Gossip blogger (and soon-to-be children’s book author) Perez Hilton is set to star in an upcoming film about a man obsessed with the death of Michael Jackson.

There was a time that the word “fag” probably wouldn’t cause much of a stir. But Vanity Fair contributor Brett Berk has found himself in the middle of a weekend firestorm after dropping the f-bomb in a column about the recent episode of Glee in his Gay Guide to Glee on VF’s website.

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton runs a business based on trust– the trust of photographers that feed him photos, the trust of celebrities that give him the access that makes his site a must-read for those of the gossip world. It’s a trust of Teflon strength, surviving a series of questionable side projects, but with his most recent endeavor, UnratedPerez.com, Hilton may be definitively testing the immunity of his sources to outrage or insult.

Perez Hilton appeared on Ellen today and announced to host Ellen DeGeneres that he’s dramatically changing the tone of his popular celebrity gossip site, PerezHilton.com to no longer be mean or be a bully. This appears to be in reaction to a spate of tragic stories in the news of late in which victims of gay bullying ended their lives.

There’s been a lot of talk about the so-called enthusiasm gap between Democratic and Republican voters. Now it’s being reported that the easily enthused gossip blogger Perez Hilton has fallen into that gap. Hilton, who resides in the gubernatorial battleground state of California, told Politico that President Obama “fails to inspire me,” citing “his smoking” and “lack of support for Latinos and gays.” He added, “I’m very much looking forward to 2012!” Enthusiastic, yes — but not the kind the Dems were hoping for.

This time last year, a new kind of gossip site hit the web. Gossip Cop, co-founded by Michael Lewittes and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams, was created with the mission of policing celebrity news and rumors — or “busting bad dish.” The site factchecks sites ranging ranging from Perez Hilton and TMZ to magazines like Life & Style and Star. In light of this anniversary, we spoke to Lewittes about how the site’s first year has been, where it’s headed — and how it’s made both friends and enemies in a short time.

Apparently, Bristol and Levi are the Britney and Kevin. Take this with about a hundred grains of salt. Perez Hilton is ‘reporting‘ that the National Enquirer is ‘reporting’ (I can’t find anything on their site so it may only be in the print version) that Levi Johnston may (may!) have impregnated his ex-girlfriend while he and Bristol Palin were separated.

Last week, RadarOnline reported the existence of audiotapes that feature Mel Gibson making offensive and racist rants towards his ex-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva. One week later, the first tape has been published and is somehow worse than may have been originally reported.

Out magazine’s annual list of the most influential gays and lesbians has been announced and CNN’s Anderson Cooper again tops the list of media names, coming third for the second year in a row. Although Cooper and fellow power-lister blogger Matt Drudge (he dropped from 6th to 15th) have never publicly acknowledged being gay, that doesn’t stop Out from consistently counting the two men–as well as actress Jodie Foster–when tallying who is gay and lesbian.

Reviewing Mediaite’s Power Grid ranking of the top Print and Online Columnists is loke looking at the modern day Journalistic Hall of Fame. Familiar bylines – from business models old and new – peacefully coexist next to one another: Krugman and Kruathammer pleasantly reside in the same canon as Huffington and Hitchens. But one of these things is not like the other: NY Post columnist Richard Johnson, whose Page Six column not only redefined “gossip” in the new millenium, but also maybe one of the most influential and underrated media critics of our time.

People who memorize every cover of Men’s Health may have noticed something curious about the December issue’s cover, aside from noted dreamboat Taylor Lautner: almost all of the text and layout is identical to a cover from 2007, which featured Jason Statham. The self-recycling was noted by none other than intrepid media watchdog … Perez Hilton. In a statement to Mediaite, Men’s Health editor-in-chief Dave Zinczenko defends the cover:

“Do you know who I am?” Perez Hilton probably said at one point yesterday. This time Gossip Cop is reporting the blogger’s ire was direct at television station KTLA, who refused to bump a children’s choir to accommodate an antsy Hilton who wanted an earlier spot on a morning show. Today, KTLA went off, roasting Hilton on air. Video inside!

Who’s prettier, more conniving and more ambitious: the characters from the CW’s Gossip Girl or the media elite? Both live in worlds of ambition, access, even backstabbing, and some might say it’s all one big popularity contest. But it’s not just beauty and a knack for spreading news quickly that unite our favorite teen-soap and the media figures whose every move we track. Spotted: Our favorite Gossip Girl characters and their real-life media counterparts.

In the age of the Verified Account, we expect our celebrities and media personalities to be on Twitter. It’s both the quickest and easiest way for them to reach their audiences and it provides a small window into the minutiae of their everyday lives. So we’ve tallied and ranked the top 25 media figures by number of Twitter followers and the results, if not surprising, are telling.

I do not hate Perez Hilton. But I hate what Perez Hilton has done to journalism. He routinely reports rumors as if they are real stories without bothering to fact-check them. Consequently, because of his tremendous reach, inaccurate gossip becomes gospel.

So, collective consciousness of America: Ellen DeGeneres is replacing Paula Abdul on American Idol. Did you reach for the smelling salts when you heard of the ‘shocking’ pick? Are you horrified that an openly gay woman is hosting ‘Merica’s favorite talent show?

Probably not.

Who remembers August 2007, before election fever swept the country in earnest? The news biz was in its usual doldrums, save the odd debate or two, and nothing much was going on. Except Fidel Castro dying, that is – every week! Our pals over at Gossip Cop point out that today marks the two-year anniversary [...]

Despite the online juggernaut that is PerezHilton.com, from a fashion perspective, Perez’s new fashion site, CocoPerez is, to put it lightly, a yawn. Can a blog exist on Anna Wintour hatred and Gossip Girl obsession alone? I think not. And so far it looks like that’s all Perez, er Coco, has to offer.

Welcome to the fun-filled world of a start-up! For the past four weeks, we’ve taken to comparing the site to a baby: Don’t leave it alone, don’t expect much sleep, you never know what it’ll burp up. (Wordpress! How you bedevil us!). Though it’s certainly forced us to stretch in ways we weren’t expecting, we’ve enjoyed the past month — enough to look forward to sticking around for a while (sorry, Brain Trust).

Last week I published an interview with Jill Sobule on the website I edit, The Rumpus. Jill’s biggest song was the 1995 hit “I Kissed A Girl.” Katy Perry’s biggest song is also titled “I Kissed A Girl” and was written with the help of her manager, the same guy who originally signed Jill to her label. In the interview Jill Sobule called Katy Perry a “title thieving little slut”. What happened next taught me something new about the Internet: theft spreads.

Today is the launch of Gossip Cop. The premise is simple: investigate the accuracy of the daily anecdotes, the rampant rumors, and the cubicle grist known as celebrity gossip. Think of it as TMZ meets Smoking Gun. Or maybe Perez Hilton meets Columbia Journalism Review.

In today’s cutthroat media environment, stories break fast and spoil faster. It doesn’t take long to go from big news to scraps of news to contrary opinions that seem cooked up for shock value. News Decay charts the strange and rapid declines wrought by the 24-hour news cycle.

The Internet has been crackling with weird, random celebrity death rumors since last Thursday, when Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died. Thursday night rumors of Jeff Goldblum’s demise were greatly exaggerated via Twitter (trending topic!); the actual death on Sunday of TV pitchman Billy Mays seems to have added to the actual celebrity-death trend (begun [...]