Mario Lavandeira, best known as Perez Hilton, has risen to fame for his popular celebrity gossip website perezhilton.com. Perez has even become as famous as some of the people he writes about. This has proven to be especially true in the past few weeks as he has been dealing with his own sex scandal. Perez is suing fellow celebrity gossip blogger Jonathan Jaxson (real name: Jonathan Lewandowski) for defamation. The lawsuit is based on two claims made by Jaxson which Perez claims are untrue. He alleged that Perez asked him to send a video of himself (Jaxson) masturbating in exchange for celebrity rumors to publish on his blog. Jaxson sent the video but Perez did not hold up his end of the deal. Jaxson also claimed that the pair had dated but Perez denied the relationship. After the two incidents, Jaxson was so furious that he published Perez’s phone number on his web site, asking readers to wish Perez “a belated Happy Birthday.” The 25 other sites and blogs that published the phone number are now also involved in the lawsuit. Perez received over one thousand calls on his private cell phone causing interference with his business. He also claims that the scandal with Jaxson has caused him to “suffer loss of his reputation, shame and mortification.”
Jonathan Jaxson is clearly an amateur when it comes to handling the Hollywood scene. He not only decided to trust Perez, the queen of gossip, with a personal sex tape, but he also believed that Perez would help him increase the popularity of his own blog. Why would a celebrity blogger willingly give out juicy information to a competing blogger?
Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind here is that Perez does not have a publicist but he was himself an actor and journalist before turning into a blogging celebrity. There is no doubt that Perez knows how to create buzz. Publicity stunts such as this recent one are all to hype up his popularity and that of his web site. My guess is that since the sex scandal, the hits on Perezhilton.com have increased. If Perez became famous for dishing dirt on celebrities, he must have realized that there would come a time when he would have to take it too. I can only believe that Perez had anticipated such an event and is capitalizing on it to boost his celebrity status. He might not have wanted to deal with the thousand phone calls, but I’m sure he loves the attention! We should also not forget how pleased Jonathan Jaxson must be about his free publicity.
