Perez Hilton Continued

Success and infamy

On March 11, 2005, within the first six months of Hilton’s blogging career, PageSixSixSix.com was named “Hollywood’s Most-Hated Website” by The Insider, catalyzing an initial surge in its popularity which temporarily crippled its server. Hilton claimed that on July 30, 2007, a seemingly “ordinary day,” PerezHilton.com had over 8.82 million page views in a 24 hour period. Other sources dispute the reliability of Hilton’s traffic claims.

Pop singer Fergie has confirmed that she is referring to Hilton in her 2006 song “Pedestal,” in which she criticizes an unidentified person for making negative remarks about her on the internet.

On August 17, 2007, citing exclusive sources, Hilton announced the death of Cuban President Fidel Castro, and claimed that he was the first media outlet in the world to break the news. Although Hilton claimed that U.S. officials would be making an announcement within hours, no announcement was made, and no major media outlets verified Castro’s death. The Associated Press later determined that rumours were sparked by a meeting of Miami officials who were to discuss the city’s plans when Castro dies. Rumours were further fuelled by a road closure in the Florida Keys that was due to a police standoff. Castro appeared in an interview on Cuban television on September 21, 2007, “looking frail but sounding lucid,” and mocking rumours of his death. On September 9, 2009, Perez appeared on The Tyra Banks Show and cited his premature reporting of Castro’s death as his “one regret.”

On September 15, 2008, Terra.com named Perez Hilton as the Hispanic of the Year in Honour of Hispanic Heritage Month.

As of April 2009 PerezHilton.com was ranked by Alexa as the 491^st most trafficked website on the Internet (143^rd within the Unites States) with 2/3rds of users being American and strongest demographic being females between the ages of 18 and 24.

Civil Litigation

A suit against Hilton for copyright infringement was filed by Zomba Label Group on October 11, 2007, stating that Hilton illegally posted recordings by Britney Spears on PerezHilton.com. The illegal postings include at least 10 completed songs and unfinished recordings leaked over a period of three months. The suit asks for real and punitive damages in an unspecified amount as well as legal costs. Spears is not a party to the suit. In March 2008, Hilton announced on his blog that he would no longer blog about artists signed to Sony BMG (which owns Zomba). However, when the lawsuit was settled in November of that year, Hilton ended his boycott and resumed regular blogging about Sony BMG artists.

On October 11, 2007, a judge cleared the way for Hilton to be deposed in an on-going defamation suit brought against him by DJ Samantha Ronson, after a post on PerezHilton.com claimed that she had planted cocaine in friend Lindsay Lohan’s car and set Lohan up to be photographed while under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Hilton’s report was a repetition of gossip initially posted on CelebrityBabylon.com. The judge was informed in court that the owner of that site has already settled the case with Ronson. On January 23, 2008, Perez Hilton was awarded $85,000 by Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle in this lawsuit filed by Ronson.

Hilton has attracted lawsuits due to his use of video footage of celebrities on his blog. He was named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by attorneys for Irish actor Colin Farrell on July 18, 2005, after posting a link to Farrell’s sex tape with then-girlfriend Nicole Narain on his site and on February 20, 2007, a lawsuit filed against him by Universal City Studios Productions LLP for posting a topless image of actress Jennifer Aniston that was allegedly “misappropriated and illegally copied” from unreleased footage from her 2006 motion picture The Break-Up.