Perez Hilton, best known for publishing a celebrity gossip blog, has signed a book deal. But the target audience for his forthcoming book, tentatively titled “The Boy with Pink Hair,” is not the millions hooked on his signature snarky comments photoshopped on pictures of the rich and famous; instead, Mr. Hilton’s book is aimed at children.
The book will be published by Celebra Children’s Books, in partnership with Penguin Young Readers Group, according to a press release announcing the deal, and will have an impressive first printing of 75,000 copies.
“If Madonna can write a children’s book, and if Obama can write a children’s book, then Perez Hilton can also,” says Katarzyna Jerzak, a comparative-literature professor at the University of Georgia who has taught classes on children’s literature.
Mr. Hilton’s book, according to the publisher’s press release, is “the story of a child born with a shock of fabulous hair that sets him apart from his peers. While some find this difference hard to accept or understand, ‘The Boy With Pink Hair’ uses the opportunity to find what makes him special and share it with the world.”
It would seem that Mr. Hilton, whose legal name is Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., does indeed have some experience with children.
“He does have a known interest in children,” says Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow for Family Policy Studies at the Family Research Council, “having published a photo of teen star Miley Cyrus that could have been considered child pornography.”
In June 2010, the blogger took to Twitter to disseminate a picture of pop star and teen actress Miley Cyrus getting out of a car, legs spread open, and crotch apparently visible for all to see.
At the time, Miss Cyrus was 17 years old.
After being roundly criticized for possibly publishing child pornography, Mr. Hilton defended himself on his website in a video playfully mocking the episode. “Miley was clearly wearing underwear,” he asserts in the video, still live on his site and preceded by an ad for “Scream 4.”
Clad for the video in “fake fur” to “address a fake controversy,” the blogger asks, “Do you think Miley is that stupid to be out in public without panties?” Eventually, the camera backs up for the reveal of the video’s visual joke: Mr. Hilton is wearing no pants. “Sure, I like to be controversial,” Mr. Hilton says. “But I don’t want to go to jail.”
