Perez upset with GLAAD | Hasselbeck comes under fire
Published Wednesday June 24th, 2009
Perez Hilton is upset that a gay rights group is criticizing him for using an anti-gay slur during his recent verbal dust-up with will.i.am.
The celebrity blogger engaged in a heated war of words with the Black Eyed Peas singer on Monday, alleging that the band's manager had punched him in the eye following the MuchMusic Video Awards.
The two men posted various tweets and videos giving their version of events.
In one video, Hilton, who is openly gay, said he called will.i.am an anti-gay slur in the lead-up to the alleged altercation.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation subsequently issued a statement decrying Hilton's use of the slur, saying it feeds a climate of "hatred and intolerance" toward the gay community.
In an email to The Canadian Press, Hilton - who says he's a former GLAAD employee - said he was upset by the organization's reaction.
"I am saddened GLAAD chose to victimize me further by criticizing me for how I non-violently dealt with a very scary situation that, unfortunately, turned violent," Hilton wrote Tuesday.
"While I doubt I will get an apology from GLAAD, nor do I expect one, I would just hope people know how difficult it is to intellectualize a situation and think rationally when a thug disguised as a musician is screaming at your face and intimidating you.
"I am just very fortunate and grateful that nothing more serious happened to me."
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Former NHL heavyweights Lanny McDonald, Glenn Anderson, Tie Domi and Bob Probert are among the hockey stars who have signed up for an elimination-style reality series that will pair them with female figure skaters.
The CBC's seven-week series will also feature Hockey Night in Canada analyst Craig Simpson and two-time Stanley Cup-winner Stephane Richer.
The broadcaster says the hockey stars will be paired with some of Canada's top female figure skaters in a showdown that begins in October.
The female figure skaters have yet to be chosen.
Hockey Night in Canada's Ron MacLean and figure skating champ Kurt Browning will host the seven-week series.
Battle of the Blades is set to anchor a fall lineup on CBC that includes the new comedy 18 to Life, about teenage newlyweds, and The Republic of Doyle, about a father-son team of private investigators.
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The View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck has been accused of plagiarism.
A lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts alleges that Hasselbeck lifted "word for word" content from a book on celiac disease written by a self-published author on Cape Cod.
Hasselbeck's book, The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide has appeared over the last month in several bestselling lists.
The lawsuit was filed by author Susan Hassett, who says she sent Hasselbeck a copy of her Living With Celiac Disease book as a courtesy after the TV celebrity disclosed she had the illness last year.
A lawyer for Hassett declined to comment Tuesday. A phone message left with Hasselbeck's agent, Andy Cohen, was not immediately returned.
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Marion Cotillard says the most challenging part of playing John Dillinger's love interest in the upcoming film Public Enemies was developing a believable Midwestern accent.
The Academy Award-winning actress worked for four months with a dialect coach, two hours a day, to tone down her French accent.
"It was really weird because she taught me how to use my jaw and my tongue in a different way," she said during a recent interview.
Her biggest challenge?
The R and the L.
"I think it was the hardest thing that I've ever had to do," she said.
Eventually, Cotillard - who won a best-actress Oscar for playing chanteuse Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose - pulled it off to play her half-French, half-Indian character, Billie Frechette.
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Ryan Reynolds says his co-star in The Proposal really knows how to deliver a ribald joke - and he's talking about Betty White, not Sandra Bullock.
Reynolds says the 87-year-old White had the best exit line when shooting wrapped. White, one of the stars of the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls, told the cast and crew it was the "most fun" she'd ever had making a movie, then added, "standing up."
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