Perez Hilton got videotaped getting served a Cease and Desist order while stuffing his face at his “office,” the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Cafe in Hollywood. Splash News Online slapped one of the world’s most popular and reviled bloggers with the lawsuit as he sat at a table in a tracksuit looking nonplussed. A Coffee Bean employee, who is undoubtedly used to the paparrazi and hoopla that go along with serving coffee to the stars, told them to stop photographing and blocked the scene.
I’m not really shocked by this, as Perez pissed all the paparrazi agencies off by going off in an e-mail message to X17 when they sent him a message asking that he not run their skinny Britney exclusive photo. He later spouted off in a photographer’s face when he was accused of stealing a different picture. Perez has kind of screwed himself by not citing sources, stealing other’s ideas and claiming exclusive stories that he reads about on the same bulletin boards we all frequent. The paparrazi spend a lot of money running after the celebrities and they are understandably protective of their photos, which they rely on for their livelihood.
At the same time, I “steal” these pictures too, and am having a hard time not infringing on someone’s copyright while running this blog. When someone asks me to remove pictures, and this is happening more frequently, I do it right away. I think that running pictures and crediting the source helps sell photos. The picture are lower res here and the magazines that actually make good money will buy the high res versions as a result. I was also an early adopter of Napster and think that the RIAA is out of line. I’m into technology and digital media, and believe that companies need to adopt to the new medium.
Perez is taking the hit for all gossip bloggers, but he’s an easy target because he doesn’t seem like a nice guy and he doesn’t follow the unspoken manners that govern how we work.
Video found at Miz Monica through the great gossip source Lipstick.com.
You know, I really used to like his site. He had the biggest amount of posts every day, and I thought he was quite funny, but he’s pushing it too far.. It’s all self-promotion now, he acts like he’s a great superstar himself, and what pisses me off the most is that “Yaay, I outed a celebrity!”-shit! I mean, I think it’s every person’s own decision when or whether to come out, and it’s definitely not Perez’ job to do so!
He’s pissed off many fans – not only by claiming everyone around is gay, but also by making stupid comments about healthy-looking celebrities as being “too fat”. In a society, where we have way too many skinny girls trying to fit the beauty ideal, we don’t need a jerk like Perez!
Here is my two cents. Perez makes money off his site (that’s how he affords to stuff his mouth 24/7) with advertisering dollars.
These photo services are also in the business of making money. Perez shouldn’t have posted photos without buying them first. I’m certain that Splash news, wireimage, and the rest of the photo services would have offered him a deep discounted rate for a small res shots provided that he credit the source. I’m sure the likes of US Weekly, Star, etc looking to emulate Perez’s blog and will buy the larger print provided that it drew in readers to the blog. Those rags are the true backbone of those services. Perez’s blog is a small blip for them. But he runs photos, even small ones and not paying or crediting the source, he’s killing the buzz for these agencies.
It’s a incestous business. Bloggers need to play (and at times, pay) like everyone else.
Knowing Mario in real life, I can say he really is a nice guy…. “Perez Hilton” is just his online, alter-ego.
I will agress with you on one thing though…. he never credits the places he gets pics from, so I can see why he’s in trouble for it.
Ugh… typo’s…. that should read, “I will AGREE with you…”
=)
Thanks Zombiefcuk, I can say that sometimes I come off terrible on the blog too and it’s all part of the fun of being snarky online. Perez works really fast and it takes time to credit sources, so who knows what his motivation is. He is one of the lucky few making a very good living off of blogging though. Hopefully he will beat this lawsuit and reach some sort of compromise with the agencies.
Also, Zombie you can edit your comments here for up to 1/2 an hour after you make them, so give it a shot next time. There is a link next to the date.
It is all rather parasitic, isn’t it? It is ironic that the paparazzi are after Perez – the celebs ought to be after the paparazzi. Many celebs loose too much of their privacy and freedom when they walk outside of their homes. From this vantage point, it seems like they are surrounded by paparrazi when they are outside. It looks awful and frightening to me. Shouldn’t the celebrities have a right to own their own images? To walk down the street and not be followed? To be asked to have photos taken? Isn’t there something wrong in the first place with the paparazzi aggressively taking pictures of people who don’t want their photos taken???
That said, it’s just plain wrong not to credit a source appropriately.
Well said, Celebitchy.
Perez might feel as if he’s being martyred, but he’s definitely been unjustly enriched at the expense of other’s ideas and work.
Djw, I way disagree with you. Celebrities lose all rights to eat a meal privately the second they accept a few million dollars to play pretend in a movie. They get free clothes, free meals, free cars, free everything else you can think of just for doing things (like appearing on TV, acting in movies) that tons of people would be willing to do for free. The least they can do is let us normal folk engage in a little escapism. There should be a “no complaining about loss of privacy law” once anyone agrees to become a celebrity. I would say the exception is people who are forced into celebritydom, like Elizabeth Smart and Amber Fry– however, I heard SMart wanted to play herself in the TV movie made about her and Amber Fry often hung out at a Fresno bar to sign autographs. Furthermore, Djw, I’m suprised you think celebs should be afforded some privacy considering you’re reading a gossip blog.
Eh, I went off on this, but I feel soooo strongly about it.
Also, how hilarious is it that this story is about PH getting served for stealing images from Splash, when someone obviously stole that video from Splash and put it on YouTube? hahahaha. Unless the YouTube user “justinrox” is afiliated with Splash, but I doubt it.
Elisha … I absolutely ADORE the gossip blogs (specially this one!), and the paparazzi photos that go with them. However, I don’t agree that celebrities loose all rights to privacy because of their jobs. Sometimes the paparazzi look like a swarm of bees following their prey. It looks scary to me. Peace.
I didn’t read anything about his ass getting served on his site; how disappointing.