Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr. (born March 23, 1978) is an American celebrity gossip blogger. Perezhilton.com (formerly PageSixSixSix.com), which he writes under the pseudonym Perez Hilton. Lavandeira was born in Miami, Florida to Cuban-American parents of Galician origin and now resides in Los Angeles, California.
Lavandeira's professional occupations before blogging included some acting work, a stint as a publicist, and writing for gay publications. He started blogging "because it seemed easy."
On March 11, 2005, within the first six months of Lavandeira's blogging career, PageSixSixSix.com was named "Hollywood's Most-Hated Website" by The Insider, catalyzing an initial surge in its popularity which temporarily crippled its server. Lavandeira claimed that on February 19, 2007, in the wake of Britney Spears publicly shaving her head and admitting herself into rehab, Perezhilton.com served over 4.75 million unique visitors in a 24 hour period.
It is thought that American pop singer Fergie refers to Lavandeira in the song "Pedestal" from her 2006 album The Dutchess in which she criticizes an unidentified person for making negative remarks about her on the internet. Although he is not named explicitly in the lyrics, Lavandeira has acknowledged that he believes this to be the case.
Lavandeira has garnered attention from lawyers representing celebrities. For example, he was named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by attorneys for Colin Farrell on July 18, 2005, after posting a link to Farrell's sex tape on his site. On February 20, 2007, Lavandeira was named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by Universal City Studios Productions LLP for posting a topless image of Jennifer Aniston that was allegedly "misappropriated and illegally copied" from unreleased footage from the 2006 motion picture The Break-Up.
Bloggers, journalists, news agencies and photographers alike have charged that Lavandeira posts paparazzi photographs and other copyrighted content from their sites. Lavandeira defends his use of this material by claiming it falls under the fair use exception to the Copyright Act. On November 30, 2006, celebrity photo agency X17Online filed a lawsuit against Lavandeira in federal court, seeking over US$7.5 million in damages for copyright infringement.] On March 9, 2007, a judge ruled that Lavandeira could continue operating his website while the lawsuit remains before the courts. On April 23, 2007, a consortium of five celebrity photo agencies filed a joint lawsuit in federal district court in California against Lavandeira, claiming more than US$7 million in damages from 25 instances of alleged copyright infringement.[15] Just days later, on April 26, 2007, upon arriving at the Kingsford Smith International Airport in Sydney, Australia to attend the MTV Australia Video Music Awards, Lavandeira was served with a lawsuit by celebrity photo agency PhotoNews claiming C$4,200 in damages for his alleged unauthorized use of a single copyrighted paparazzi photograph of John Mayer and Jessica Simpson.
On June 20, Variety reported that Hilton's web host had dropped his site, upon threats of liability in the cases outlined above. According to Variety, Hilton is running a bare-bones site with a different host. Francois Navarre, co-owner of X17, told Variety, "It's the first victory, and we put a lot of work into trying to get this to happen." He added, "It's a precedent that's huge. When we were talking to Crucial Paradigm they were saying they were not responsible, dragging their feet. We had to threaten them and show them they were liable. His new host is Blogads, and we're contacting them already."
On June 26, Lavandeira posted an open call on his blog to all of X17's photographers, both past and present, if they have not been adequately compensated for working overtime or pictures submitted in the past. This has led to speculation that he is planning to counter-sue the agency and possibly use a class-action suit by X17's photographers as leverage.
On his website Lavandeira posts gossip items about a variety of celebrities. His posts are usually delivered with an irreverent, tongue-in-cheek and sometimes even cruel slant. He often posts tabloid photographs over which he has added his own captions or "doodles."
Lavandeira's angle on celebrity gossip includes an unapologetic desire to mingle with and be a part of celebrity culture. As such he often describes celebrity awards shows, clubs, and private events he has attended, and posts photographs of himself with the celebrities he writes about under the "Personally Perez" category of his blog. Among others, he purports to have befriended Paris Hilton, the source of his nickname and frequent subject of his posts.Some have suggested, however, that Lavandeira's proximity to the celebrities about whom he writes has led to biased coverage on his blog. It has been noted, for example, that Lavandeira rarely reports on stories or rumors casting Hilton in a negative or unflattering light, and that, unlike most gossip blogs, he often acknowledges and praises her positive achievements.
Lavandeira has been known to speak out publicly against the discriminatory behavior of celebrities and other public figures. For instance, Lavandeira called for the firing of Isaiah Washington from ABC television series Grey's Anatomy for making homophobic remarks and called for his readers do the same. However, in early 2007, Lavandeira was criticized by many bloggers and posters on his site for ignoring racist and homophobic remarks made by Paris Hilton.
Lavandeira often promotes his favorite up-and-coming musicians by posting streams of their songs under the "Listen To This" category of his blog. For example, London-based singer Mika's 2007 rise to popular success in North America has been at least partially attributed to Lavandeira's support. Lavandeira and Mika also claim to be friends.
Lavandeira has come in for both praise and criticism for comments ranging from scepticism about to explicitly outing the sexual orientation of celebrities he covers.
On July 26, 2006, Lance Bass officially came out as gay, and Lavandeira received criticism for having been partially responsible. "It upsets me that people think what I'm doing is a bad thing," Lavandeira told Access Hollywood. "I don't think it's a bad thing. If you know something to be a fact, why not report it? Why is that still taboo?". On November 2, 2006, another celebrity often questioned by Lavandeira for remaining closeted, Neil Patrick Harris, revealed that he is gay.
Prominent members of the gay community who have criticized Lavandeira's outing tactics include Arts & Entertainment Editor of The Advocate Corey Scholibo, actor Bruce Vilanch, and Damon Romine, spokesperson for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
When questioned on Midweek Politics about whether reporting on celebrities' sexual orientation incites homophobia by making it news, Lavandeira indicated that he simply did not believe so.[34] He has said that coming out in Hollywood is not necessarily a bad thing, using Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell as examples: "I know there is some controversy about outing people, but I also believe the only way we're gonna have change is with visibility. And if I have to drag some people screaming out of the closet, then I will. I think that lots of celebrities have an archaic fear that being gay will hurt their career but look at Rosie. Look at Ellen."
Other celebrities whom Lavandeira frequently calls on to come out of the closet, despite the fact that many of them maintain they are heterosexual, include Anderson Cooper, Jodie Foster, Kevin Spacey, Clay Aiken, Queen Latifah, Ricky Martin, Matt Dallas, Wentworth Miller, Richard Simmons, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sean Hayes.
Hilton served as a judge for the Miss USA 2009 pageant in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 19, 2009. Perez criticized the remark of Miss California US Carrie for her anti-gay marriage remark. the answer “the worst answer in pageant history”. Later on his blog, he remarked "She lost not because she doesn’t believe in gay marriage, she lost because she’s a dumb bitch!"
Perez Hilton had previously remarked to ABC News; "She lost it because of that question. She was definitely the front-runner before that.
