Perez Hilton (teaser)

0:00 [SPEAKER_01]: Being held to no one's like editorial standards, but his own, he could find a way to put this iconically venomous flare onto pretty much anything. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, you'd have a picture of... [SPEAKER_01]: Katie Holmes and Surrey Cruz, and he'd be like, Katie Holmes is walking her like sentient little robot, Surrey Cruz down the streets, where is Tom?

0:25 [SPEAKER_01]: Trying to craft a story out of, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: And if I like no one was safe again, I got not even a child, truly no type of person was safe. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, he knew, we'll get into that. [SPEAKER_00]: And he was kind of, not Silver Tongue doesn't the right word. [SPEAKER_00]: He was, he was quick-witted.

0:40 [SPEAKER_00]: Wait, what's the right word for this? [SPEAKER_00]: He was a good writer, like he could, [SPEAKER_00]: He was cutting. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you think this is bad? [SPEAKER_01]: Cutting, but reading back, a lot of it is, it's really not very sophisticated, really. [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe my eight-year-old self was just impressed, you know.

0:56 [SPEAKER_01]: Well yeah, I mean like it's snarky, it's snarky in a way that also if you're a child and you haven't actually met gay men but you've like been kind of fed this idea of like the bit you gay best friend I think like satisfies that because the only gay boys you know are in the closet this was like you know I think satisfying like a role that a lot of gay men were kind of forced into in the media but he was sort of taking on gleefully which is like sassy [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there was basically like, there was nowhere for celebrities to hide, you could be caught taking out the trash and you might have that photo on his blog with like a Microsoft paint dick being painted over your head, you know, and he would take obviously the worst photo of the bunch to use.

1:44 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, wait, sorry. [SPEAKER_01]: Where is he getting the images? [SPEAKER_00]: From my paparazzi, like, okay, so he doesn't have people that he's paying to go take photos. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, he's getting this from us. [SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no. [SPEAKER_01]: But by having him used these images, it's incentivizing paparazzi, but he doesn't.

2:02 [SPEAKER_00]: higher proper. [SPEAKER_01]: How does he make money? [SPEAKER_01]: When he launched a blog, Perez Holton was broke and he was operating out of a sunset boulevard coffee shop because he couldn't afford home internet. [SPEAKER_01]: Within three years though, his website was getting 7 to 10 million clicks a day and he was charging companies 9k for a single ad for a week.

2:23 [SPEAKER_01]: So he's a true Cinderella story and for early internet like that's unthinkable amounts of money for like a self-starter Oh yeah more than that he received the kind of influence of the industry that most failed actors can only dream about [SPEAKER_01]: Stars like Amanda Bynes and Nicole Richie were apparently known to find him at this cafe so that they could pass third on to him.

2:48 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, really? [SPEAKER_00]: Amanda, like, of course, because everyone are spewing with everybody. [SPEAKER_01]: And so obviously, you're going to go and tell the person who could use that information the most powerfully that information. [SPEAKER_00]: The girlies were really feuding. [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes when I'm going to bed, Amanda Bynes pops into my head, and then I have to really like try and not to think about her before I fall asleep, because again, I got too sad.

3:10 [SPEAKER_01]: plus her. [SPEAKER_01]: He was also, we saw you getting TV appearances, and he was getting invited to parties, a Hollywood party's record labels with sent-in music for new artists, hoping he'd promote them, because he actually, I didn't realize this, is partially responsible for Lady Gaga's career, because he was championing her from really early on that you should be really good friends.

3:34 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, until she accused him of stalking her, basically, [SPEAKER_00]: Stephanie German oughta you will never be famous. [SPEAKER_01]: Ha ha ha. [SPEAKER_01]: Or is this diphania? [SPEAKER_00]: Stephania. [SPEAKER_01]: Stephania. [SPEAKER_01]: Stephania? [SPEAKER_01]: Is it stuffhania?

3:49 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't remember now, I think it's stuff, and it was. [SPEAKER_01]: Adele, when she won her Grammy for 19, she hexed Perez Hilton to be like, I probably this wouldn't have happened without you because he brought her to America basically. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, he was extremely influential.

4:03 [SPEAKER_01]: And so people, yeah, he was getting sent music from record labels because he could make your career basically. [SPEAKER_01]: Wow, that's crazy. [SPEAKER_01]: I remember being a tween and this was when she was still like mostly being played on like the Disney channel But I remember the first time he like I saw a post on him about Taylor Swift and I was like wow She's transcended like she's somebody.

4:24 [SPEAKER_01]: That's crazy. [SPEAKER_01]: So, okay, this is like the mid-2000s Why do we think a gossip blogger like Perez would be finding so much success at this Particular time like what was going on in the culture? [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay, Britney Spears was having that turn where she went from being considered the beautiful little virgin Southern girl to like white trash hick who like wears fiddards and flip-flops and can't speak properly.

4:52 [SPEAKER_00]: Like it was just kind of the era where people looked at America as being like this trashy low culture uneducated place a lot due to like George Bush and his like many slippages of of language and his speeches, but like I think Britney Spears kind of took the hit [SPEAKER_00]: for that, like it was a time when the South like really came under scrutiny as being black.

5:09 [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, so Brittany's like in the media kind of showing a bit more of her like casual self, but also slowly having a bit of a breakdown, which culminated in the head shaving. [SPEAKER_01]: Talking about like rampant, paparazzi, stalking, Brittany was like getting the worst of that. [SPEAKER_00]: And aggressive, a lot of paparazzi stalking.

5:28 [SPEAKER_01]: The images that people were like using to sort of validate their suspicions that like underneath her whole thing. [SPEAKER_01]: She was this like, heck, we're photos of her going about her life, taken by the paparazzi, where she's like not made up as the Britney Spears of performer. [SPEAKER_01]: But is doing things like smoking and driving with her baby on her lap, which she grew up doing as a kid, but doesn't translate as much to Hollywood.

5:54 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but more than just Brittany, I would say this era was particularly notable as a troublesome moment for young Hollywood and it did sort of coincide with Perez's meteoric rise. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'll call it like the Bimbos Summit era, which you know, Bimbos Summit. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, just thinking, sorry, when on the topic of Brittany and the way that she was treated in the paparazzi, I just remember, I read this quote, I was reading Marilyn Monroe's Wikipedia page, and it was about her death, and Mr. Lawrence Olivier, who she famously didn't get along with after she died.

6:27 [SPEAKER_00]: He was like, I don't think that she, like, died because of drugs, I think she died because she was the, quote, complete victim of Bally, who in sensation. [SPEAKER_00]: And I think I would apply that to Brittany and all the stars at this time. [SPEAKER_00]: They were complete victims of value and sensation.

6:41 [SPEAKER_01]: Value and sensation, absolutely.