No bull: Perez Hilton promises to stop bullying celebs
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Someone realized that ‘do as I say, not as I do’ only works for cigarette-smoking ‘Mad Men’ parents. The (often evil) Queen of All Media Perez Hilton -- who has participated in anti-bullying campaigns since the recent number of gay teens who’ve committed suicide -- appeared on Ellen DeGeneres’ show Wednesday to let people know he’s doing his part to stop bullying by promising to be nicer on his gossip website.
‘I’m gonna do things differently on my website than I have in the past,’ he said on the show. ‘I’m not gonna call people nasty nicknames. I’m not gonna go the mean route. I’m gonna force myself to try and be funnier or smarter or just do things differently ... not doodle inappropriate things ... not ‘out’ people ...’
We e-mailed Perez to ask him about this and he declined to comment, saying, ‘I don’t think I should talk to anyone else about this because I am not doing this for press and I don’t wanna give off that impression.’
HIlton told DeGeneres he started the blog when he was a mere 26 and now at 32, ‘I’ve grown and evolved as a person, and I think it’s time for my website to change as well.’
Seriously. Watch part of the interview after the jump if you don’t believe us.
He also posted his own YouTube video on the matter, saying he still wants to be ‘fun and be sassy without being vanilla and also without being malicious or hurtful or nasty.’
A quick look at some of today’s Perez posts hint that some things may have been toned down and there seems to be a lot of positive celeb posts. Others, we’re not so sure about. Does a heart over Matt Damon’s crotch count as an inappropriate doodle?
The folks over at Entertainment Weekly speculate whether Hilton is for real and point out that Ellen didn’t seem to be really buying it either. More importantly: Will you keep reading his blog if it’s nicer?
Oh, and don’t worry about Perez if this change in tone causes the blog to fail. He’s got something to fall back on. On Tuesday came an announcement that he’s the newest investor in Asian wine company TY KU. Perhaps a toast to a new future is in order?
-- Whitney Friedlander