Perez Hilton - the pseudonym was inspired by his friend Paris Hilton - is a media sensation in America. Not since the 1940s, when the legendary columnist Hedda Hopper wrought fear in Hollywood with her poison pen, has celebrity gossip come so mercilessly dripped in venom and scorn. Nor has a columnist achieved such fame.

Not only does his website, perezhilton.com receive more than three million hits a day, he has transgressed the world of cyber celebrity to become a popular TV and radio personality. Influential celebrity title US Weekly describes him as one of the industry's top power players, while Details magazine calls him the fifth most influential man in America. Evidently, he is about to become even more well-known, as he currently has a reality TV show in the works.

"I'm as surprised as anyone," says Hilton matter-of-factly. "I mean, it all just started with my own personal blog. Two years ago, that's all it was," he says. Celebrities are entertaining to write about because they're crazy, he adds. "And I'm fascinated by them. Some people read books. I read magazines about celebrities...lots of them. And I love it that people come up and ask to have their picture taken with me, that people appreciate what I do."

Most famously, Nicole Richie, whose shrinking size has provided him much fodder, once marched up to the table and demand he say to her face that she was anorexic. "I told her 'Perez is just a character, let's hug it out'," Hilton recalls. "I mean I wasn't going to tell her 'Yes she's anorexic', because she had her posse of homos with her, and I thought they were going to beat me up."