Perez Hilton is big enough to get an interview with Victoria Beckham
Have you heard of celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton? I learned about him through my friends at the Roxy, where he had a secret birthday bash.
First, he’s not really a Hilton from the hotel mogul family. He is, however, apparently plugged in with the celebrity scene as he had a pretty impressive list of names at his parties, including Dave Navarro who played a single song shirtless for his B-day. His blog, is in much the same vein as newstand tabloids like Us Weekly, In Touch, and People. Well, that’s not totally true, it’s much more catty than those publications. It’s more like The Superficial where he slams celebs the way one might in real life conversation, but not in the way a more respectable tabloid would. His blog posts consistently receive thousands of comments, which indicates to me that he has a large reader base.
I guess I’m just surprised because his site is very amateur. For example, he uses MS Paint or something similar to scrawl comments on the photos on his site the way a sports announcer would mark-up an instant replay. Perhaps that is part of his site’s charm. I was just reading on Syndk8 that perhaps ugly site design helps rather than hurts. Their conclusion is based on their own experiences and they point to MySpace as an example of an ugly site with even uglier profiles, yet people love it.
Whatever his reason for success, Perez Hilton is apparently doing well enough to get a sit-down interview with Victoria Beckham, which is a hot story that such a huge celebrity is coming to America (not that we don’t already have them here, but having more is of popular interest).
Have you heard of Perez Hilton? What’s your take on him? Do you think a somewhat amateur bend to your site can help make it feel more accessible to people?
He is wack job like most people in LA whose lives revolve around whose humping who in the bathroom at Area. As for his website, it appeals to his audience and donkey entourage….
From rp on July 12th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Who is humping who in the Area bathroom? ;)
So the site isn’t about it being ugly or amateur, it’s about being on target with his audience. I buy that.
From Justin on July 12th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
your such a SEO whore. by the way, i know who is humping who in the roxy bathrooms if you wanna know.
From nic on July 12th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Nic! Give me the low down on who’s going down.
From Justin on July 12th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
I like that you threw in that info on his secret birthday bash… like it I do.
From Heather on July 13th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Hells jeah, Heather. I gotta flex my insider info from time to time. ;)
From Justin on July 13th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
let him crack on, I couldnt careless..last nights ‘interview with victoria’ showed was a nutjob she is, i cant believe shes British a embarrassment to us all and all her mates, what a bunch of tools….
From the bosh on July 18th, 2007 at 4:52 am
I just took a gander at Perez Hilton’s blog. The content seems like any other barnacle celebrity gossip media outlet, which is pretty boring if you ask me. The target audience is the problem here- they’re sheep. Perez’s blog is amateur, because he isn’t doing anything new, he’s just simply “doing it”…. and perhaps “in the bathroom at Area.”
From Z on August 9th, 2007 at 12:58 pm