Perez Hilton was born Mario Lavandeira Jr. in 1984 and grew up in Miami, Florida. He began his career in a variety of writing and media relations jobs and ultimately started blogging because he thought it seemed easy.
In late 2004, Mario Lavandeira launched his celebrity gossip blog, PageSixSixSix.com. Within six months, it was named "Hollywood's Most Hated Website" by The Insider, which brought instant success to Mario. He later adopted the pseudonym of Perez Hilton and changed his blog's domain name to PerezHilton.com. Within two years his blog was receiving millions of page views each day.
Today, PerezHilton.com is one of the most popular celebrity gossip blogs online. The format includes posts written in a sarcastic or snarky tone with Perez's handwritten captions included on many of the celebrity photos used in his blog posts. That tone has since been copied by a myriad of other celebrity gossip blogs.
Perez Hilton's success has also brought legal troubles. His often derogatory comments about celebrities have gotten him in trouble more than once. Additionally, the paparrazi and the media those photographers sell their pictures to have brought lawsuits against Perez Hilton stating he has used their photographs on his blog without their permission. Despite his legal troubles, Perez Hilton.com continues to attract readers.
