everyone, from my friends--all my friends are my sources, and I have a lot of friends, because I've lived in New York, Miami, LA, I've worked as a journalist, I've worked as a publicist, I used to be an actor. All these things and people in my experience and forms helped what I do now, and I know everyone from publicists to managers to agents' assistants, people who live in important parts of towns, neighbors, gardeners, club people, relatives, celebrities themselves. People talk to me for a variety of reasons. One of them is because they like me, the other is because they want to truth out there. I think a celebrity would rather have accurate information out there than misinformation, and a friend or a neighbor or relative of a celebrity would be more inclined to speak to me than to a celebrity weekly or even TMZ, because with me, and this is what sets me apart, I break stories, as opposed to other websites that don't and just function as news aggregators. With me, it's just me; I'm one stop shop direct. You tell me something and if you're a trusted source, and I know it's true then, I can put it up within minutes and nobody will find out your name. You don't have to tell their reporter, who has to tell their editor, who has to tell their Editor-in-Chief, who then has to tell the publisher, who has to pass thru legal, etc.  If you want to be an anonymous source, with me, there's no fear, because I take what I do very seriously and I never reveal my sources, ever.

It's funny to me how readers of blogs get so passionate about standing up for their favorite celebrities when they read negative stuff about them on blogs.
What I always tell people is that those who leave comments are not reflective of the majority of my readers. The majority of my readers don't leave comments. Maybe every once in a while, but not the majority of the time, so when you're reading comments, it's from a minority of people that have some sort of vested interest or whatever in leaving a particular kind of feedback, so I take that all with a grain of salt.

On Gawker, the commenters actually parody your own commenters whenever they run a post about you, there's always a Gawker commenter who posts FIRST!  I think it’s funny that not only you but your readers can be parodied.
That is funny. I don't really read Gawker, though.

How do you know what's legit to put online and which are too unfounded?
It depends where I've gotten it from or whom I've gotten it from, whether I know them, how long I’ve known them, whether I trust them, what kind of info, is it going to be slanted. Everything comes into consideration, and then also, if it's an anonymous thing from a random reader, I probably won't read it, unless I go ahead and fact-check it which I do, but sometimes it's hard. That whole Reese and Ryan thing, I got that the week before, but I just could stand it up, I couldn't vet it, because the one source I have that knows them wouldn't talk, and it was more of a Reese source and Reese probably wouldn't have even told that friend.  Sometimes I'll say we just go this random message from a random reader, we don't know if it's true but we're putting it out there just in case, ands sometimes those do turn out to be true, so those are great, but I didn't want to do that with that situation because it's not something that would have been breaking ASAP. the last time I did one of those was a reader telling me that Howard K. Stern was going to announce on Larry King that he was the father of Anna Nicole's baby. I put that up before Larry King aired, so as soon as I got that tip, I went into overdrive and I put it up since Larry King was going to be on in an hour. So I put in up in case it happened, and then I could say I could out scoop CNN on their own scoop, so I put it up and I called everyone I knew at CNN and I actually got it confirmed about a half hour before the show aired, so it wasn’t' just speculation, I got it confirmed from several different sources. So that was amazing, I out scooped Larry King on his own scoop, and CNN.com didn't even have it up until 10:20 PM and I had it up on my website at 8:30. 

What do you think is going to be the next celebrity scandal to distract us from such petty things as elections?
There's the TomKat wedding, but I don't give a shit about that. 

Me either.   How about something scandalous?
I think this whole Anna Nicole Smith thing--every day there are new revelations.

Man, that's gotten so weird.
It's a different kind of weird--it's sad, shocking, crazy.

People say a lot of personal things about you in the comments section and elsewhere.  When does it bug you and when does it not?
It doesn't bug me. I make a choice to leave my comments section open, and unlike other websites, you don't have to be invited. Anyone can comment on my site, and I don't censor them, except for when someone's making death threats or there are certain words that are banned. Sometimes people will just leave stupid things that they don't believe just to get a rise out of other people, and it works, and the other people don’t get it that they're being played. I used to have this one guy that I hated so much who would leave comments like "Death to all fags! Kill all niggers! Jews have AIDS!" Or whatever. But I could tell from the IP address that five minutes after he did that, he'd leave comments that said "Perez, I can't believe you have these comments up. I can't believe you're letting this kind of hatred up here. I'm boycotting your site. I'm never coming here again." It was the same person. I'd block the IP address, but the motherfucker was using an IP proxy, so it was a fake IP address every time. And he kept coming back and coming back and coming back, and finally my IT guy was able to figure out how to block him.

So it never bothers you?
No.  I know that by letting that exist in my website, the opportunity to criticize me or whatever, every time somebody says something like that it means another click, another page view for me. It means more money in my bank.

How do you decide who to 'out' on your site? Your latest target is Neil Patrick Harris. How do you differentiate who 'should' be outed versus who should be allowed to keep that information private?
Yesterday I wrote a list of everyone I wish would come out

Is Missy Elliot on there?
I forgot to mention her but I did have Queen Latifah. I mentioned Anderson Cooper, Jodie Foster, Kevin Spacey, Clay Aiken, Queen Latifah, Ricky Martin, Matt Dallas, Wentworth Miller, Richard Simmons and Sean Hayes. Some of those you'd think are already out but they're not. I put all those people on my list, but I didn’t mention Tom Cruise or Matthew McConaughey, even though those might be people I joked about possibly being gay, but these people are people that I KNOW are gay, that I 100% know are gay, that I have confirmation from friends and sources and mutual acquaintances that those people are all gays and lesbians.

So you feel if you’re high profile and gay, then you might as well be out?  There is a difference between being an Anderson Cooper, who is sort of wink wink about it--he's not pretending that he's straight, but he's not saying that he's gay.
So what's the difference? Why not just come out?

Do you feel it's necessary then to come out?
I think it's necessary if someone asks the question, to answer, instead of saying "I don't talk about my personal life." You could say "Yes I'm gay, AND I don't talk about my personal life." 

Do you read Ted Casablanca?  He talks about this guy Toothy Tile.
Yeah, I’ve heard of that.

Is that Jake Gyllenhaal?
I don't know, I don't read Ted. I hate Blind Items. I'll do them on my website but I'll make it so ridiculously clear who it is.  I do blind items when I don't want to get sued.

You've been involved in a few situations thus far that involve you being threatened with legal action. Which thus far intimidated you the most?
I've been sued twice.  The bigger case was the Colin Farrell case--the NY Post thing, even though they did sue me, they filed in federal court and I was served with papers, because my website used to be called Page Six Six Six and it all went through but they were just asking me to change the name, so I agreed, and I the end it worked out in my favor because it kind of forced me to become my own brand. Instead of being 'that dude from that website," I'm Perez, from Perezehilton.com.

The other lawsuit was from Colin Farrell, because I put up a link to another site that was hosting his sex tape and streaming it, and I put up pictures of his sex tape after they had already been on other websites, but it was dropped, though, thankfully.

You're probably not the only blogger who's gotten in trouble for using paparazzi pix. Why are you getting singled out?
I don't care. I love being singled out.  I might be more singled out but I'm not complaining about it. It's great. Single me out all you want-- it's just driving more awareness, more traffic to me. I'm not worried or afraid of anything. Nothing scares me except...I'm trying to think, what scares me?  Losing readers scares me, but that hasn't happened. I monitor my traffic obsessively. I monitor the traffic of a bunch of other websites, too. Whereas other websites have plateaued, and or increased really incrementally, my traffic every week continues to grow by leaps and bounds.  That's my one fear, that it'll stop happening, or that it'll stop decreasing. But other than that, I don't care about anything.

\What advice do you have for other bloggers on how to most efficiently/effectively use images without getting in trouble for doing so?
I don't know if I’m the person you should ask for that kind of advice.  I take precautions in everything I do.  I don't think it's all that clear on the internet. There aren't really laws yet.  It's all really nebulous at the moment and I think all parties--bloggers and the 'photographers' have valid arguments. 

Re: publicists and PR and plugging, you must have people all the time asking you to endorse their particular album or party, etc. Do you have a personal policy on what to plug on the site and what not?
If I get free clothes and I like them and I wear them, then of course I'll mention that, and I do that all the time at the bottom of the post, I'll say "Perez's outfit courtesy of whoever."  I don't ever give favorable coverage just because someone's my friend. If anything, if someone's my friend and they're throwing a shitty event, I just won't write about it.  There's no point in writing "That was the worst party ever," who cares. If it's someone or something I don't like, I say "See that little button over there: it says "Click here to advertise."

Do you ever get exhausted covering celebrities?  It seems like the industry is just about not falling off the treadmill, making sure you get caught collapsing at a nightclub or adopting a baby or going to a premiere, etc.  What do you wish you were doing instead when you get celebrity overload?
Unh unh. I get tired, but I never get tired of what I do. I love doing what I do.  Sometimes I get tired of not sleeping enough, but that's fine.  Every week is different, every day is different. No one day is like the other. Every week will have their own big stories and they're never the same stories. There are obviously days where you talk about the same people but I personally post so much that there will be days where I'll think "Oh look, there’s that person, I haven't written about them in months, how great to see them again." 

After September 11, it seemed like there was a lull in gossip. Do you think we are the same, more or less than we were on Sept. 10th, 2001?
I think it's the same as it was 50 years ago. We've always been fascinated by celebrities.  I think it's become more mainstream, but the interest has always been there. It's become more monetized--there are more media outlets that are catering to that interest that's always been there. People have wised up and realized that they can profit from this inherent desire to profit not just from celebrities but from the rich and pretty people. It's like back to high school--you always want to know about the pretty cheerleader, or the rich kid.  Things change but they kind of stay the same.

So speaking of which, which do you think celebrity followers love to get their panties in a twist about more, celebrities who are too fat or celebs who are too thin?
Uhm...both.  There's no middle ground. Although I try to praise the middle ground--I always mention that Salma Hayek is the most beautiful--and she is. She's gorgeous. She's got curves, she's got boobs and she looks normal and healthy. And I'll praise Jessica Biel for having a booty and working out and being healthy.  The thing with the website is that I have fun with it and I try to applaud the people that I like who I think are doing it right.

I just think it's fascinating how followers get so swept up in how thin celebrities can get, like with your readers imploring Nicole Richie to eat via your comments section.
People think they know these people, especially the ones that are famous just for being themselves, so they feel like they're friends.  They're talking to them like they're talking to their friends.

It seems like all bloggers secretly have some other 'better' plan in mind, like writing a book or being a 'real' journalist or what have you. What's in the works for you for the future?
I'm writing a book. 

What's it about?
I don't know yet. I've been meeting with publishers and fleshing out ideas and all the ones I want to do are not necessarily the ones they want to do and vice versa. There is one publisher I'm really talking with but I'm just trying to find a middle ground, because the last thing I want to do is write a book that I'm not interested in writing or that I think is going to compromise my brand.   I don't want to write some bullshit Nicole Richie book that's clearly fake and not written by her. 

I want it to be a bunch of different things. I actually have a few different concepts for a few different books that I want to do. They're kind of pricey to produce, so that's the big concern. I'm just waiting and not in a hurry to do a book. And then in a year or less, after my show's already on the air, then these same people will come back to me and say "Let's go ahead and do the book that you talked about," because then my brand will be worth more to them. I think there will be an audience for one of them.

Maybe you should write a book for bloggers.
[politely] That could be interesting. But that's the kind of thing I'd be interested in doing with a co-writer; I don't really care enough to do myself.

But that is interesting, because I really do take my brand seriously and everything I do is brand-conscious and motivated. 

Can you come up with a mean nickname for me, along the lines of Asslee Simpson or Jennifer Maniston or Sluttienna Miller? What would you call Claire Zulkey if you hated her?
Felchy.

Thank you. That's exciting.

[titter]

How does it feel to be the 159th person interviewed for Zulkey.com?
Cheated.  I wanted be 169.  No, just kidding.  Um, hmm, how does it feel?

You can go with 'cheated.'
No, I don't really feel cheated, I was just being silly. It's OK. Does the number have an attachment to it?

I like your original answer.
OK, you can stay with that, then.

More interviews here for your enjoyment.