Show Rundown: July 26, 2006
Perez Hilton Knows Good Gossip Brings Lawsuits
Perez Hilton Knows Good Gossip Brings Lawsuits
Howard had Perez Hilton, the founder of a gossip Web site, www.perezhilton.com, into the studio. Perez reported he started his site just for fun, but was now making six figures through advertising on it. Perez added he was sued twice because of his site, once by the New York Post because perezhilton.com was originally called page666.com, and the other time by Colin Farrell because he posted pictures from his sex tape on his site.
However, Perez admitted he was lucky in the latter case because Colin dropped his case against him before it went to court. Perez announced he was “good friends” with Paris Hilton, and Howard wondered if he treated her differently than other celebrities because of their relationship, which he acknowledged he had in the past. Perez went on to claim he was the one who came up with the name “Brangelina” for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, while also saying he was sent pictures of the couple’s baby as soon as it was born, but he took them off his site when he was threatened with a lawsuit.
Perez, who’s gay, told Howard he didn’t have a boyfriend because of his weight, but that he was most attracted to “really pretty boys” and mentioned the names of a few of the “boys” he felt were gay. When Perez reported he knew for sure one was gay, Howard wondered how he could “out” people without being sued.
However, Perez responded he never has announced someone was homosexual without confirming it from his sources, noting, while he pointed out Lance Bass of ‘Nsync was gay a while ago, Lance himself was just now making the news public. As Perez went on to talk about reports he’d heard about Kathy Griffin, Howard told him his stories were merely rumors, and he didn’t believe what he was reporting to be true. To illustrate his point, Howard informed Perez that yesterday there was a story in the New York Post that Carmen Electra and Jamie Foxx were dating, but Carmen’s publicist called into the show later in the morning to rebuke the report.
When a listener said he felt like Perez should take the role on each week’s edition of The Gossip Game from the National Enquirer’s Mike Walker, Perez claimed Mike lies in his publication. Perez then backed up his allegation by explaining, in order to publish a story, all tabloids have to do is get two people to corroborate it, even if they weren’t involved in it.
After talking about rumors he’d heard about Jennifer Aniston, Star Jones and Clay Aiken, Perez mentioned the story he liked the most on his site was the one involving Lance Bass because he was able to “outscoop” People on their own story. Perez also acknowledged publishing gossip on the internet was easier than doing so in newspapers since he could immediately take down any stories that might be libelous.