Digital Social Hour - Stay Relevant: Lessons from 21 Years in Media | Perez Hilton DSH #1131

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

🎙️ Tune in now to the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly as Perez Hilton shares his secrets to surviving 21 years in social media! 🚀 Packed with valuable insights, Perez dives into the challenges of staying relevant, adapting to trends, and his take on the evolution of influencers. From his early days as a "web celeb" to being a pop culture icon, Perez keeps it real about hustle, change, and longevity. 💡   Discover how he’s navigated the ever-changing social media landscape, the rise and fall of influencers, and why staying authentic is key. Plus, hear his thoughts on true crime trends, celebrity drama, and his exciting plans for the future. 🌟 Whether you're a content creator, pop culture enthusiast, or just curious about the social media world, this episode is for YOU!   📺 Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🎉 Join the conversation and let us know what you think in the comments! 👇   #contentmarketing #contentcreation #socialmediamarketing #howtomakemoneyonline #onlinerelevance   #popculturecrisis #socialmediamarketing #mediarelevance #influencermarketing #celebritynews   CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:30 - Perez Hilton’s 2021 Review 01:42 - Staying Relevant as an Influencer 08:15 - Future Trends for Influencers 11:28 - Impact of Long-Form Content 12:55 - Longevity of Perez Hilton's Career 18:56 - Exploring Conspiracy Theories 24:10 - Britney Spears Discussion 27:44 - The Good Press Theory 31:38 - Andrew Tate Insights 33:03 - Elon Musk Analysis 35:44 - Donald Trump Commentary 38:20 - Future Plans for Perez Hilton 42:53 - Embracing Uncertainty in Life 44:26 - Where to Follow Perez Hilton 46:07 - OUTRO   APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail]   GUEST: Perez Hilton https://www.instagram.com/theperezhilton   SPONSORS: Prolon: http://prolonlife.com/DSH   LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/

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Yeah, Mr. Piffle's here. Piffle Magic Dragon. Alright guys, got Perez here. Brand new year, man. Thanks for coming on. Happy New Year. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you excited for this year? I am very excited because last year was awful.

Really? And I worked really hard to plant seeds for 2025. OK. What made last year awful? Just adulting, real life stuff, not fun work drama, like people dying and people getting sick, and the things that really matter. Yeah, you working really hard these days?

I'm always hustling, man. You have to, especially when this year is now my 21st year doing the whole everything that I do. When I started in 2004, that word influencer didn't even exist. They used to call me web celeb, which has a nice ring to it. But now, you have to keep evolving with the times. And I still have my website.

I have my podcast, which I launched before everybody had their podcast. We've been doing it now for 10 years this year. And I got all my socials creating content for that, doing a lot of talking head commentary, which is really flattering that 21 years later, people are still saying, hey, you wanna be on this special? You wanna be in this documentary?

Like, absolutely. So I'm working on some things behind the scenes. Actually, this is a good way for you to look at it and yourself too, because what you do is different but similar. We are like McDonald's and that brand specifically because McDonald's, everybody's gone to it at least once. And they've been around for 60 years, 70 years.

I don't know the exact amount of time, but they're constantly tweaking their menu, refreshing. So I view what I do as, you know, I still offer my Big Mac and my French fries, but I'm always trying new recipes and serving people different things. Because if you don't, you're going to go out of business. You're going to be irrelevant. Yeah.

And you see a lot of people in the social media space, they have their phase of like stardom, and then they fall off, right? Well, I think there's a few reasons for that. I think social media is designed to give lots of juice to somebody when they're young. I mean, even just how the algorithms work. If you launch a new account behind the scenes,

they give you an extra push because they want to get you hooked and creating more content. And then that's easier already. Also, it's designed to favor young people. That's not to say that older people can't achieve success on social media, but if you look at, you know, the list of the top 100 influencers on each platform, the top 100 on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, whatever,

most of them are fairly young. And that's because the people that are spending the most amount of time on social media are young. And other things, you know, like if you're pretty, that also goes a long way. If you're white, that also goes a long way as well. And then if you're somebody young and new, it's easy at first, but then after two, three years,

it's when it starts to get hard. And a lot of people don't have the life experience or the work ethic to sustain success. I mean, it's easy-ish to go viral nowadays, but to maintain that over the course of a career, not a lot of people either want to or can do. Right. And also what we're starting to notice now,

I feel sad for people in their mid or late 20s, because what a lot of people have resorted to, you know, if they started 2019, 2020, 2020 was the year of the new influencer. It reminded me of the early 2010s when all of these YouTubers exploded. Like everybody from the British invasion to, you know, Zoella and Alfie Dayz and all of those people

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15% off their five day program. When you go to prolon.com slash dsh, that's prolon.com slash dsh. To Noah Beck and Bryce Hall and all of these personalities, they were the top of the top, but also beneath them, there were the B-listers and the C-listers who were crushing it on TikTok and making a lot of money in 2020 and 2021, maybe even 2022.

But now we're in 2025 and towards the end of last year, a lot of these people started to create, I'll speak in code, create O to the F accounts. And it saddens me that a lot of people feel like they have to create an O to the F account to make money. Because if you look at it in terms of a business, is that a sustainable business? I don't know. It's a way to get quick and easy cash, perhaps for a year.

And you might be lucky like a bad baby and make a lot, but bad baby is also the exception to the rule. She's the 1%. She's the top of the top there. And what really, really worries me is that, you know, then give it a few more years, and you're going to have a lot of people in their late 20s that were these very popular influencers

who now are really depressed that they peaked at 18 or 19, don't have enough or any money saved, and might be just, you know, resorting to alcohol or drugs or whatever because, oh, God, I wish I was 18 again and relevant and that's not how it works. It takes perspective and it also takes an incredible work ethic.

Yeah, it's tough to peak at that age because you're so young and impressionable. Yeah. Your brain's not young. And they don't have the work ethic. They don't know, oh, I should be saving money every month. Let me try to build a business outside of what I'm doing here.

And not a lot of influencers are building businesses. Even Charli D'Amelio, to my knowledge, she made a ton of money and hopefully her parents saved for her and have protected her. But I don't know if she's built brands. Let's see. What do you think the next era of influencers are? Do you think it's this live streaming movement

that's pretty hot right now? What do I think the next era of influencers are? Do you think it's this live streaming movement that's pretty hot right now? What do I think the next era is going to be? I would say it depends on what happens with TikTok, to be honest, because you mentioned live streaming. And TikTok definitely has pushed live streaming on their platform and rewarding creators that go live there, from just regular live streamers to the ones selling all these products, TikTok shop.

But that also makes things more complicated because it's easy-ish to make a silly short video that goes viral, but not all of those creators have the stamina or the skills to go live for an hour or two hours or three hours. So the future of social media is unexpectedness as always. Things are always changing. I mean, and I embrace that.

Like I'll ask you a question. You probably will say yes. Yeah. Do you have a blue sky account? I actually don't. I know what it is though. You don't? Okay, I do.

I'm an old, I could be your grandfather. And I have a blue sky. I was like, oh, god, here's another one. I joined just because it started to get a lot of traction. And I want to be where there is heat. It's important. Like, a lot of people, I'm not saying you, I'm not singling you out.

But a lot of people, like, whenever a new platform comes around, it's like, oh, another one. I'm already on too many social media platforms. But for me, it's like, oh, another one. I'm already on too many social media platforms. But for me, it's like pivot, like the Friends episode, pivot, you gotta pivot, you gotta, I have to. And I view it as just a win. Like yes, it's a little bit more work, but I still have my website,

so I could use all of these different channels to promote my articles, to promote my videos, to promote me. And if not everybody else is joining, then there's less competition. Yeah, I do agree with new apps, new features, definitely take advantage. With IG Reel's trials right now, dude, I'm crushing it.

That's awesome. I'm getting like 5 million views a day. Have you tried that yet? That's a good idea. I've heard that some people are just using that and doing it as trials and then not sharing it with everybody and doing it as trials and then not sharing it with everybody, doing it as trials and just repurposing old videos.

Old videos and then you share the ones that get a lot of views and engagement to your feed. So instead of guessing if something's gonna do well or not and it looks bad on your feed, it doesn't get the likes you want, you could do it on trials first. So I'm posting 20 a day or no. Wow.

And then one or two are going viral. They're getting like. The problem with Instagram though is like, I'm not excited about it. Really? Just because sure, brand deals, but I'd rather focus on channels where I can get guaranteed money. You know, like a brand deal is not a guaranteed thing

to happen next month or the month after that. But you know, a platform like YouTube or TikTok or even Facebook, where I can get guaranteed. You know, the IG Reels bonus is a joke. I got $2 for $25 million. It's a joke. It's a joke. Yeah, it's crazy.

But I do Reels. I use it, obviously. Yeah, I see IG Moore as like a networking app. Sure. I get a lot of guests in the DMs. A lot of brands still favor Instagram. Yeah. So obviously, I use it.

Yeah. For me, I would say actually the change that I've made over the last 12 months, which might not be good for you, or it might, I've been making more long form videos. Yeah. Well, I think that's interesting, because people's attention spans are shorter.

But you got guys like Mr. Beast creating TV shows now. You just get more money if they're longer. Yeah, I mean, he just made a ton of money. Have you seen Beast Games yet? No, I haven't, but I heard about it. That's surprising. Yeah. That's surprising.

I thought you were on top of everything, you know? I'm aware of the show. I know the drama about filming. You probably covered the drama, right? The lawsuit. Actually, I don't watch. I watch zero television. What?

I don't have time. Wow. I have three kids. Squid Game 2 just came out. I haven't watched it. I don't watch any TV. But I'm plugged in, and I know everything. I know that Mr. Beast just got engaged.

Congratulations to him. I know I saw. I know everything. I know that Mr. Beast just got engaged. Congratulations to him. I know I saw, I watched clips. I saw this one clip from the Mr. Beast game show of this one woman. Did you see that one where she went before the clock started and then all of those people lost money? So I watched clips. I'm aware.

I know what the chatter is on social media, but I wish I had time to watch television. Damn. So you're just constantly consuming news or? Consuming news, creating my own content, parenting, trying to get to the gym, taking my kids to school, picking them up, doing interviews. I do everything. How stressed are you these days?

I'm always stressed, but I'm grateful. I love the honesty. I wake up and I go to bed with gratitude in my heart that I am the exception to the norm. I should not be sitting down chatting with you now. I should be totally irrelevant. And it takes so much work to cling on to my D-list status. But at least I'm not on the F-list,

and at least I'm still on the list. Yeah, after 21 years, that's impressive. Yeah. Cause you've seen a lot. Most of the people that I started talking about at the beginning of my career are either dead or I don't talk about them anymore. Wow.

It's true. Like, I mean, I used to talk a lot about Anna Nicole Smith dead. I used to talk a lot about China. Remember her dead. I used to talk a lot about China. Remember her, the wrestler? Black China? No, Joni Laura. No, I was too young, I think.

Joni Laura was a big wrestler, and she did a lot of reality television as well. And she was a popular person to cover in the early 2000s, or Amy Winehouse, dead. Or even like, you know, the cast of The Hills. Like, I was obsessed with The Hills, and my audience loved The Hills. And I don't talk about any of those people anymore.

Maybe a little bit Kristen Cavallari, she's done a good job of trying to, you know, still be out there. Her pod's pretty good. Yeah, yeah. So she gets some pickup, but yeah, I'm very honest about everyone and everything, including myself.

And in order to still even somewhat be here, it requires so much heavy lifting. Right. Does a celebrity gossip still pull the same numbers as it used to? Yeah. Really? People love it.

Oh, I didn't know that. I thought people stopped caring about it. No, they do. Well, what also has happened, though, actually, here's what I've observed. Everything keeps evolving. People still love, oh my God, are you kidding? Like this Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni story

has been huge for me, or all the ditty drama. People, I'm over the ditty drama, but people can't get enough of it. Like, and every time I think, oh, this one, people aren't gonna care anymore. The clicks on my website blow up, or the views on any video that I make explode on those specific topics.

When I started in 2004, celebrity news wasn't mainstream news. I would never take credit for it, but I played a part in changing how people A, consume media and the type of media that was really covered a lot by the mainstream. So like the first 10 years of my career, celebrity news became mainstream news.

Then, in part two of my career, from, like, 2010 to 2020 or around those years, more like a... maybe a little bit later than that, politics, the commodification of that as entertainment, it's the flip side of the same coin, really. So political news became showbiz, thanks to Donald Trump and social media. And I started covering a lot more politics, because what I do is not just celebrity. I do pop culture. So whatever people are talking about, that could be celebrities,

but it could also be politicians or a sad situation in New Orleans or people get run over or whatever it might be. So that was the second evolution. And actually, I don't know how much you do this, the most recent evolution, and I think it's a response to both. It's a response to celebrity and,

but mainly I think it's a response to both. It's a response to celebrity and or it's a... But mainly, I think it's a response to politics and wanting an escape from that. Over the last three to five years, there's really been an explosion in true crime. Like if you look at the top podcast list, so many of them are true crime. Yeah, I've seen that. Or if you even look at like Gypsy Rose Blanchard,

that woman who spent about a decade behind bars and for the role that she played in her mother's murder, she got out of prison and was a big celebrity, like a Kardashian with people talking about her and treating her like a celebrity. Same with the Menendez brothers now, multiple shows on Netflix about them and this true crime explosion is the latest trend.

Everything is a trend and cyclical. Now that I've been around long enough, eventually it'll get back to just mainstream celebrities. There's also been periods of really heavy focus on influencers. And that's kind of gone away too. And then it'll go back to politics and it's all a pendulum. Yeah, cycles.

I think politics around election time are just insane. My views were crazy on the political up. I love it. Yeah, I loved it too. But now it definitely died down. But yeah, the true crime stuff. I mean, look at Luigi, he's blowing up. I know, I was just on a documentary,

you can watch it now on Hulu called Man Hunt, Luigi Mangione and the CEO Murder or something like that. They already made a documentary about it? Yes. Holy crap. ABC News reached out to me, said, hey, we're making a documentary about Luigi Mangione to air on 2020 and to air on Hulu.

Do you want to be a part of it? I'm like, yeah. I've been covering that story in every single detail of it. I think that there's certain stories that really pop off for many reasons. That one definitely did, because people could see themselves not necessarily in him, but in the topic. Our system of health insurance is so broken and corrupt.

And people have all this pent up frustration. But all these years later, I still am going to say what I really believe, even if it goes against popular opinion, I also condemn what he did. I don't think that vigilante justice is the way forward. What are we going to do next? Pew pew politicians that we disagree with?

That did happen to Donald Trump in 2024 a couple, a few times, three times, I think. And every single time, I condemned that. I don't like Donald Trump. I'm not a Trump supporter. But I also don't wish any violence against him. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. You ever have any worry about publishing a story?

All the time. I mean, for different reasons. The most, the biggest worry is I need to make sure, I still take what I do very seriously. So I need to make sure, is this correct? Is this true? I don't want to be peddling. Oh, oh God.

And actually, I think this also is connected to Donald Trump. This is one of the things that frustrates me and saddens me the most. It's got to do with Donald Trump and it has to do with social media and rewarding this kind of content. One of the other big changes that has started since I began in fricking 2004 is the explosion of conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories were not as prevalent or even now they're mainstream and so many people creating conspiracy theory

content and I put an asterisk behind it, really believing it, but do they really believe it? Or are they just saying that cause they know it'll get views? But Donald Trump set the stage for that by planting this major seed of distrust against journalists. You can't trust journalists. You can't trust the media. OK, so now we're all going to be conspiracy theorists.

Some of them are true. I'm not going to say they aren't, but the majority of some of them are true. I'm not gonna say they aren't, but the majority of conspiracy theories are not true. Which ones piss you off the most? Just like the ones that are so not true, like, oh, like the first one that comes to mind, Britney Spears is dead, that's a clone. She got cloned.

That's so stupid, come on, come on. You don't believe in celebrity clones? No. You do? Katy Perry I Twitch? I think it's interesting. That's a shtick that she does. It's part of her show. And they show clip out of context.

She explains what she does in the show. Yeah, that's a wild one. I mean, cloning is possible though. My friend has cloned his dog. Yeah, dogs. Yeah, Mr. Piffle's here. Piff the Magic Dragon, his dog, he cloned him four times. Oh, wow.

Yeah, so cloning's real, but on a human level, that sounds advanced. Yeah, and also it's like, okay, you're gonna clone Britney Spears and she's gonna be the same exact age as the other Britney Spears? Use your brain, people. Yeah, well, she's in Vegas, right, Britney? She lives in LA, or she's spending a lot of time

in Mexico, too. There is a rumor that she might be doing another residency. Oh, really? Which could go either way. I think having the motivation to show up somewhere and do what she loves and be responsible could be really good for her. Yeah.

Or it could be really bad for her, the pressure that comes along with that. That was probably one of the biggest falloffs I've ever seen, I think, Brittany. How would you, what do you mean, fall off in what sense? Just like she was at the top and then you hear these stories of her manager just controlling her and stuff.

Not her manager, her dad. Or her dad, yeah. Yeah. So just. I mean, she is beloved. So she's not in a place right now to be doing the grind of recording, releasing, promoting, performing.

I don't think. That's all a lot of work. I think her focus right now is just being free, which she is, and trying to figure out adulthood. Did she get freed from her dad? Yeah, yeah. Oh, she did? Because she's in her 40s now,

but for the longest time she was in this conservatorship, which she felt was stifling. And then before that, she was very famous already since a very young age, and everything was done for her, and everything was taken care of for her. And in a way that stunts your maturity, it stunts your growth if you never have to worry about anything or deal with anything. You're babied. So she's an adult baby and I don't say that as a diss, I say that with compassion. Yeah, no, that's good that you have that thought with your kids though,

right? Because... Oh yeah, no, I tell my kids all the time, you better study hard. Because when you graduate college, you're on your own kid. Any money that I, I used to be like a diva before you were born. Like I would go and take really fancy vacations all over the world. I'm not taking fancy vacations all over the world anymore because I have three kids

and I have to be really mindful with my spending. But once I've done my job and raised my children to the best of my house. I will sell my house. I'm not going to leave. The only money I'll leave is for them to like cremate me and bury me in the ground. I'm not going to leave my house. I'm not going to leave my house. I'm not going to leave my house. I'm not going to leave my house. I'm not going to leave my house.

I'm not going to leave my house. I'm not going to leave my house. I'm not going to leave my house. I'm not going to leave my house. I'm not going to leave my house. I'm not going to leave my house. I'm not going to leave my house. I'm not going to leave my house.

I'm not going to leave my house. I'm not going to leave my house. I'm not going to leave my literally, I'm not even gonna leave my house. I will sell my, I'm not gonna leave, the only money I'll leave is for them to like cremate me and bury me and all that jazz. Wow. But I don't plan, I don't wanna leave them a single dollar. I'm not even, that's not a joke. What makes you feel that way though? I wanna enjoy my money.

It's my money. I've had to, I'm sacrificing so much for like 20 years or so. Like I worked so hard. I want to hopefully be able to live long enough to then enjoy that next era of my life. And why leave it behind? They can work for it themselves or not. Yeah.

I love it, man. How you like in Vegas? You moved here recently, right? Well, actually, is it today, today or tomorrow is my two-year Vegas anniversary. So it just has flown by. I'm so much happier in Vegas. I love it. I've been wanting to move here for a while since 2018. When I got to be here for two months, I was a special celebrity guest host for Chippendales. I didn't take my clothes off. I was just the MC.

But being here for that long in the middle of the summer and living like a local, I just fell in love with the city and the people. And everything about it is just so much more conducive to an easier life. Like, oh, wow, I can get to my rental home after the show in just 15 minutes? That would never happen in Los Angeles where I was for 20 years. And then actually it was because of the pandemic after the show in just 15 minutes, that would never happen in Los Angeles

where I was for 20 years. And then actually it was because of the pandemic and my therapist that I ended up making the change because I felt stuck in Los Angeles. I felt like I had to be there. But then as the pandemic went along and everybody started moving and I realized, no, I don't have to.

And I felt like I needed that permission from my therapist. He's like, do it. Because I kept doing all this mental gymnastics. I'm like, oh, I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait till I get my son to the really good private school here in Los Angeles. And then once I get him in, I can go to Vegas. And if it doesn't work out in Vegas, I can always come back.

And at least I know I got him into that really good school. Because I'm such a type A planner, a little thinker, all those things. But you know what? Life really is too short and tomorrow is not guaranteed. That's not to say be irresponsible. That's why I'm not still taking all those international trips. I'm responsible.

But life is meant to be happy and enjoyed as much as possible. Yeah. Did it slow down business? Because your stuff's all about Hollywood scene, right? No. I think it's actually helped, to be honest. Because now I still do all of my other Hollywood showbiz stuff.

And I'm doing a lot more local work, like hosting things in Vegas and getting paid to promote this and collaborate with that brand. So it's been a blessing. It's been a major help. I love it. I'm so. Yeah. And the future of Vegas really is like going to be Hollywood 2.0. They're building one, possibly two big studios, one with Mark Wahlberg and the other one that's in Summerlin,

that's already a go with Sony, and another one right by UNLV with Warner Brothers. Wow, I didn't know about that one. I don't think that one's confirmed yet, but the Sony one is 100% happening, and that's so exciting. A ton of television films will be shot in Vegas. That's huge. A lot of local people being employed.

And whether you like it or not, more people will be moving to Vegas and more celebrities as well. So I love that. Yeah, I'm just hoping the traffic doesn't get too bad. Even if it is, it doesn't matter because Vegas is still smaller. So even if traffic does get badder, worse, it'll still be quicker to get places than in Los Angeles. That's true.

Yeah, LA's, oh my God. Yeah, that's really, the traffic in Los Angeles is the number one reason I moved. I don't fly into LAX anymore. It broke my soul. Yeah, it's too unbearable. I mean, I literally go to Burbank instead. Oh my God, the easiest.

I do too. So game changer. Yeah, LAX is an hour instead. Oh my god, the easiest. I do too. So game changer. Yeah, LAX is an hour drive. Yeah, yeah, at least. Do you believe that all PR is good PR? Absolutely. Really? Yes.

So the worst story of Matt Romer. For me, but I'm not everybody. Right. I love it. Like, yesterday, I woke up to the news that I was mentioned in the Justin Baldoni lawsuit against the New York Times. And it was an insult.

And I loved it. I genuinely loved it. This publicist, Justin Baldoni, saw an article that I wrote. And he because clearly he was all about what people were saying. And he texted it to his crisis PR expert. And she said, he is a troll. Nobody pays attention to him. And I was happier than my younger fat.

Well, I'm still fat, but I was younger. I was happier than like me at a buffet. I was like, yes, I gotta make a video about this. I gotta talk about it on my website. I gotta talk about it on my podcast. Like I need to like milk this for every single juicy drop that it has. So yeah, for me, all press is good press,

but for somebody like Reese Witherspoon, when she had that altercation with the police officer, that was not good press for her. But I don't give a fudge about what people say about me, and I realized that any chatter for me is good. Yeah, you need to fix that. And I realized that any chatter for me is good. Yeah, you need to fix that. There's a difference because I've never ever been an A-lister, even when I was in my it girl era,

like opening Britney Spears Circus Tour or being in Rihanna's SM music video and everywhere, I was maybe at most C minus or C list, a little above where I'm at now on the D list. But if you ever get to the A list, you can exhale. Because once you're on the A list, you will always be on the A list. But not a lot of people make it to the A list.

There's a big gap between B and A list. For example, Julia Roberts. Maybe once a year or every other year, I talk about Julia Roberts on my website or my podcast or my socials, but she's still an A lister. Right, yeah, that makes sense. How often are crisis PR companies hitting you up? Every once in a while,

but I was not hit up by anybody related to this, I won't even mention who. Did he? No, no, somebody was threatening to expose me and I was like, expose me. Because I've mentioned it a few times, many times. I've mentioned it many times. I just never made like a, I didn't mention it every time. And I didn't have like a standalone video.

Justin Baldoni, the actor who has gotten to all this drama with Blake Lively, his lawyer is also my lawyer. But I've not been influenced by my lawyer. My lawyer has not leaked me anything. I'm a little salty about that actually. I wish he did give me some documents or something. Well, he's a good lawyer then. Client privilege.

He is a good lawyer, a very expensive lawyer. That's usually how it works. Yeah. I thought you were going to say Jay-Z. Oh, no, no. Jay-Z, we'll see what happens there. I mean, so far, only one person has made an allegation against him.

And if that remains, then I think he'll manage to skate away from all of this pretty unbothered. If all of a sudden there's five women, 10 women, then he's got a real problem. But he's not a rapper anymore, he retired. He's just doing things behind the scenes. And I feel like, okay, I'm removing myself from rock nation.

I don't want my personal business to hurt the company. So the company will still go onwards. And even if he doesn't collect any more money from the company, he's still married to Beyonce. Yeah. Who can pay all the bills. Yeah, it's hard to lose in that situation. He should have enough money to save

to never have to work again. Yeah. Did you cover the Andrew Tate stuff when it was happening? A little bit. That's not my audience though. Yeah. Did you cover the Andrew Tate stuff when it was happening? A little bit. That's not my audience, though. Yeah. My audience is like 90% female. Oh, really?

Yeah. Wow, I'm the opposite. I know. That's why I was so excited to chat with you. I regularly, I'll be on Fox News. I'll talk to everybody because I love having conversations and reaching different people than the little echo chamber that I'm a part of.

Yeah, yeah, we have total different audiences. Mine is super conservative too. There you go. I'm pretty conservative. Oh, you are? And pretty liberal. I think I'm in the middle. I'm a centrist.

Or if there were to be another new party, a party, I would call it the realist party. I'm a realist. I want to get real things done, real change, and not the smoke show of BS that is politics. I'm in the middle. And I think most Americans probably are in the middle, but the loudest voices on each side and the extremes

are the ones that get the most attention. Oh yeah, especially on X. Oh my gosh. X is like a... I refuse to call it that. It's still Twitter. It's still Twitter. X is the dumbest shit ever.

Sorry, that's the first time I curse because it's that dumb. I was surprised they changed their name. Same with Facebook, changing the meta. But Facebook is still Facebook. The parent company is just the one that's different. Yeah, X changed to actually X. Yeah.

Which is weird. So ridiculous. I still call it tweets. Yeah, exactly. The dumbest thing Yeah. Which is weird. So ridiculous. I still call it tweets. Yeah, exactly. The dumbest thing. It's, uh, did you see what Elon did yesterday to all those right-wing people? No, I saw something that he did about the Tesla explosion. No, I saw that, no, but he took away five people's verified badges

and demonetized them. Salty. I thought he was all about free speech. That's why it's getting a lot of backlash. He's not all about free speech. He's all about Elon. He, here's my thing. I am a narcissist and so is Elon Musk and so is Donald Trump. We all have a lot in common.

I told you a few minutes ago, I love all attention, positive or negative, only a narcissist would say that. But there are your traditional narcissists and then there's malignant narcissists, which that's an actual diagnosis. It's like malignant narcissist personality disorder or whatever. I can at least acknowledge, I don't know everything. And I can also acknowledge when I make a mistake and I'm wrong and I can apologize. And I can also acknowledge when I make a mistake and I'm wrong. And I can apologize. Elon is the type of person, similar to Donald Trump,

that's why they get along, they think they know the answers to absolutely everything. And just because the guy is really good with rockets and cars doesn't mean he's also good with government cuts and spending or good with this. He's clearly not good with human resources. So many workers at Tesla, I mean, he's anti-union. He's been accused of being racist

by former black employees of his. Like, the guy's extremely problematic and also very bright, but not the most intellectual person to ever live and not somebody that has all the answers. Right. That's what we call a con man, like Donald Trump. Damn, I didn't know you felt this passionately about them. Yeah.

I don't hate him either. I find him entertaining. You see, I don't like to view people as black or white, just because I may disagree. And I think it helps me personally, the reason I'm able to do this is because I come from a very conservative upbringing. I'm from Miami. My entire family are Republicans. Cubans in Miami are overwhelmingly conservative Republicans. I'm not, but that's why I'm in the middle. Like I don't want... I'm not like

I'm not, but that's why I'm in the middle. Like I don't want, I'm not like crazy leftist either, but I think at the end of the day, I still love my Republican family members. I'm not gonna be one of those stupid people to disown my aunt or uncle or cousin or whatever, because they voted for Donald Trump. That's ridiculous. Yeah, yeah, in your space, you gotta stay objective too.

Yeah, and you know, the majority of the country voted for Donald Trump this time around. Were you shocked? No, I knew it was happening. Oh, you knew? Absolutely. Because I'm old, and I listen to a lot of NPR. And they do a really good job of all the weeks and months

leading up to it, NPR would be highlighting undecided. I'm like, who the fudge are all these undecided voters? Literally, for like two months, they were just talking to undecided voters. And almost all the undecided voters said that they were swaying towards Trump. They wanted to blame. They wanted somebody to blame for high inflation.

They wanted somebody to blame for all of these things. And they blamed Joe Biden. Yeah. When you see Trump saying like fake news and suing these news outlets, how does that make you feel? I don't care. He can say whatever he wants. I don't take him seriously most of the time, but he can have serious. Pull over people. I mean, look at what happened with January 6th, which he better fucking, he better pardon those people like he said he would.

Those people who are criminals, they did commit crimes, but he's going to pardon them as he said that he would. I think most journalists are good in trying to do good work. Obviously, every profession has some bad eggs, but you know, like the mainstream outlets, like a New York Times or CNN or NBC News, they do hold themselves to a high standard. Did you ever want to go that route, the corporate route?

No. You always wanted to be independent. I did work for a gay magazine for a while. A gay magazine? Yeah. This was before I started blogging. I was working as a journalist, but I never even got a journalism degree.

I got a degree in drama. Oh, wow. Which is why drama and I go very well together. That makes a lot of sense. I didn't know that was a major. Oh, yeah. I went to NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and I got my BFA in drama.

Wow, I grew up in Jersey. All right, I love New York, but I'm a mama's boy. My mom lives with me, she helps me with my kids, she's taking care of them now, and she hated New York. I moved back to New York a few years ago and I was happy that I was able to be there for three more years, but she, if you're living with somebody very unhappy,

it starts to- Oh, it rubs off on you. Rub off on you, and it's like, all right, fine, we'll move back to Los Angeles, but I just couldn't do LA anymore. I started to really hate LA. I did 20 years, that's a long time. You're a vet in LA.

Yeah. You still go there periodically? I'll go there regularly to's a long time. You're a vet in LA. You still go there periodically? I'll go there regularly to film stuff. What's next for you, man? Well, I'm happily doing all of the things that I do every day, my website, my podcast, my socials. And I'm trying to do some other things,

trying to do something in the publishing world, which I've done a few things in the past, trying to do something in the publishing world, which I've done a few things in the past trying to do something in the television world Publishing has been easier than television but I'm trying I've got a few ideas that I've been pitching and What basically happens is you pitch and you get rejected and then you come up with a new concept and you try And it's really that whole process is a lot of luck because getting a show on the air is so hard. And especially now the buyers,

they're less willing to take bets and it's a tough market right now. Show business is in a really weird place. I think there's going to be even more changes happening because we went from, you know, from cable to now all of these streamers. And eventually, over the next few years, some of them are going to go bye-bye. Because people don't have the money for all these unlimited streaming options.

And the budgets keep going down. And it's just a very interesting time. It is. That's why you're seeing them just remake old shows and old IP. Or a lot of people bypassing traditional media, like Don Lemon got fired from CNN and now is doing his own solo independent thing. Candice Owens too.

Right, Candice Owens. Tucker Carlson. Yeah, yeah. And they're getting more views now than they were on traditional media. There you go. Which is crazy. I mean, wait, is Tucker Carlson getting more views now?

Yeah. He is? He has the number two podcast in the world right now. Wow. Yeah. It's a million to views. Candice is getting way more views than she was at Daily Wire.

Wow. I don't know about Don Lemon. I don't watch him, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was getting more views as well. Cool. You know? I'm a pioneer in that space.

Yeah. And actually that's why it's really the reason I'm still here. If along the way I would have gotten a show on television, like a talk show, even though I don't have one, I want one, but I don't need one, you know, I'm still, even though all these years later I'm still around, I'm still a big dreamer and very ambitious. Had I gotten a panel show, like a male, the view, right?

If I would have said something scandalous or done something outrageous, there would have been a big push to fire me from the male view. And I would have been fired and oh, wah, wah. But right now, and for the last 21 years, I've been my own boss. You can't fire me.

Absolutely. Yeah, peak cancel culture was a rough time, like five years ago. And also I have been canceled so many times. I get canceled, well, I haven't been canceled recently. It's not as bad anymore. Yeah, I haven't been canceled recently, but in the past I was canceled so many times

that you can't cancel me anymore. You're uncancellable. Especially because I don't have any skeletons in my closet. All my skeletons are out there in the open for everybody to see and everybody to pull up the receipts. Which is great. You can sleep at night, you know? Yeah. You don't gotta worry.

I also have a lot of regrets. I'm not here boasting or proud. I made a ton of mistakes. I own them, and I'll apologize, but I'm not, like, I love that I only, this deep into our chat, I am gonna say, like, I am sorry for mistakes I made in the past, but I'm not doing

an apology tour anymore. Fuck that. Well, those videos are so weird, like when they're crying in the camera and stuff. Like I made mistakes, I hurt people, I regret that, but I don't do that anymore. And what sucks is, it sucks, but I accept it

and I don't let it weigh me down. A lot of people only view me as the first person that they saw, which is why that expression matters. First impressions are a lasting impression. A lot of people aren't willing to give someone the grace to evolve and change. They want to keep me in the past like it's a prison cell, but I don't live there anymore.

And for a while, it was really heavy on me and I was letting it impede my life. But now I forgive myself, which sounds really cheesy, but I am really happy. I'm so grateful and I'm still here. I love it, man. Can't live in the past. I love that.

I dealt with similar things like living in the past. Oh, were you canceled? No, but just had a lot of identity issues, honestly. Identity the past. Were you canceled? No, but just had a lot of identity issues, honestly. Identity issues, what do you mean? Yeah, just like, I don't know, pretending to be someone I wasn't, trying to fit in. It takes time, you seem like you're pretty young. How old are you?

I'm 27. Yeah, you've still got a lot of time to figure out who you are. I didn't really start to figure out who I was until 32, 33. Wow. Yeah. Like the real me, like what really made me happy. It was around that time I said, now I'm ready to have kids.

Like now is the time. Like I just knew it. And also like I have a theory. If you have a two in front of your age or a one, if you're 18, 19 up until 29, not only do you not have to have anything figured out, but that is the time to try all of your fantasies, like make all of the mistakes, get a job working as an English teacher in Brazil, go teach snowboarding in the Swiss Alps or whatever, like do all of those things in your 20s when you can,

because life gets a lot more complicated in your 30s, especially if you do have children. And also you get a little bit more, maybe timid is the word, or you're just like, oh, I shouldn't do that. That voice that you had, the fearless voice of your 20s diminishes a little bit the older you get. So whatever wild desire you have, do it now.

You still got a couple of years left. No, I love that advice, man. Getting married this year. Oh my God, congratulations. Thanks, yeah, I definitely want to travel some more before then. Do it. Once kids come in the picture,

it's gonna be hard to travel. It's hard, yeah. I mean, it's not only expensive, but also it's like, you don't want to take your kids out of their routine, and it's harder to travel with children. You can do it. People do it. But I'm like a creature of habit.

Now my vacations are staycations. It's just easy. I like staycations. Yeah, we do staycations on the strip. I plan a lot of activities for. I do a solo staycation with each of my kids for their birthdays. Oh, wow.

So I take one at a time. We do a staycation. We go out to these really nice dinners. I take them to shows or fun activities. Like the last one, I took my daughter to a smash room. She had the time of her life. She wasn't supposed to be in there. You're supposed to be a little bit older, but I might have

lied about her age. I love it. Those are fun, though. Oh, my god. She had a blast. I had a blast. Yeah, those are good for de-stressing, man. They are.

Oh my God, I had never done it before. I loved it. The same place had a smash room, and it had a splatter room. So we were painting, too. Oh, that's badass. It was super fun. Well, Perez, it's been fun, man. We'll link your stuff below.

Thank you. Where else can people keep up with you? Everywhere. I'm on all platforms, and I got my own podcast, the Perez Hilton podcast and my website, PerezHilton.com. So if pop culture is your thing, including politics and celebrity and current events, then I think that what I do still is of value to people because who has the time to be scrolling through X

or Instagram or TikTok for eight hours a day. If you check out my website or my socials, I will share with you the most important things that I think you should know. I love that link below. Thanks for coming on, man. Thank you for having me. Yup, check him out, guys.

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