Perez meets Paris
West Hollywood - The internet is the great equalizer. In the past there were hurdles and gatekeepers for most people to have their words and photos published. Not anymore.
A once obscure blogger named Mario Lavandeira, Jr. has a website called PerezHilton.com. That site has garnered a lot of attention lately and according to him has had traffic in excess of 4 million visitors in a day.
His website is so popular that even the celebrities he writes about came to his 29th birthday party he hosted at the Roxy in West Hollywood on Friday. Perez Hilton is an obvious play on Paris Hilton's name. Both Paris and Perez were at the party, which is kind of ironic considering they both attained fame via the internet.
Paris was not the only bold-faced guest. John Stamos, Dave Navarro, Dita Von Teese, Kelly Osbourne and Amy Winehouse showed up too. That is a testament of the power of his blog.
This party wasn't for Perez's fans. It was a media event where sponsors advertised their goods and publicists tried to push their clients into the limelight. It may have been called a party, but in reality it was work for most of the attendees.
Usually a party with Paris Hilton's name would attract more than a handful of photographers that were at the red carpet on Friday night. What made many photographers basically boycott the event was the fact that Perez Hilton uses many photographs on his blog without attribution or payment. All in the name of fair use. He has even used my Britney Spears photos. A lot of bloggers are using photos that they haven't purchased any rights to.
Well it's one thing when a blogger uses art to illustrate a story that they are writing about. Perez Hilton is not any old blogger. He is profiting significantly from his blog. Paid national ads for movies are regularly on his blog. Consider that the average cable news show gets less than a million viewers a segment, PerezHilton.com actually gets more eyeballs. But the mainstream media outlets actually pay for their content. If CNN wants to use my photos, they better be paying me.
A segment on the "View" discussed Perez Hilton's website. One of the hosts mentioned that Perez gets paid in excess of a million dollars a year. I'm not to sure of that, but I think he has the money to pay for photos. Perez was paid for appearing on the cable drama "Dirt", playing himself. Could you imagine if they used his likeness or website on the show without compensating him? He wouldn't be too happy.
So if Perez is exploiting photographers, why cover his event? I'm a journalist first, and you can't report on something without first hand knowledge. I might have some bias about him because he has used my photos, but in the larger scheme of things, he is a story and a story worth covering.
The LA Times reported about how photo agencies are suing Perez.
5 comments:
Am I the only one that notices that Perez looks like Herman Munster in that hair and make up, Even the pants were too short.
Perez and Herman Munster seperated at birth.
His look for the night was a little outrageous. I would call it Blue Goth. But it's only rock and roll, and he likes it.
I think his look is Fab! Thanks for stopping by my blog, let me know if you'd like to exchange linkys, and I'll be happy to add you to my sidebar.
Cheers From Toronto!
Your post was right-on. When you achieve the fame and profits that his site has, you ought to be able to pay for the photograph services.
Anyways, interesting that you went to his party... he looked pretty dreadful... check out Idiot Celebrities for our review of his get-up...
Most people who cover celebrities will sell out.
But the speed at which Mario sold out is truly mindblowing.
I dont ask much of gossip columnists, I only want them to not pull punches.
Mario has allowed the ass-kissers to buy him out and he makes no qualms that he will not mention them, no matter if their story is unavoidable.
Which is just the way we treat foreign news which dont fit our own point of view. (I was in europe in 1999 on business and came across anti-US demonstrations of 150,000 people in Germany, italy, 400,000 for Clinton's visit in Greece which my family never got any airplay.) Or news in general.
Its my fault for hoping gossip journalists had more backbone than the regular ones.
Defamer, WWTDD, Egostatic, IDONTLIKEYOU, TMZ, FadeYouth, MollyGood, Dlisted and others are better written and wittier.
Oh yeah, none of these have become THE story.
Gary G.
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