Perez Hilton Calls Own Work ‘Noble’

Mario Lavandeira, aka Perez Hilton, is every celebrity’s worst nightmare, but the blogger thinks his work—satirically applying lipstick, dollar signs, and other doodles to Hollywood’s most photographed—is “noble.” With his own VH1 reality show, a ban from the Chateau Marmont, and a yearly take of at least $250,000, Hilton has arrived; Rolling Stone says he’s the “lowest-common-denominator,” but also “totally now.”

He got his work ethic as a pudgy, TV-addicted kid, and his career’s partly been a way to get back at the popular kids. But it’s also been a crusade to expose his own heroes: Hilton says he once loved Britney Spears, and now skewers her because he feels “lied to and cheated.” (More Perez Hilton stories.)