Okay. I promise that this is the last time I’m going to post about Perez Hilton. But I’ve got to get this off my chest.
By now every single person on the planet knows that Michael Jackson died yesterday.
I got a lot of flack on fb for reporting that MJ had died, because my source was none other than TMZ, who reported it before any “respected news source” did. People don’t realize that when something celebrity-related happens, TMZ 99.99999% of the time is going to have the information- they’ll have it first, and they’ll be accurate. From their first report yesterday, it was clear to me that Michael Jackson was likely dead at his home, which is what is being reported today. Yes, it was very shocking, very. It still is. And who were dare be crazy or downright stupid enough to report that Michael Jackson, an international icon, had died, if he had not?
But this isn’t about TMZ, it’s about Perez Hilton. I’ll admit it, I am guilty of going to his site pretty much on a regular basis to get the “scoop” on what’s going down with the stars- truly mindless information and ultimately a waste of time, but yes, I’ve done it.
My participation in this fluff quickly came to a hault when, via twitter, Perez Hilton claimed to have been assaulted by Will.I.Am and other members of the Black Eyed Peas crew for not-so-favorable comments he has routinely made about the group, particularly its lead singer. It was during this altercation that Perez called Will a fucking faggot- something that made me gasp out loud when I saw the video- for obvious reasons.
From there we learned that it likely was not Will that punched Perez, but a road manager who turned himself into police. Yet Perez defended his use of the word and branded Will a “thug”, which really means a “Black” thug. When GLAAD demanded an apology he laughed at them and used his blog to repeatedly defend his use of word- he has since filed a lawsuit against the presumed guilty party. He has also issued a few more apologies, as I am sure someone close to him and many readers told him his high and mightiness wasn’t doing him any good, and to get his head out of his ass. Still, in these apologies, he pushed his “victimhood”. I didn’t like it at all. Plus I have a deep respect for Will. So my visists to Perez’s site saw an instant drop, and I found myself thinking of his behavior and his character every time I read its mindless garbage.
And then yesterday. The shocking death of Michael Jackson, which played out over the internet and every major television station and radio station on the planet. Perez Hilton took that time to call the obvious crisis, a “stunt”.
A stunt. I don’t know how he could genuinely say such a thing. Yes, there was confusion about the severity of the situation, which made 1 thing perfectly clear- it was a severe situation.
It took other media outlets upwards of an hour to confirm the unthinkable, and in the flury of it all, Perez’s post about Jackson quietly slipped off his sight. I’m sure he thought people didn’t notice it.
We noticed.
