Pajiba

Well done. Very well done. I am baffled myself at the rise of "The Queens" popularity. I guess he may just wrap everything that America loves about trainwrecked celebrities, vulgarity and absolute brainless stupidity in a little blog or TV "show". It makes me sick though because I cannot see his cultural worth and why people gave and continue to give him attention...but I guess, see above.

You know, for 24 yrs out of my 25 yr existence on this planet I never had cable, ever. All I did was read. My parents said TV was stupid and mostly pointless....well, I guess this proves them right.

I was shocked when I recently discovered the frontwoman of one of my favorite bands, The Gossip, was all cute n' cozy with the little bastard.

Minus 500 punk rock points from Beth Ditto.

For shame.

"People" like PH interpret hate as envy. Desperation has a way of skewing reality.

As for the masses that flock to his site, I can only assume these are the same folks that cause back-ups rubbernecking to see someone get a traffic ticket. The 'celebrities' that accomodate him are doing only what they know best - look where the camera is pointing and get in front of it.

Who's the child molester in that photo? Creepy!

It's just so... depressing. I think I'll go curl up in a ball in the corner and contemplate the hoplessness of our society. At least (thanks to places like this site) I know that everyone isn't vacant and depressingly stupid.

Nooooooo, not The Gossip! Say it isn't so!

In last week's EW, there was a piece on Dave Grohl, and they mention Mr. The Queen's site during his usual websurfing. Ick, Dave. Ick.

ACK! GAH! Please, someone, anyone, remove that oozing pustulence from our world. That huge venereal wart on the nether regions of the Princess of the Putrid must be lanced. PH is the cyberworld face of gay Hispanics? We must have already descended into at least the fourth ring of Hell.

Sweet Jesus, that last paragraph was probably one of the most enjoyable things I've ever read on this site. I've been telling people the same thing about "celebrities" like Dane Cook, Paris, Perez, and Mencia for years. Thank you, thank you so very much for spreading the word of their terrorists tactics to the rest of the world.

Sometimes I am so glad to still have dial-up.

Seriously...that's a pedo-smile if I've ever seen one.

My girlfriend has been a Perez Hilton follower for longer than I care to admit (she works in radio so I've treated it as an occupational hazard). Thus, the name has been familiar to me for too long already. However, I had never been exposed directly to his "style" until Britney's VMA meltdown -- I happened to be peering over her shoulder when she cruised Perez's website shortly after the VMAs, and later I happened into the room while she was watching Perez's VH1 show.

What...the...fuck.

I had begun to have the impression (from afar) that there must be some merit to this ribald little fellow based on all the attention he's been getting. Boy, was I wrong. The man(?) is a cretin...corpulent vermin...a caterwauling kiss-ass of colossal creepiness. Perez makes Matt Drudge look like a Rhodes scholar of the blogosphere.

I just don't get it. How low does one have to reach for a common denominator these days? Yeesh.

And I'll throw "vulglorious" onto the idiocratic heap in honor of said Mr. Lavandeira.

No way in hell does he use Adobe Photoshop. That's gotta be the work of that included-with-Windows version of Microsoft Paint.

P.S. I was peering over my girlfriend's shoulder -- not Britney's (as some might get the mistaken impression based on my sloppy use of pronouns).

I remember reading that brilliant diatribe against the thing known as Perez Hilton, which means I've been addicted to this site for one and a half years.

I think that's cause for a celebration! *hic*

Before I discovered the world of celebrity blogs, his was the only name I had heard of so I clicked on his site. His writing isn't clever and the idiot "drawings" that he puts over the photos is stupid. Pink is the New Blog does that too and I hate it. So now, I stick to Best Week Ever, Evil Beet and Socialite's Life with a sprinkling of The Superficial.

What killed me about the obvious death of taste was after Victoria Beckham's terrible reality tv show aired. I'm ashamed that I watched it but it was more for the possibility of seeing her hot hot husband. The part with Perez was so staged and ridiculous, I wanted to turn it (but hoped for more David). So after the show, I went to Television Without Pity hoping to read and contribute to some awesome sarcasm. Alas, to my shock, people loved her. They thought she was funny and kept using the word "major." I was so disappointed. I couldn't see how they could have thought that was good. Alas, society is collapsing.

Every blogger out there, including the Pajibans, would DIE to become as famous as Perez. That's not saying much, but it's true. Tell me that if VH1 approached Dustin to be on one of their "best week ever" shows, he'd decline? I think not. Why? Because all bloggers are attention whores--that's why they write in the first place. They desperately need to feel like their opinion matters.

Truthfully, we all do. Every human is self important, we all just choose to explore/exploit this in different ways.

I like Pajiba, I like Perez, I like dlisted, and I like fourfour (the list goes on). Sure, some are more intellectually stimulating than others, but they all serve as nothing more than a passing distraction from the real world. Time to get off of our moral high horse, ok?

And let's not for one second pretend that if any of those other bloggers had the chance to "sell-out" for their 15 minutes of fame and a paltry fortune that they wouldn't--because they would. The real problem is that no one wants to buy it.

here here!

Well said...that guy is a douchebag!

I've been sitting here trying to formulate some sort of coherent comment about Perez Hilton/Hollywood/something, but I keep coming out with drivel and make no sense to myself.

There really just isn't anything intelligent to say. When Perez Hilton actually generates something worth any amount of time, I'll come back with something... for now, I'll just be happy not to give a shit about any of it.

I really enjoyed your piece though.

Great writing, Dustin, very entertaining.

I just realized that I know very little about Perez Hilton, a fact that just made my day.

Snore.

I looked at his site once or twice on the recommendation of a friend (obviously not a very wise one). The man is a mongoloid. I immediately stopped looking at his site after visiting and finding the picture of Clay Aiken with the white Microsoft Paint dribble down his chin. What an imbecile.

Into the fray:

I have to respectfully take m.k. to task for his/her (doesn't really matter but now I'm geeked out on pronouns) thesis that "all bloggers are attention whores" which carries with it the implication that all bloggers are therefore equivalent. While the statement may have some degree of truth on its face, the nature of the attention drawn and the manner in which it is courted DOES matter and is open to its own criticism. To equate Pajiba with Perez because Dustin might -- and it matters not a whit if he would or wouldn't -- take a call from the VH1 people is to discount the very nature of civil discourse.

I couldn't care less if someone likes Mario/Perez and wants to feed his sophomoric (sorry to insult you sophomores out there) predilections. We all have our guilty pleasures, and while PH isn't my cup of tea I'm sure I have amusements of my own that could serve as lightning rods for critical attack if I chose to broadcast them. So be it. I just think m.k.'s argument was overbroad in its scope. The most important distinction between Mario and Dustin that needs to be observed here is the sense of shame that is clearly non-existent in the former...

I read Perez when he first started out, and I thought he was hilarious. But then he actually started to meet all the people he wrote about, and the drawing on stolen pictures began. Pretty soon it was all ejaculation jokes and public outing of people's private business (like Neil Patrick Harris). There is a cruelty and desperation about his site that I don't see elsewhere. Thats why I stick with Pajiba. Thanks for fighting the good fight.

Every blogger out there, including the Pajibans, would DIE to become as famous as Perez. * * * Sure, some are more intellectually stimulating than others, but they all serve as nothing more than a passing distraction from the real world. Time to get off of our moral high horse, ok?

But m.k., isn't that something like saying both Tolstoy and Judith Collins wanted commercial success, so they're equivalent even though one is of demonstrably superior artistic and intellectual quality? (Sorry, Leo, Judith is just better than you.) Of course Pajiba and its bloggers want to be successful and would gladly accept fame and popularity for their work.

Unless you're going to completely abandon morally and relatively valuing intellectual content, then this is a moral high horse worth riding. I'm not surprised or aggrieved that Perez exists or has a forum. Who cares? He's not the issue, any more than the pro-Britney dipshit on Myspace. But when PH becomes a leading indicator of what people consider worthwhile or important, e.g., by moving from his blog to television and being able to demand more and more access to artists who are actually worthwhile, that's pretty telling about our culture.

he may just wrap everything that America loves about trainwrecked celebrities, vulgarity and absolute brainless stupidity in a little blog or TV "show".

This, as they say, is hitting the nail on the head. He is popular only because he is popular and on that score owes everything to someone else who is even more inexplicably popular, namesake Paris Hilton. It's the same phenomenon, famous for being famous after a right place/right time mishap.

I, for one, will never dismount my moral high horse. I hope Dustin doesn't either. Sure, all of us like to feel as though our opinion matters. And it ultimately does, to someone. But I don't think that common feeling automatically degenerates into the drooling need to be in any way similar to whatever monster Perez is/has become. Not for everyone, anyway.

Perez looks like a retarded, ecstasy-loving, fat club-hopping younger brother of Mr.Belvedere.

M.K. - Of course all bloggers would love their 15 minutes of fame, but I doubt that any would befriend Paris Hilton and her herpes to do so.

P.S. The world IS going to hell - Wild Hogs has been sold out at my local blockbuster for 2 weeks now.

Plenty of smart people can enjoy Perez Hilton in the same way that Pajiba (can't remember which reviewer) enjoys Final Destination. I know it's stupid. It's entertaining in it's epic stupidity.

Perez has an entire show of his own? Yikes. It's bad enough when he makes guest appearances on Muchmusic.

ButtFuckers still gets me everytime. But it has to make me laugh or else I'll start crying, because it's so true that our culture is in a rapid downward spiral. Having a time frame to realize how long I've been coming to this site made me think of why I am still here. It's because both the writing and the comments are a beacon of hope in an otherwise bleak world of mindlessness.

And I take issue with anyone who justifies their own dumbing down by calling it harmless fun. Crack feels pretty good too, why don't you go out and numb your brain with that? Come on, who are you really hurting by smoking that rock?

Well. I never knew (until this very minute, reading this post) who Perez Hilton is. Whenever I read his name on this site, I always assumed you were talking about Paris, but spelling her name in a funny way, for comedic effect that was lost on me.

Now I get it. Sort of. Huh. I guess I'll stick to my not knowing who he is.

I loved reading this article then seeing a video on TMZ's site featuring Heidi from the Hills lipsyncing her new single at a party with Perez in the background.

Where did my pills go?

If you must look at a celebrity gossip blog, I suggest wwtdd.com (what would Tyler Durden do?). Clever captions without any crappy drawings.

This is exactly why we need to let Michael K from Dlisted become the new internet gossip messiah. He isn't a gushing fan so his insults bear real weight and he makes fun of himself in a kind of charming/hilarious way.

Celebrities that willingly go to perez for publicity aren't award-winning or very much respected (lilo, paris, the duffs, and the list goes on), so what is the big deal? they know that perez will plug their awful projects, complement them and sometimes not publish any unflattering stories. It's a win-win for both sides. So mandy moore did an episode of scrubs, she has minimal talent and hasn't found success in her music. Need i remind anyone that this is also the chick that dated wilmer valderama and dj am (lohan's and nicole ritchie's former boyfriends). So she isn't as transparent as the rest of the hollywood trash out there and is able to maintain a squeak-clean image, even hilary duff has been rumored to do hard drugs.
I don't think the popularity of perez's site says much about our culture either way. Sure, his gets mentioned the most on the media, so people check it out. since he doesn't link to other blogs, people don't know that there is much wittier stuff out there (dlisted is my fave). and you can't hate on people that like to read perez - i used to read it and hate myself for it, but i also hate myself for still reading idlyitw. That site gets major props from pajiba all the time, but it is borderline racist, offensively mean, and has some of the most hate-filled commentors on it. Face it, all blogs are just entertainment to distract us from real life or work.

The TV show COPS or Girls Gone Wild DVDs always do that to me - makes me wonder if a society so collectively mean and tacky even deserves to go on. And then I remember that I once heard back in my student days that bear baiting was way more popular than Shakespeare in its time. So, I sigh, click away and go back to my Friday Night Lights DVD.

I read him briefly ages ago but stopped when I realized that he was trying to Out gay celebs. SO not his place.

Also, I couldn't really listen to someone bag on anyone and everyone...who looks like Harry from Harry and the Hendersons. Now he looks like the offspring of Harry and an Oompa Loompa. Ick.

As a guy that served two deployments in the navy, one for Afganland and the other for Iraq, I find myself more alienated by our culture since I've gotten out of the military. I'm not saying I want women wearing head to toe burkas, but seriously, I understand why a traditional area like the middle east looks at our culture in disgust. Maybe I'm just old but I really can't fathom how half the "celebrities" in this country are considered that honor. Its like I came back to a new world.

"the only real capitol that Perez has" --> capital

I've been to his site once, and it shall stay that way. When I looked through it I never imagined he would become as popular as he is, but I suppose I had a bit too much faith in society.

Arrested Development gets cancelled, but this blob gets put on TV. Well at least the world ends in 2010.

pajiba : perez hilton :: whole foods : garbage can

Not all bloggers are created equal.

^2012 (or 2011, depending on which Mayan scholar you ask)

Not that this isn't a worthy piece of writing--especially the part about cultural terrorism--but as you said in the last rant, I believe, we're giving him what he wants just by acknowledging his existence. And here we are again. What gives?

His popularity confirms a theory I developed as a child watching other children putting Elmer's glue on everything. People just can't get enough of the site of jizz.

Wait, America has a culture?

Seriously, I thought hard about this, having visited the US twice (and loved it), and it took me a while to remember the parts of America that were not defined by franchise-rape and over-exposure.

This is not an insult, the south is awesome (but weird), New York pumps, the college towns are full-on and I loved the rockies, but when I think of the US, I don't remember any of these things. I think of fast food, bad pop music and excess, because that is the output.

It is unfortunate, because I know America (and Americans, generally) to be pretty cool.

I'm an aussie, BTW.

I will give him credit. He knows how to promote himself. it's too bad he doesn't have the charm of Supey Sales to back it up.

He's a fad, like a new shade of bubble gum. Mostly owing all credit to Britt-nay.

I am a young (23) intelligent (IQ 130) woman... and I love Perez Hilton.
There is no defense or justification there, just my declaration.
(sorry - i love you guys, too... and especially enjoy your sister-blog Quizlaw)

Wait, America has a culture?

I've had many conversations with various Europeans about this topic. Yes, we do have a culture, but it is young and tenuous, and having been melded together from different ethnic backgrounds it can be hard to define. It would be a whole other topic of conversation. But, the rest of the post from Peter G. shows exactly what the problem is. The gaps in our culture, that exist due to the nature of our country's history and keep us from forming one cohesive identity, are rapidly being filled in by corporate interests, and the like, leaving us in our current state. Trying to answer why we were so willing to let this happen would be yet another discussion, and one I would be interested in because I'm baffled by it too.

You know, hating people who are more famous than you is really cool and all, but maybe you could stop being such a stupid loser jerkoff and do something with your life. It says a lot about you that you're so wrapped up in this bullshit that you actually write about Perez. I have never visited his site, and only visit yours when I want to fall asleep and have homoerotic dreams, but apparently he is a huge thing for you.
Maybe you should learn guitar, or read a book, or volunteer somewhere. I'm pretty sure anything you do other than this would be more fulfilling.
Thanks.
PS: I personally feel like a lesser person having wasted my time writing this, so I guess I should go do something useful with myself. It may not make me as much money as you do with this great deal you have going on but at least I have some self respect. Plus, I'm not a huge fag, so I've got you beat there too!

Serge,
You know, hating people who have a different sexual orientation than you is really cool and all, but maybe you could stop being such a stupid loser jerkoff and do something with your life.
Any person with a shred of self-respect would not call another person a fag, so no, you have no one beat.

Stew,
except for you, nigger.
Oh, though I was making fun of him I didn't realize he was actually gay. Sorry. I guess that makes it inappropriate.
So, I guess I must edit:
"Plus, I'm not a huge nigger, so I've got you beat there too!"
I hope you're pleased~! (and not black, or this post would be inappropriate too)

I just realized that I know very little about Perez Hilton, a fact that just made my day.
Ditto that! I had no idea who that picture was until I read the title.

I have never visited his site
Of course you haven't.

Serge:

How wrong you are. There are few things more fulfilling than coming to this site and reminding oneself how much better they are than most other people. Especially you.

But I'm sure you feel real superior to everyone who frequents this site, and for candidly letting them all know too! Aren't you righteous! Actually, you're transparent as all hell buddy. Nobody buys sanctimony. If you don't like cultural criticism then don't go to a site explicitly dedicated to it.

I have a suggestion for you too (and it's not to play the guitar or volunteer, you tool): keep your worthless trap shut; nobody's listening.

Uh, Serge:
The whole checking to see how people have responded to your comment and then IMMEDIATELY shit-talking back (meaning you're, what? Sitting there for hours constantly rechecking the comment board after you post?) It kinda undercuts your whole "people on this site are pathetically wasting their time" argument, don't you think? Moron.

"My beef today is with an American culture that has allowed this man to become any kind of a dominant force"

I've read everything that came before this sentence just waiting for it. That was pretty accurate. But then you went on and bested me: "Perez Hilton is a cultural terrorist, and he lives right here in America".

I don't even live in the US, but this is exactly what happens in your country: cultural terrorism. The destruction of values, cultural and social, based on pure stupidity being sold and bought as culture.

You americans (and I mean all of you, not just the "YOU" on the cover of Time) are allowing this to yourselves, you're voting on this and you're living on this on a daily basis, mostly without ever acknowledging it. People can't say an ordinary, widespread word like "shit" on TV, cause they'll be muted and blacked out for being oh-too-offensive to "the typical American family" - when that doesn't even exist anymore, if it ever existed. But something like Perez Hilton is allowed at all homes and minds as "entertainment" - possibly, as "harmless entertainment". I won't go on enumerating the reasons why it isn't, Dustin pretty much said it all. I'll just say you are fomenting a society sickly based on eternal and self-important consumerism, and forgetting what's really important on a daily basis. For Christ's sake, I'm not talking religion here.

TV is important. It's one of the most significant inventions of mankind. But you can run a wheel over people, and you can also hammer someone in the head. You can use TV to promote unimportant people, factoids and general stupidity. We all know there's an infinite supply for that, given we're six billion fallible humans.

Now you add the last two paragraphs together. You guys are just leaving education behind - all kinds of education - in the name of "free" speech (as long as nobody's offended in any possible way), "free" commerce (as long as you have to have an iPhone and dump it as soon a new model comes up) and badly disguised other "free" stuff. You want freedom being forced down your throats so much, you'll have to live with Perez Hilton.

If you want decency and a much improved common sense, you'll have to learn your dos and dont'ts better. For that, money has to go down the list and more abstract values must go up a little. As long as common people go on insisting someone is "a winner" based on their money-making abilities, women seduction expertise and on the amount of beer they can snort while still standing on their feet, Perez Hilton is what you're gonna have.

This has no intention of being some sort of preaching or a libel of any kind. I won't say "my way is the good way". I'm saying yours is wrong. Promote formal education and civility and you'll find a right way, whatever way it comes up to be.

i despise perez hilton. enough said.

Jesus, he´s just a nasty selfish asshole who has found a way to make a buck by hating on people that he doesn´t like. In a country full of opinionated talking heads and best-selling "authors" like Bill O´Reilly, Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck, who basically do the same thing as Perez (albeit, in the more important political realm), why are you so surprised that he´s so popular? I´d rather read his childish (but basically harmless) blog rants for a year and look at his neanderthal pictures of scribbled cum spilling out of people´s mouths than ever have to endure one more sentence of dangerous crap that spills out of Ann Coulter´s mouth again. I´m in no way a supporter of the guy, but aren´t you just adding fuel to his fire of media overexposure by talking about him here too?

there's an old joke about us Canadians, that we could have had the best of all worlds: English culture, French cuisine and American technology. But somehow we managed to f**k it all up and instead ended up with: British cuisine, French technology and American culture.

which is one of the reasons I got out of there and moved to Europe.

what it really comes down to is the theory of the "lowest common denominator". the existence of Perez Hilton (and Fox News, and what has happened to MTV and SNL over the past 20 years) is simple economics- to make more money you pander to the widest audience, which is also the demographic that is at the bottom of the Bell curve in most of the categories used to gauge a society/culture (household income, education etc). what is sad is not that Perez Hilton (or Fox News) exists, but that the lowest common denominator seems to be 90% of the freaking population?! in America, and that it is so stupid and vacuous that it will buy just about anything sold to it.

what I don't get, is how does a generation that experimented with sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, protested wars, fought "the man","turned on, tuned in and dropped out", can grow up to elect a president like Bush because Fox News tells them to, and raises their kids to be the best consumers they can be. wtf?

I blame the 80's.

save yourselves while there's still time. get out now.

Dustin...

I think I might love you.

A wild guess, I'm sure, but I take it you won't be watching Taking a Shot with Tila Tequilla?

one of your best reviews yet. thank you!

Wow...Serge. I had no idea there were bigger assholes in the world than me. Sweet. I can take this fucking crown off now. Oh...and for the record. Fuck your mother.

"Indeed, given the man's oompah-loompa girth, a pig-in-shit metaphor could easily be mistaken as literal..."

"However, I've started to notice lately that Hilton has not only physically doubled in size, but that he's begun to appear with some frequency on television, which means he's once again fair game for us."

Dustin, I agree with you that Perez Hilton is utterly without redeeming value -- but could you please stop equating physical size with moral value? Perez is scum, no doubt, but that he is overweight does not make him scummier. To imply that it does, even (or especially) with the intent to make your diatribe funnier, is to make the kind of irrationally prejudiced statement that pro-feminist and progressive Pajiba ought to be above.

Wow, what controversy. I watched that show just because I wanted to see Britney made fun of. (God that was so awful) and I fast forwarded through almost all of it. (Poor Amy Winehouse...she is so talented but so messed up). What I saw on that show was nothing that I would want to watch ever again. And I have never been to his site so I will remain blissfully semi-ignorant of Perez Hilton. Nice article Dustin! This truly is my fave site!

Trash talking comments and vehement hatred of Perez aside I must say that katy's above description of American culture is simply superb. I've never been able to really describe how I see it before - my hat is off to you, lady.

I smell nothing but JEALOUSY in your rant. Stop being a 2nd place baby and keep writing movie reviews....that's what your here for!!!

As much as you may turn up your nose at the celebrity trash culture that exists in our country today, Pajiba, I blame you for my 6-month-and-still-going-strong addiction to the Celebitchy site, a link to which I found conveniently located right next to a movie review on Pajiba. Why did you do this to me? I almost wish my company would block the site so that I would be forced to quit. As it stands I visit it almost daily to read about the latest train wreck, who's going to rehab and what the celebutards wear to their court appearances. It's a compulsion and I hate myself for it, but it just feels so good to read about other peoples' problems, I suppose, especially when those "other people" happen to be rich and privileged.

Personally, I think we should have a discussion concerning the proper usage of "your" and "you're" because bad grammar just makes me angry.

"And it's true that we don't have to dial up his website, and we can turn the channel whenever he comes on. But you know what? We can't avoid the millions who read his site or watch his show..."

Thank you. This is the feeling I have whenever I join a conversation with my fellow cube-monkeys and denounce the drivel they're discussing. The argument is always "Well, you don't HAVE to watch it". Shows like Tyra, America's Next Top Model, The Real World, Extreme Home Makeover, etc. make me want to pack a dull machette in my brief case before leaving for the office.

If this post is a smidgen incoherent, it's because I am extremely sleep deprived (When your apartment neighbors keep on blasting music at all times of the day and night and have children you scream every hour on the hour, you start feeling like you're a part of Zimbardo's Prison Experiment). So, here it goes.

1. I used to visit Perez's site. I actually found some of his shtick amusing. Then, he met Paris Hilton, and he jumped the shark.

2. I fucking hate MTV, and that makes me sad. There was a time when MTV was anti-corporate and making a strong social statement. Oh, and back in the day, that station also played a thing called music videos. Also, I've never cared so little about American pop culture in all of my life. It's all degrading, ageist, prosaic bullshit.

3. The downfall of MTV and youth culture is inherently linked to the rise of Perez and all that ridiculous reality TV shit. Does my generation (Gen Y) even care about their brains or the future? Apparently, not! Which leads me to the tangent of "how I wish that I could be born in the late 40s so I could be apart of the counterculture movement" rant, and the "I really hate people my age" rant. Every generation is getting worse while exponentially increasing in their sense of entitlement.

4. Dustin, you just fucking rule. I wish more people had your eloquent writing style and critical thinking capabilities. Most people I talk to are just happy that they remembered to breath for the entire day. Coming here and reading your posts, along with the other gentlemen's and ladies' posts, is refreshing.

5. I really hope the "Middle American" mindset is just a precursor to some better mindset. People are buying into all of this bullshit while mindlessly giving up their rights. It's like some gov't official (aka Karl Rove and Dick Cheney) said, "Let's create the most vacuous pop culture ever to distract people from what's really important. Then, they'll never realize what rights they've lost along the way." I posit the it is pop culture that is the opium of the people.

6. Normally, I'm not a jaded, Marxist curmudgeon, but this post just made me a little depressed and overly annoyed with just about everything.

Sorry for the long, verbose rant, and I hope everyone has a great day!

*Fuck, it should be *who* not *you*.

Dustin's great writing is acerbic and erudite, which also could be its downfall: an entire (really long) blog dismissing another blogger seems a waste of his talents. Also, for those who say they flock to Pajiba and more intelligent sites, I wish you could hear how bloated with self importance your words are. I used to do that...frequently. I grew up with "Reality Bites" as some template. But great jumpin' jeebuz it doesn't get you anywhere but wallowing in some caustic mire.

I used to read his blog (gasp) semi religiously for about six months until I read a response from Alexa Ray Joel regarding a degrading caption that he put under her picture. Between that and his rampant hypocrisy (he campaigned for the firing of Isiah Washington for using a gay slur while rabidly supporting Paris Hilton who has used both gay and racist slurs repeatedly, and on camera). Plainly put, he's a starfucker and an insult to anyone with an english degree...or common sense

How low does one have to reach for a common denominator these days?
------------------
Shit, I do not even want to know the answer to that question.

You are my hero. Write on, live on, do your thing, man.

Amen, brother.

Keep saying...

-V.Clark

could you please stop equating physical size with moral value? Perez is scum, no doubt, but that he is overweight does not make him scummier. To imply that it does, even (or especially) with the intent to make your diatribe funnier, is to make the kind of irrationally prejudiced statement that pro-feminist and progressive Pajiba ought to be above.

Bwuh. Heqit, Perez, like me, is overweight (to different degrees, thankfully) because of some variant on the following: He likes booze and Krispy Kremes and isn't wild about exercise. (Those are my reasons.) For 99% of people, overweight is an absolute choice. They have the right to be so, and everyone else has the right to comment on an entirely voluntary state of being. A nice person who's overweight probably shouldn't be teased. A hateful jagoff who's roughly the size of the Hindenburg should be driven into the sea with Shamu jokes. And hopefully he can't swim. Like Shamu.

I'm 20 pounds overweight. I like gin, scotch, vodka, beer, wine, moonshine, and absynthe. I don't miss any meals, pal. I loves me some Krispy Kremes, which are verboten according to that fucking quack with the colonoscopy obsession who sees me every month. Should you happen to catch me jogging in some Sasquatch-rarity-level sighting -- and it does happen -- it will be out of guilt, trailing two large goldens who are actually doing most of the work. Feel free to yell, "Shake it, baby, don't break . . . the world." So bring the pain. I've more than earned it. And so has Perez and his huge, fat, oompah-loompah ass.

I stopped going to Perez's infantile website over a year ago and moved on to bigger and better ones like D-Listed and others that are actually funny and not fucking stupid like his. His dick-sucking of celebrities gets so flat out annoying, you might as well ignore his idiotic oompah-loompah ass. He is vile and, I also wholeheartedly agree, a cultural terrorist. I thank you guys for having this website that at least has proper writing. You guys don't make half as many grammatical errors as that dimbulb celebutard ass-kisser does.

I really love you Pajiba.

Okay, did you have to throw religion in there? Are you basically saying that all Perez Hilton viewers are mindless religious drones? I am a smart, pretty, teenager who loves the readings of Perez Hilton. It is mainly fluff for me. Plus, I am the least religious person out there. I am against the war in Iraq and I don't believe all the bullshit that is out there being stirred up by our political leaders. So don't try to undermind the viewers of Perezhilton.com. The real deprecration of American Culture and all the culture in the world is RELIGION. It tells people to think what is wrong and what is not! So Perezhilton.com says mean stuff? Who says he can't? Are we going to start Moral Policing in the internet too??? Here is a couple of hints for you: 1) Stop blogging about a blogger. He made it for himself, through various questionable means, but that is his choice since it is his life and he gets to do whatever the hell he wants too. 2) Don't pass judgement and try to persuade your viewers to think what you want them to think because even Perez Hilton has people who will challenge him on his moral ethics. 3) Using Perezhilton.com gossip is a conversation starter after you are bored at Starbucks with friends. Oh yes, I do love that corporate giant too. Kill me now! God, JUST LIVE YOUR LIFE! WE HAVE AT LEAST 80 YEARS PLUS AND YOU ARE JUST GOING TO WASTE IT BLOGGING AND HATING!? That seems ridiculous to me. I feel like I wasted my life right now talking about it. So don't hate on perezhilton.com readers. We just like entertainment.. Why don't you get off your moral blah blah blah'ing because you don't know the perezhilton.com readers! I could put up a blog on YOUR BLOG and describe your readers as the people who are white and have dreadlocks, who scream at people who have fur, and who are vegans who drench themselves in milk cartons protesting Dean's milk! GET A LIFE! Thanks! :)

I'm a 25 year old university graduate (I graduated top of my class, by the way). I currently work for a Member of Parliament. And I read Perez Hilton.

I completely agree that the man is a cretin, and the way he panders to certain celebrities is quite stomach-turning. However, my guilty pleasure is celebrity gossip (it breaks up all the politics) and I read Perez because he regularly updates his page.

My point is - and I think someone else has already made it - fair enough if you want to have a hack at Perez, but please don't make sweeping generalisations about his readers' intelligence. That just smacks of elitism.

Though this is well written and I fully agree with Dustin's assessment of the man Perez, I have issues with the knee-jerk "lowest common denominator" assessment of all Perez readers. I have a hard time agreeing with gross generalizations, and I don't truly believe that every single person who reads Perez operates at amoeboid level.

Additionally, certainly not all bloggers are created equal, but in the realm of gossip blogging, all bloggers are dealing equally with very base material in the first place. Do I really get to keep my intelli-cred more easily if I read someone who is considered to be among the superior gossip bloggers? It's still celebrity gossip, and at the end of the day you'll have a hard time convincing me that it was that much better for my brain to read IDLYITW than Perez.

Aw socalled I started agreeing with your post before I even realised it was you. You share the same reasons I have for not being a size 4 any more - life's too damned short and gin and beer are just too damned good.

Also: I now walk past a Krispy Kreme cart on my way to work every morning. Mmmmmm sweet, artery clogging, weight gaining goodness.

Anyone complaining about elitism has obviously missed the point. It's what we feed on here at Pajiba, it makes us strong and healthy. Well, that's what it does for me at any rate. I can't speak for the rest of the readership but I like a hearty dose of superiority to go with my morning coffee.

Also: if you like PH so what? You don't need to justify yourself by citing physical attractiveness, intelligence and opinions about Iraq to make your point. Own your shameful and truly misguided love. And yes, Andrea you could put up a blog trashing Pajiba - and it's your right to do so - that's what makes free speach so great.

where he could continue to pollute the minds of adolescents and those 18-32 year olds smart enough to be able to type his url into a browser, but not quite smart enough to know not to
Don't really need to be that samrt - just need to click on it once and bookmark it

and they have also made it possible for Ryan Seacrest to challenge Jesus Christ himself as the most popular figure in America (J.C. ought to consider some highlights if he wants to compete).
Always good to see endorements for Buddy Christ

"judging by the 200 million plus page views he gets a month"

Hilton's page hit numbers are desperatly inflated.

I'm not worried about Hilton as some sort of fuzzy pink death knell for blog or youth culture. He's a fad persona. He has nowhere to go but DOWN.

socalled, Alex the Odd:

Body weight -- high, low, or in-between -- is NOT a choice for 99% of people. Every person has an individual range of weights that they gravitate (pun intended) to, and it is damn near impossible for anyone to maintain a weight higher or lower than their natural range. That's why 96% of dieters lost weight initially but have gained it back (plus a little more because dieting alters your metabolism and makes your body think you're starving) within 5 years. It's also why naturally thin people can't gain weight and keep it on without eating approximately 10,000 calories per day. If you don't believe me -- and it doesn't seem like you'd be inclined to -- read Gina Kolata's Rethinking Thin.

And even if body weight were a choice, which it's not, it still wouldn't be a moral or ethical issue. Your example, socalled, was of the "hateful jagoff who's roughly the size of the Hindenburg" who should be hounded into the sea. Go ahead an hound him into the sea if you really think you should -- but because he's a hateful jagoff, not because he's fat. Don't make fat a proxy for what you really object to about people, because that scorn gets lumped into the whole stereotype of fat people as worthless and does more harm to people who don't deserve it.

Perez is stupid, crude, and vulgar; if you hate that, hate him because of that. Don't pretend, imply, or otherwise say that his (or anyone's) fat makes him worse, or that his stupidity, crudeness, and vulgarity would be more tolerable if he were thinner.

"Bodyweight" may not be a choice in 99% of people (unless you get into the realms of serious eating disorders) but "obesity" for the most part is - well ok roughly 94% of people if we're being nitpicky. From what I've read the dieters in the book put the weight back on due to hunger taking over, although I may be wrong about this. If I am please do correct me. Essentially morbid obesity is an unhealthy state for the body to be in and unless there is a genetic component (when I studied it it was roughly 6% of the time but research may have changed that figure somewhat in the last few years) then if eating habits and lifestyle factors change then weight is much more likely to stay off, of course this can't account for people continuing to live the lifestyle that caused them to become obese in the first place. The release of lectin, causing the body to believe that it is in a fast state can be overcome by not eating a ludicrously reduced amount of food all of a sudden. I'm not arguing that diets work (the majority of fad diets are, after all, complete bullshit fabricated to sell books) but basic lifestyle changes do have an effect.

This isn't a case of "believing you" or not and frankly my inclination to change my opinion based on the evidence you present isn't really something you can gague from my single post on the topic.

Alex the Odd:

I'm glad that you qualified your post by saying that you personally enjoy the elitism over here at Pajiba. I personally find it a little nauseating, but I also have no problem coming back time and time again. Enjoying said elitism has nothing to do with why I visit here; I do so because I enjoy the well-written articles and movie reviews that pop up here. I've found that I agree with most of the reviews, so Pajiba is a good gauge for me to decide whether or not I'll shell out for a movie.

That's why I don't feel like I've "missed the point." I feel like it's possible to write a convincing article about the banalities of Perez Hilton without simultaneously attacking his readership. That's kind of ad hominem to me and it detracts from an otherwise strong article.

I anticipate that any response to this post (maybe not from you, but from others) will likely be along the lines of "If you don't like it, you don't have to visit." Just to clarify - that won't work for me. I'll take the obnoxious elitism here and there if I can catch some thoughtful reviews and articles. But I also have no problem calling out the reviewer when I honestly believe that the elitism does not help the cause, and this is one of those times. I feel that you'll have an awfully hard time convincing a Perez reader that there are better things out there if first you've called him stupid. People don't react well to that and will be less likely to hear the rest of what you have to say.

I've never noticed the elitism on this site, which probably says something about me. To me it's always seemed like people who were actually using their brains, instead of droning about mindlessly like the lot of society. Call that elitism if you want, but that's like being called unpatriotic for pointing out simple facts.

I don't think that following PH automatically makes someone one of the drones. We all have our ways of escapism, but I think that the overwhelming popularity of his site can only be explained by the majority of his readership being those who prefer to turn off their brains more often than not. I mean, come on, people actually want to come back to the celebrity gossip site that pioneered semen drawings on the mouths of celebrities? I just don't know what to make of that.

And the obesity topic. Hoo boy! Have fun with that one.

The very fact that the usually intelligent discourse on Pajiba has been equated with elitism kind of drives home Dustin's point about the direction our culture is headed, doesn't it?

DOES ANYONE THINK PEREZ HILTON GIVES A SHIT THAT PEOPLE SAY THESE THINGS ABOUT HIM? I DON'T THINK HE DOES. IT'S LIKE A SHAKESPEAREAN ACTOR GETTING PISSED OFF AT ARNOLD SCHWARTZENEGGER FOR BEING MORE POPULAR...DON'T CRITICIZE PEREZ...CRITICIZE THE PEOPLE WHO PUT HIM WHERE HE IS...I GOT NOTHING AGAINST HIM...LIVE AND LET LIVE...

I hate the fact he gets popular by writting cruel and immature things about others. Besides the fact he has no good fashion choices. He needs to get a reality check and realize soon enough him and his website will be a "has been".

I read Perez when he first started out, and I thought he was hilarious. But then he actually started to meet all the people he wrote about, and the drawing on stolen pictures began. Pretty soon it was all ejaculation jokes and public outing of people's private business (like Neil Patrick Harris).

Here Here Swimgrrl - well said. IAWTC - i hate the way Perez outs people. People's sexuality should be their own business; people in showbiz stay in the closet because they know coming out will hurt their careers. Other than that Perez doesn't bother me. People shouldn't visit his blog simply for the fact that it's not very good anymore. By befriending celebs Perez can't really write gossip about them anymore; instead he fawns over them...it's embarrasing.

At one point there was actually gossip on it. Now there's stolen pictures (pix he does not pay for) with scribbles on them and very little comment. REMEMBER people everytime you visit his site, he gets money!

"...my biggest fear -- that everyone will simply fall into this huge sack of shit masquerading as entertainment because they decided to turn off their brain for a few minutes. What happens if they forget to turn it back on?"


It's already happening, baby.
It's already happening.

Why is it that people know more about the crap that Hilton talks about, than they do how our government is supposed to work?

Why is it that people even care more about stupid, unimportant shit like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears than they do about the likes of Blackwater and the destruction and privatization of the military?

Why is it that people don't pay attention to where their food comes from, but they read Perez Hilton every fucking day?

I know why:

It's because their brains are switched off, and they've forgotten to turn them back on.
Yeesh.

There's something depressing about the whole unraveling of comments on this blog. We all sound like we agree on the premise that American culture is going to hell in a hand basket, but all we can do is watch TV while we suck our thumbs, while corrupt politicians take over our country because they know that's all we want, mindless entertainment. It's a shite state of affairs...and sports, Perez Hilton, and Ipods will not change anything. We should be the change we want to see in the world and in ourselves.
You can call me cheezy for that last statement, but whatever....I don't care, it's just sad.

You do realize that by writing about him you're just fueling the fire, funneling traffic to his site and furthering his foothold in popular culture for that much longer, don't you?

dare we mistake entertainment reporting as the new intelligentsia?

btw, do you ask permission before photoshopping "pajiba" on copyrighted movie posters/ images?

talk about splitting cunt hairs...