Perez Hilton is dropping names.
The infamous celebrity blogger released his first memoir, TMI: My Life in Scandal, on Tuesday, Oct. 6. And while the book, coauthored with Leif Eriksson and Martin Svensson, gives you the requisite insight into his upbringing and family life, he's also packed the pages with what he knows his audience wants: stories about stars. Whether he's expressing regret over the way he treated them over the years or revealing startling new information about the way they've treated him, he's squeezing out all the juice.
"I'm really nervous about this book. This is me. The real me," Perez said in a press release announcing the book. "And I have a lot to say. As always! From famous feuds and your favorite celebs, we talk about everyone and everything. My story is the American dream that my parents fled Cuba for. It's also an inspiring tale that predates all these influencers. I'm still here. And this book explains all the reasons why."
From his former friendship with Lady Gaga to a wild night with John Mayer and Jessica Simpson and so much more, here's everything you need to know from TMI: My Life in Scandal.
As Perez Hilton reveals in TMI: My Life in Scandal, one of his earliest celebrity pals was Amanda Bynes, who messaged him back in 2005 to let him know she was a fan of the site. After inviting Perez to the set of her show What I Like About You, Amanda would take to visiting the blogger at his usual perch on Sunset Boulevard at the Coffee Bean he used as an office. She arrived one day just after an unnamed Scientologist confronted Perez in the coffee shop, angry about a story he'd written about the church's sway in Hollywood. Perez explained to Bynes that the man had loudly accused him of being a pedophile before he stormed out. "'Seriously, this place . . . if you're not already crazy, it makes you go crazy,' she sighed. What neither of us knew in that moment was that her words were an ominous prophecy of sorts," Perez writes.
Born Mario Lavandeira Jr., Perez developed his pseudonym after the New York Post sued him for his blog's initial name, PageSixSixSix.com, which was a clear reference to their Page Six. With no money to defend himself, he rebranded instead. "The 'Perez' in me was the outsider, the Latino guy, the homosexual, the person who stuck out, and the 'Hilton' referred to Hollywood, the mainstream," he writes. And though the inspiration behind the new name could've sued him as well, she didn't. Paris Hilton befriended him instead. She first invited him to visit her in the studio in 2006 as she worked on her debut album. "I knew Paris was using me, but I also didn't care; I was using her, too," he writes. "I mean, I was a blogger who was hanging out with Paris Hilton." He went on to spend a lot of time at parties at her house, where he witnessed her aunt—and future Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star—Kyle Richards amusing guests on the stripper pole installed in the middle of the living room. And while Perez says he never saw Paris partake in the hard drug use unfolding around them, "she was, however, one of the biggest stoners I ever met in my whole life," he writes. "She used to smoke weed every day, from first thing in the morning till late in the evening—a wake-and-baker, as they call 'em."
After being introduced to Amy Winehouse by Kelly Osbourne at a party in London in 2006, Perez became friendly with the late singer. The two spent a day together on the Sunset Strip, visiting the former Virgin Megastore where her credit card was declined as she tried to purchase a stack of CDs. "At that point, it was Amy's turn to look embarrassed, so I quickly said, 'I've got it, I'll pay,'" he recalls. During a lunch at McDonald's immediately after, she became increasingly preoccupied by text messages from her husband Blake Fielder-Civil, of whom Perez was no fan. "'Well,' I said. 'Maybe you should think about—'"
'No,' she interrupted me. 'I love him.' She kept texting and cursing him for the rest of the day, and it made no difference what I tried to tell her, she defended him regardless."
In 2007, after co-hosting MTV's New Year's Eve special with Christina Aguilera, Perez went with the pop star to a nightclub where they ran into John Mayer and Jessica Simpson, who were dating at the time, in the VIP area. After John positioned himself between Perez and Jessica on a couch, the singer leaned in to Perez and told him he enjoyed watching gay porn, naming a particular actor whose work he said turned him on. (Brent Corrigan, for the record.) "Everything happened very quickly after that. John leaned in close and pushed his tongue into my mouth, and before I knew what was happening, he was full on making out with me. For a moment, I was completely paralyzed, but then I decided to play along," Perez writes. "But as John and I made out, I kept glancing over to Jessica, who was staring at us, frozen. She blushed when our eyes met, and quickly covered her face with her brunette hair (she was brunette at the time). After that, she sat with her head bowed and began massaging his d--k with one hand. John groaned quietly as he kissed me, but I was just trying to work out what was going on. Not long after, he leaned back on the couch with a satisfied look on his face. He turned and gazed affectionately at Jessica, who didn't seem to know whether she was incredibly embarrassed or really turned on."
Along with Bynes, Lindsay Lohan was one of the stars who would stop by the Coffee Bean during Perez's early days. She was the first to do so, in fact. She and Perez developed such a relationship by 2007, when trouble really started brewing in her life, that her former manager Larry Rudolph turned to Perez for help. "Larry seemed to think I was the right person to talk to her. So although I was hesitant, I said, 'OK, so take her over to my mom's place.' I didn't want the paparazzi that followed her everywhere to know where I lived," Perez writes. "Just a few hours later, we met at Mom's place across the street from my house. Lindsay was at rock bottom, and I don't know whether it helped or not, but I listened to what she had to say; I gave her advice and did what I could to help get her back on the right track."
One of the few moments in his past that Perez says he now wishes he'd handled differently came after Britney Spears took the stage at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards for a comeback performance of "Gimme More" that was anything but. "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," he admits. "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."
After inviting a then-unknown Lady Gaga to perform at a party he was hosting in Las Vegas in 2008, the two became very close. "We would spend hours talking on the phone almost every day. She asked me what I thought about various ideas; I told her, and I gave her ideas in return. The whole thing was intoxicating and exciting. She valued my opinions and talked to me like I was part of the team, like a close friend," he writes, adding that he started calling her "wifey." As they grew closer, he began using his blog to attack perceived competition of hers, going after Christina Aguilera particularly hard, even after she'd performed at his birthday party. "Looking back now, it's one of the things I'm most ashamed of, and I can also see that Gaga was using me as a tool—not only against Christina but against her other rivals, too," Perez writes. "She never explicitly asked me to write nasty things about people, but by moaning to me she made me feel like I, her best friend, should do something about it."
By 2011, she'd become a genuine superstar, releasing her album Born This Way. He flew to Australia to interview her on camera for one in a series of specials he was producing. He writes, "We were still best friends—in my eyes, at least—so unlike everyone else who wanted to interview her, I didn't have to send my questions to her publicist to scrutinize and approve in advance. Gaga and I assumed, like the good friends we were, that neither of us wanted to hurt the other." Drinking and sitting in bed while they filmed the interview, Perez recalls Gaga getting a "slightly absent look in her eye" as she struggled to keep focus on him. I didn't know any better, so I didn't stop the interview, and continued to ask the questions I had prepared on the plane," he continues. The first was about the controversy surrounding her song "Judas," which he hoped she'd be able to dismiss as a non-event. "Gaga clearly didn't share that view," Perez writes, "because her eyes turned dark and she snapped at me, 'What are you doing? Are you trying to make me look bad?'"
He then tried to ask about her boyfriend, which was equally ill-received. "For a split second, I thought Gaga was about to throw the glass at my face," he claims. "But instead she leapt up from the bed and glared down at me before hissing, 'What are you doing? I don't want to talk about this.'" She stormed out, only coaxed back to finish filming after several days. After that, they never saw each other or spoke again.
In 2013, Gaga would accuse him of stalking her in New York City while he was looking for an apartment in the city. "Though I hadn't known it at the time, it turned out Gaga had an apartment in the same building I had visited just a few hours earlier. A fan of hers had spotted me there, and immediately tweeted the news to Gaga, who freaked out and started writing all those awful things about me on Twitter," he writes. "I mean, it was a complete coincidence that I'd gone to a viewing in the same building where Gaga lived. Why, after two years' silence, would I suddenly start stalking her? It was sheer persecution mania, and once I got over the initial shock and deleted all the hate mail, I actually just felt sad for her."
The best Hollywood party Perez ever attended? That would be his own 32nd birthday bash in 2010. "That particular year, the party was at Paramount Studios, and everyone who was anyone was there—particularly since the MTV Movie Awards had been filmed nearby that same day. My party became the unofficial after-party for the awards," he brags. "Justin Bieber was there, Lindsay Lohan was there, John Stamos, too. Everyone I knew or had a relationship with…Liza Minnelli and Leona Lewis both performed for free, and Katy Perry surprised me by showing up on an elephant to sing 'Happy Birthday.' It was the same elephant she used in the 'Waking Up in Vegas' video."
In 2010, Perez sought to change his infamously mean ways after two particular events shook him. The first was at an after-party for the Much Music Awards in Toronto. An argument with will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas, in which he called will the f-word, wound up with Perez taking a punch to the eye. That same year, after Perez posted an up-skirt photo of a 17-year-old Miley Cyrus, a run-in with the then Hannah Montana star at a movie theater left him on the defensive again. "'What the f--k were you thinking?' she shouted, making everyone around us turn and stare," he writes. "She continued, telling me exactly what she thought of me and my website, and I replied as best I could."
Another regret expressed in the book pertains to Perez's treatment of Ariana Grande after he felt snubbed by the budding star back in 2011 as he was dabbling in music management. "Ariana Grande and her mother came over to my place to discuss the possibility of me managing her music career. I could see the potential in her, but they ultimately decided not to go with me—even as a consultant, an idea I had pitched to them. I was really hurt, so for years afterward I was super petty toward Ariana on my website and on social media," he writes. "This book is the first time I've shared that story, and I'd like to apologize to Ariana and her mom. I'm really sorry. I should have apologized sooner, and for that I'm sorry too. Ariana has done pretty well for herself regardless."
During an appearance on Howard Stern's SiriusXM radio show in 2014, Perez was informed that Howard and show staffer Benjy Bronk had made a wild wager. "'Benjy said that if he couldn't lose twenty pounds in a month,' Howard continued, grinning at Benjy, 'he had to let someone finger him.' Out of nowhere, I was asked if I could finger Benjy," Perez writes. He inquired as to why they'd chosen to him to ask. "'We thought you'd be a good fit for the job,' Howard told me, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world." After Howard told Perez they couldn't do "any penetration" in the building, as it was against the law, Perez offered his nearby apartment and off they went, crew and all. The rest lives on in radio infamy.
One of the bigger stories Perez broke on his site came in 2007 when he reported that The Hills star Lauren Conrad had made a sex tape. "While I'll never reveal my sources, what I will say is that The Hills had a huge cast, and more than one member told me that the tape existed. So I wrote about it," he writes of the story that ultimately left him with egg on his face. "Lauren Conrad quickly came out to deny the existence of the tape, and sure enough, it never materialized. Looking back now, all I can assume is that my sources were lying to me. These people had an agenda. But at the time, I had no reason to suspect they were lying. If I did, I never would have published the story."
Admitting he was "desperate" to appear on The Hills, he got his wish in 2018 when MTV revived the show. After being invited to "audition" to be in the cast of New Beginnings, he was ultimately passed over for newbies Mischa Barton and Brandon Thomas Lee. At a party hosted by Spencer Pratt, producers saw how Mischa fled from Perez's presence and asked him to film a scene with her to clear up their past. "In truth, Mischa was one of the people I had been really awful to. I own that. I accept it, and therefore I knew there was a 95 percent chance I'd come across in a negative light. Still, I said yes, and at first everything seemed to be going well. I had made up my mind to hear her out; that seemed like the right thing to do. Once she was done speaking, I responded, sharing my truth. We got to a point, after filming for maybe fifteen minutes, where I thought the conversation was coming to an end, so I said, 'Truly, no bulls--t . . . I'm being totally serious now . . . I just want to tell you that I'm truly sorry for the things I did in the past. For the nasty nicknames I gave you. All the stories I wrote.' Mischa just stared at me, and eventually said, 'I don't believe you.'"
He tried to make clear just how much he meant it. "'Well, I'm very serious. I swear on my kids' life.' But Mischa still didn't believe me, which I thought—and still do—was really odd," he notes.
TMI: My Life in Scandal is available now.