Perez Should Retire

This is my letter to Perez Hilton:

Dear Perez,

I think it may be time for you to hang it up. I am always a fan of creative folks pushing envelopes (writing is a creative process). You not only push, but you shove and punchthe boundries . You have done this for a while now. You have had countless magazine articles written about you, television appearances, etc. etc. etc. Your website is huge, and I know you make about 200K a year off of it. That is a nice little salary. However, I am sorry to say sweetie, but it looks like the wheels have come off the bus.

You are no longer pushing boundries. You are just pushing your luck. This week should be a testament to the reality that your 15 minutes stretched out over a few years, is finally up.

Let's begin with the fiasco of lies and deceptions you perpetrated as truth on your website about an altercation with Will.i.am. You documented your attack was unprovoked and that he hit you for no reason. Then we found out, you called him a name and it was his manager who hit you, not Will.i.am. Then we saw video of you screaming in Will.i.am's face and calling him derogatory names. These names of course being the vulgar words against the GLBT community you say you have proclaimed you are an advocate for. I have to be honest, in the video I saw, you look like you were about to hit him. It's no wonder that Will.i.am's manager stepped in and hit you.

You chose the path of your life. You wanted to spread 'gossip'. Gossip is one of the most dangerous and destructive behaviors to engage in. We all kind of learned this in junior high. You took your junior high mentalities and made a career out of them. Guess, what? The consequences were that by saying dangerous things about people, you would receive dangerous repercussions. I am actually shocked that this has not happened to you before. It goes to show you that the celebrities you ridicule are classier acts than you are.

I know youwrote a very half hearted apology on your website. I know you pledged to file a lawsuit and donate money to the Matthew Shepherd Fund. It must have been a realy slap in the face when the fund publically issued a statement today that they were refusing your money, because you had such blatant disregard for calling another person that slur. If you didn't realize it, they just called you a hypocrite.

Then yesterday you went way too far again, this was your post prior to you editing it about Michael Jackson:

“We knew something like this would happen!!
Michael Jackson was taken by ambulance from his Holmby Hills home to a nearby Los Angeles hospital on Thursday afternoon!!
Supposedly, the singer went into cardiac arrest and the paramedics had to administer CPR!!!
His mother is even on the way to visit him!!!
We are dubious!!
Jacko pulled a similar stunt when he was getting ready for his big HBO special in ‘95 when he “collapsed” at rehearsal!
He was dragging his heels on that just like his upcoming 50 date London residency at the 02 Arena, of which he already postponed the first few dates!!!
Either he’s lying or making himself sick, but we’re curious to see if he’s able to go on!!!
Get your money back, ticket holders!!!!”

Look, I'm not a Michael Jackson fan. I never even owned an album. But clearly he was ill. You called it a stunt and accused him of being a lyer. Need we remind you ,that earlier in the week, you were caught in a lie?

You must have obviously felt very foolish when Mr. Jackson did end up dying. I noticed you edited your post to ease off you attack. I find it odd that you now have the audacity to actually publish story after story about Michael Jackson's death, a mere 24 hours after defaming him very publically at a what was a crisis moment in his life. It is just simply dis-tasteful.

Perez, you really helped put bloggers on the map. Your hit counts alone, made major media have to pay attention to the reality that Bloggers should be taken seriously as a source of information in this new age of communication. However, your actions this week set us all three steps backwards. As the most public member of the blogging community, you clearly did what so many traditional sources lambaste us for. You spoke without knowing or acknowledging the whole truth.

You, my friend, are as bad as Fox News.

I admit that I have been to your website. However, after this week. I can no longer support the effort of an individual who is doing more to disparage myself as an internet writer than they are to encourage and validate what I do. To the much smaller amount of folks who read my blog as opposed to Perez's.,You can continue to read his if you want. That is your choice. However, people who spew hate and negativity, especially at the expense of others are a real drain on us as a human collective.

Is the DHD Dead?

I read Deadline Hollywood Daily... daily. I admit it. Her coverage of the rumors about the Union negotiations were pretty much spot on most of the time. While, I disagreed with her take on how the Unions should have handled the negotiations, I think she does provide the closest thing to an accountable moral or ethical compass that Hollywood Big Business can find. She actually covers the people who really make movies and television. Not the celebrities that the traditional media outlets like to fawn over. She tackles the moguls and scrutinizes every little decision or good or bad that they make. That is a good thing. Someone has to.

Today Finke sold her blog. She sold it to the folks who run Mail.com, MMC. The folks at Mail.com had very nice things to say about Finke, even stating she "Raised the bar of entertainment journalism", which to be honest is very true.

However, she would soon be acused of "Selling Out". There was no way around it.

This was her response to that, "Know this: I did not sell out. I really meant it when I said that DeadlineHollywood Daily.com will continue to be an independent editorial voice – and I would retain complete control over everything reported on the website -- so that DHD’s credibility with its readers could remain intact."

I think that Finke is in a tough spot here. She created a fantastic product. A product that sooner or later was going to be bought and purchased by someone with a lot of money. She clearly worked very hard on this website and so she deserves to be paid for it. However, we all know that corporations cannot help but 'tweak' whatever it is that they buy. I think it will be harder for Finke to do what she wants on the site, when she has to answer to someone who has very high expectations. If she does not meet those expectations (let's hope she can) they will want to change things. It's that simple.

So, what do you think? Did she sell out?

P.S. (just to Nikki) Congratulations on being rewarded for your hard work.

P.P.S. Why didn't you post the Press Release I sent you on the NoHo Show? :P

The NoHo Show, Gets Attention

Hey the good folks over at www.webmagazine.com featured The NoHo Show on their site. So, if you want to go over check out just simple, click here!

Mick Montgomery wins a Major Award!

I am proud to say that at the first every Produced By Conference held at the Sony Pictures Lot and hosted by the Producers Guild of America, that the web show I helped write, direct and produce called "THE NOHO SHOW" won Best Produced Webisode. This was an event to promote up and coming Producers in the medium of Web Series, Documentary and Short Film. We submitted NoHo on the recommendation of a friend and out of over 200 submitted projects, we won. We are very proud and very thankful to our cast and crew for their fine efforts in helping us to make a really great project. A project that can now call itself "Award Winning". I would also like to thank my partners in the project, Scott Phillips and John Schimke for their outstanding work. Producing film projects is no easy taks no matter if they are for the big or small screen. Either way, they are tough.

Finally, SAG Signs

11 Months after the deal SAG had been working on expired, the membership ratified (overwhelmingly) the latest contract, which is a lot like the contract they saw offered 11 months ago. 80 million dollars in lost revenue later, a slumping economy and a cash strapped industry hampered by an ongoing labor dispute is the new world in which SAG members get to enjoy their 3% raise. You really have to either laugh or cry at the shear stupidity with which SAG handled this negotiation /catastrophe. In Further SAG news, Alan Rosenberg announced he was going to run for a third term as president. Do you hear that? Of course you don't, because it's the silence of no one rejoicing. The only president more dis-liked by their constituents was Bush.

We All Start Somewhere!

I had a conversation with someone the other day about another fellow creative person who was struggling with the concept of 'paying your dues' in this business of Entertainment ( I love me some gossip). It's funny but no one these days seems to want to work hard for anything. Especially people under the age of 30. I don't blame them. I mean you see someone like Paris Hilton with the brains God gave a rock, who is worth millions, in movies, tv shows, music videos. How did she get there? Well, she won the genetic lottery and became heir to a hotel fortune, and if that wasn't enough... she blew some dude on a video and then put it out on the internet.

So, a lot of folks have a 'role model' for taking the easy train to success. However, there is something to the grind up to success that is so important. I'm no mogul, but I appreciate where I am today more, because I know I earned where I am at through work both as a professional and as an artist. So, to all you out there getting coffee for someone today, who always seems to lose their cell phone or can't work their computer hang in there. Even Bruce Willis knows the value of starting over and starting at the bottom.