Before there was TMZ, there was Perez Hilton—one of the first major “celebrity” bloggers. In the mid-2000s, anyone looking for a juicy bit of celebrity gossip would look to Hilton (real name Mario Lavandeira Jr.) for their fix. And while he seemed to put some “celebrities” on a pedestal (see: Paris Hilton, from whom he took his pen name), others became favorite targets of Hilton’s often brutal takedowns. Britney Spears was one of the latter, and Hilton is now paying the price.
Earlier this year, the February release of The New York Times documentary Framing Britney Spears—which detailed the conservatorship she’s been under since 2008 and her fight to be released from it as well as the hyper-sexualized, and often abusive, way she was treated by both those around her and the media—there’s been a sort of reckoning around Spears and her career. And Hilton has been a major part of that conversation.
“I can’t say I was just young and dumb,” he told Sky News earlier this week of his treatment of Spears. “I think we know a lot more. And initially, many folks, myself included, were shocked and alarmed and especially concerned for her young children … I know I did not express myself as well as I could have. I didn’t lead with empathy and compassion, which thankfully seems like most people now are understanding the severity of Britney’s situation. I absolutely apologize and carry deep shame and regret.”
Yet, as The Wrap reports, that “deep shame and regret” didn’t seem evident in parts of a 20-minute video Hilton released on his YouTube page on Wednesday, in which he seemed more bothered by how he was currently being treated. Hilton—decked out in a Britney T-shirt—complained:
“Today I have been getting so much hate and bullying from people who were and are upset about how I used to talk about Britney Spears. And my message to all those people is: f*ck you! It just does not compute that you’re going to bully someone for bullying somebody in the past. How does that make you any better than what I did? I fully own how reprehensible I used to be in the day.”
Something doesn’t compute alright. While being outrageously snarky was part of Hilton’s brand, certain lines of decency were regularly crossed. Like the time when, following Heath Ledger’s death in 2008, Perez had T-shirts made up asking, “Why Wasn’t It Britney?” (Ick.)
But the latest news stories surrounding Spears aren’t the first time Hilton has addressed his treatment of her in the past. In his 2020 memoir TMI: My Life in Scandal, Hilton expressed regret for the way he talked about Britney, writing:
“It was so bad that I could hardly believe what I was seeing and hearing. That’s why I didn’t try to soften the blow: I wrote that she should be ashamed of herself, that she was an embarrassment—something I really regret today. I just assumed that her meltdown was a result of her wild party lifestyle and all the drugs she was taking. It never occurred to me that there might be some kind of mental health issue behind her behavior. Looking back now, it really does seem like Britney is lucky to still be alive.”
You can watch all 20 minutes of Hilton’s “Message to Britney Spears and The Free Britney Movement” below.
(Via The Wrap)
