Written in handy chapters, Jenni’s book covers the sixty essential rules of being a girl: dating, relationships, breaking up, and personal style and hygiene. Some of these rules are great, like rule 25: If it smells like a hookup… it is a hookup, which says “if he’s got an itch, he knows he can call you and you’ll come running to scratch it.” Great advice to those girls who think “maybe this time…” Some of the things she says, however, are somewhat questionable: “All you get from sitting around scrolling websites for love is dimples in your a**.”

Inserted throughout the book are Cosmo-esque tips on things like “What to do if you f*** up your spray tan” and “Five red flags that he’s a control freak.” These tips make great additions to an otherwise solid book.

The only real problem I had with this book was the insertion of the same types of lines over and over: “Don’t do this if you’re under 21.” It seemed strange to me that Jenni would be constantly reminding her readers not to do ninety percent of the things we watch her do, week after week on Jersey Shore. The only explanation for this could be for insurance purposes. In order to cover their behinds, they put a disclaimer in. They may as well have written “If anything happens to you because you were dumb enough to get out of control, don’t come crying to us.”

All-in-all, I enjoyed this book, and I think that if one were to de-Jersey-ify this book, it would be a great guide for anyone hoping to get ahead.

Jason Eisner's "Hobo with a Shotgun" hits theatres May 6

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I’ve watched c-beams glitter in the darkness near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.”

Rutger Hauer’s last words as Roy Batty in Blade Runner are the high water mark of gold-plated movie bombast – near-gibberish delivered with such untouchable conviction that men have been known to wait a lifetime to deliver these lines in any situation they consider remotely appropriate. You just know the people who made Hobo With A Shotgun had them in mind when they placed Hauer, as the titular hobo, in front of a bunch of newborns in a maternity ward, and had him make a speech about how life is cruel and will beat you down but maybe, just maybe, you might end up as, you know, a hobo. With a shotgun. Like him.

It’s a long way from doves flying into the rainy night air on the roof of the Bradbury Hotel but, hey, we don’t make movies like that anymore, do we?

Jason Eisener’s film began as a trailer in Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse project, the same ‘70s exploitation movie love letter that produced last year’s Machete, the innovation this time around being that the Canadian government got to pay for a film where the heroine gets her throat sliced open with a hacksaw and the villain uses a homeless man as a piñata.

(For readers outside Canada, it has to be noted at this point that, unlike Hollywood, it’s government agencies, not movie studios, that ultimately produce films in this country. The result is taxpayer dollars used to make a film meant to pay tribute to movies that were once made with laundered mob money. Make your own wry aside here.)

Fans of the TV series Trailer Park Boys will get a thrill the moment they see Robb “Ricky” Wells dragged onscreen for the dubious honour of being entry one in the film’s body count; grindhouse cinema aficionados – and there are plenty out there – will happily tick off their checklist of exploitation movie musts: The hooker with a heart of gold played by an actress (Molly Dunsmore) far too pretty to be a streetwalker in the real world; the corrupt cops and their demonic chief of police; the evil sons of the crime boss villain, modeled here on Risky Business-era Tom Cruise; the frightened locals who turn on the heroic hobo; the polyester-scented nihilism that’s fermented deeply since it was poured out in the era of the oil crisis and Munich massacre.

Playing critic with a film like Hobo With A Shotgun is almost pointless, since it sets the bar so low from its point of inspiration that you’re forced to make up new criteria: Is the hobo using appropriate shotgun ammunition? Is that a reasonable splatter pattern for a head shot? Are the titles at the beginning and the credits at the end? The only fair shot you can make at the film is that it has a hard time taking itself seriously, and plays as parody probably more often than genre purists will likely appreciate.

Elizabeth Taylor, an actress of exceptional beauty and talent, passed away on March 23, she was 79.

As has been blaring over all the radio stations, television channels, and tomorrow, the newspapers, a Hollywood icon, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, passed away from heart failure Wednesday morning at the age of 79.

An English-American actress who received her big break at age 9, she was born to American citizen parents in Hampstead, London, and at the beginning of World War II, came to America with her parents who wanted to avoid the brewing hostilities.  Her parents were encouraged by a friend to introduce a young Elizabeth to the chairman of Universal Pictures in Hollywood, who was convinced that Elizabeth would dazzle the chairman with her looks.  Unsurprisingly, a contract was secured in 1941, with Taylor making her debut in There’s One Born Every Minute, which would be her only film for Universal.  She was not popular with Universal, and her contract was canceled in 1942, allowing MGM to secure her for Lassie Come Home.

MGM was impressed with her performance in Lassie, and they signed her to a seven year contract where she would eventually play Velvet Brown in National Velvet, a film that would propel her to stardom at the ripe old age of 12.  She quickly earned a reputation as a skilled young actor before ending her adolescent roles with Little Women before traveling back to England to begin filming her first adult role.  She would eventually be hailed as a skilled dramatic actress, with roles in films being designed just for her.  She would eventually star in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (which would win her a BAFTA), Celopatra, and would win her first Academy Award for BUtterfield 8 in 1960; Taylor would win her second Academy Award for her performance in

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966.

Taylor would eventually marry co-star Richard Burton, who played Cleopatra's lover, Marc Antony

Elizabeth Taylor loved more than just the stage, she was the owner of a number of very well-known and beautiful pieces of jewelery, including the 33 carat Krupp Diamond and the 69 Carat Taylor-Burton Diamond, both gifts from 5th and 6th husband Richard Burton, along with a pearl which had once belonged to Mary I of England.  She also designed jewels and launched three perfumes, devoted time and energy to her own AIDS foundation, the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, which has raised approximately $50 million towards fighting the disease.

Likely the thing most notable with Taylor was her marriages and affairs.  Stereotypically Hollywood in her romantic affairs, Taylor ended more than just her own marriages, as she was linked to more than one married man who often divorced their previous spouse to be with her, only to be single a few years later.  She was married eight times to seven different men, divorced seven times and widowed once.  She divorced Richard Burton twice, and convinced an Iranian ambassador, whom she left Burton to be with, to divorce his own spouse so they could form a relationship, but an Iranian Shah convinced him to end his relationship with her before they could marry.

Elizabeth Taylor leaves behind four children, ten grandchildren, four great grandchildren, and a legacy as an actress of exceptional talent and beauty.  She will be missed.

Can The Pacific Powerhouse pull off their first championship this year?

Since 1994, Vancouver has made the semi-finals five times, only to lose the series every time. Vancouver is used to being the top dog.  In the last decade, the Canucks have finished the season as the first place Northwest team four times, including during three of the last four seasons.  It’s all part of the frustration for the team which calls Canada’s third-largest city home.  No matter how hard the team tries, or how well it does, it seems that the system is always working against Vancouver.  Even this series bears witness to that fact: for the sake of consistency, post-1994 was chosen as the benchmark for evaluating the teams, just after the infamous 1993-94 run which saw Vancouver make it’s best play for the cup by getting to game 7 in the Finals against the New York Rangers.

* - analysis only includes data since 1994 when NHL amended playoff format

Vancouver is a far different team from then though.  Unlike other NHL teams such Toronto, the Canucks don’t need to merely dream about making the Stanley Cup, they are currently improving their seasons regularly and guaranteeing the rest of the Western Conference a run for the money when the playoffs start.   The excellent performance that Vancouver has enjoyed this year also comes despite having some of its top players benched due to injuries, demonstrating that the team is well-rounded and has given even the second-plus lines a good chance to get experience and hone in on skills.  With that said, here’s what Vancouver’s attributes look like this year:

The Pros

On the plus side for Vancouver, it’s not only clinched its division spot again this year but it’s in the running to lead the league in points going into the playoffs.  Vancouver also knows how to turn on the heat, having won 8 of its last 10 games at the time of writing this post.  The team, as noted at the beginning of this article, has been here before and knows how to perform.

The Cons

Call it the Kryptonite factor, but for Vancouver, Kryptonite is spelled many different ways, including ‘Chicago’, ‘Anaheim’ or, most accurately, ‘the semi-finals’.  After pulling off outstanding seasons, the team always seems to choke by the time that it gets deep into the elimination round, usually losing badly to whoever its opponent might be (but especially Chicago).  Canucks fans hold out hope that if the team is capable of getting within a hair of the Stanley Cup as it did in the early 90′s, it’s just a matter of time before it does so again, but so far that hope hasn’t yielded any results.  Nonetheless, making it to the Stanley Cup is one thing, winning it is another — for a team which hasn’t been to the big round yet, it’s likely that Canada’s west coast beachhead will be beached on the long shore of Stanley Cup also-playeds in the event that they take it to the next level this year.  And that’s not even considering the team’s love affair with the injury roster!

Matthew Campbell is the founding editor of Score Target, an interactive sports news community that allows users to predict the winner of upcoming games and discuss their favourite league and sport games, news and players.

Warren Beatty and Annette Bening (Married 19 years)

Warren Beatty was well-known for being a lothario and commitment-phobe. When he married a pregnant Annette Bening in 1992, few thought that it would last. Here we are, nearly 20 years (and 4 kids) later, and they are still going strong! Bening has said, on Beatty’s past “You can’t expect to take away his past. You have to know it and respect it…Whatever got him to where he is now is fine with me.” It seems to be working for them!

Tastefully Understated

Céline Dion & René Angelil (Married 16 years)

An age difference, in itself, isn’t cause to cringe, but the ick-factor on this partnership is pretty huge. Céline Dion met René Angelil in 1980, when she was 12 and he was 38. Dion and her mother sent him, a prospective manager, a demo tape. Yes, he began as her manager when she was a teenager. They began dating in 1987 (for those keeping score at home, that makes her 19 and him 45), got engaged in 1991 and married in 1994 (she was 26, he was just shy of 53). How a grown man marries a woman he has known since age 12 is beyond me. In fact, his first child was born the same year as Dion.  However, they’ve stayed married a good long time, and just welcomed twins — their second and third children.  Maybe their hearts really will go on. [Editor's note: We do not condone this cheesy pun]

Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas (Married 14 years)

Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas were both married to other people when they met on the set of Two Much in 1995. When they got together, Griffith had been going through public relationship and rehab drama with Don Johnson. She was seen as a bit of a mess, while Banderas was a brand-new star, having hit it big with Desperado the year before. They each got a divorce, and married in May 1996, three months after Griffith’s divorce from Don Johnson was final. Their daughter Stella was born in September of that year. They seemed wildly mismatched, and few thought it would last. However, they’ve made it nearly a decade and a half, and we’re not hearing about trouble in the tabloids. Maybe these crazy kids can make it work!

And one to grow on…

Umm...if you say so!

Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore (5 years)

Although they have only been married a little over 5 years,  this marriage has already made it longer than most thought it would. In 2005, actress Demi Moore wed actor Ashton Kutcher in a Kabbalah ceremony after dating for two years. Moore was a well-known actress, and was also known for having been married to Bruce Willis and having 3 children with him. Kutcher was known as the dumb kid from That 70s Show. It seemed like a May/December fling, and nobody expected them to get married. One they were, I don’t think any of us expected them to make it 5 years without significant tabloid fodder.  Every once in a while, we hear a rumor of an affair or an open marriage, but these rumors never seem to come to anything. You never know what the future will bring, but we’re pulling for you!

So, you see, Hollywood marriages can work. I’m not sure what these couples are doing, but they’re doing it right. I might even be able to stop counting these marriages in dog years…but I don’t want to jinx anything.

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Strictly Pop Radio – Episode 11

Michael Seater and Stacey Farber star as Tom and Jessie Bellow on CBC's "18 to Life"

A few months ago, I got hooked on the show 18 to Life. Filmed and set in Montreal, Quebec, 18 to Life is the story of two eighteen year olds who decide on a whim to get married. “Whim” isn’t the right word here. Technically Tom (Michael Seater) was dared to propose to Jessie (Stacey Farber.) The show follows them from their spontaneous engagement, to telling their parents, to facing the hardships of young married life. The show is filled with great one-liners and hilarious escapades as the two deal with college, jobs, marriage, family, and friends.

Michael Seater, best known for his work as Derek Venturi on the show Life With Derek, plays Tom Bellow, son of homemaker Judith (Ellen David) and judge Ben (Peter Keleghan.) Stacey Farber, best known for playing Ellie Nash from Degrassi: the Next Generation, plays Jessie Hill, daughter of the free-spirited environmentalists Tara (Angela Asher) and Phil (Allain Goulem,) whose official careers are never referenced, but who do have an Iraqi refugee living in their basement. The Bellows are conservative Jews, who believe in the traditional values of marriage, while the Hills (who are not married) believe that weddings are (and I quote) “an exercise in greed with absolutely no bearing on reality” and are more concerned about Tom and Jessie’s sexual and emotional compatibilities than their ability to handle the responsibilities of marriage.

The following is eighteen reasons to fall in love with 18 to Life:

#1: Michael Seater and Stacey Farber are Canadian treasures. Both are members of what I am now dubbing the “Canadian Brat Pack,” those 16-26 year old Canadian actors like Kate Todd or Paula Brancati, who seem to be involved in every Canadian T.V. show directed at young adults, like Degrassi: the Next Generation. This group has included stars like Shenae Grimes (90210,) Nina Dobrev (The Vampire Diaries,) and Aubrey Graham — though you may know him better as the rapper Drake.

#2: It’s funny! Every episode has multiple laugh-out-loud moments: The episode when the Bellows go to extremes just to get rid of an ugly gift from Tara is priceless — especially when, at the end, you get to see the gift!

#3: The love/hate relationship between Ben Bellow and Phil Hill. The two are constantly at each others’ throats, but when they need each other, they’re ready to help.

#4: Michael Seater is adorable, and Stacey Farber is that gorgeous girl you wished you could hate in high school.

#5: New episodes air on Monday nights, and are on Netflix Canada by the following afternoon.

#6: It has cool Canadian stuff: In one episode, Tom and best friend Carter are shopping in a store that is clearly a Dollarama (though it’s never expressly mentioned.)

#7: The official 18 to Life website has a great blog “written” by the show’s characters. “Judith of Suburbia?” Love it!

#8: Peter Keleghan has been a television icon for decades: he played Ranger Gord on the Red Green Show,  and has appeared in shows like Cheers, General Hospital, and Earth: Final Conflict.

#9: Creators Karen Troubetzkoy and Derek Schreyer also created the show 15/Love, another great Canadian teen drama.

#10: The awkward-but-obvious sexual undertones between Tom and Jessie’s respective best friends, Carter (Jesse Rath) and Ava (Erin Agostino.)

#11: Tara and Judi. They don’t hate each other nearly as much as their husbands pretend to, and their scenes are always hilarious and relatable (check out the episode when they start hitting the gym together!)

#12: Tom’s sisters Wendy (Arielle Shiri) and Monica (Kaniehtiio Horn.) I’m really not in love with either of these characters, but they are often used to set up the episode and do give us the opportunity to see characters outside the main cast.

#13: Ellen David (Judi Bellow) played the voice of Bitzi Baxter on everyone’s favourite Saturday-morning cartoon, Arthur. She also has done voice work for video games and shows like Caillou.

#14: Are you a fan of vintage cars and/or the environment? So’s Peter Kelleghan.

#15: The life lessons you learn! Like — if you’re making a sex tape, don’t label it “Petunia Pig,” juuuust in case your parents’ refugee loves Petunia Pig and mails the DVD home to his family…

#16: Fans of Michael Seater: He is in his underwear at least once every episode.

#17: The show’s opening theme song “Yes I Do” is written and performed  by Canadian Hawksley Workman with the Toronto band Dolly.

#18: It’s just a great show! The cast blends well together — the couples all have great chemistry, and their lines are spot-on.

Catch 18 to Life Monday nights at 8:30 on CBC, and follow the show on Twitter and Facebook.

More important than Irish jokes, its time for another comedian to be showcased in our Year of the Comedian, and since March is a time of celebrating Irishness (March 17) or celebrating being a chick (March 8 ) or celebrating your ability to do math (March 14), any comedians relating to these abilities or minority groups were chucked in favor of a Welsh fellow I think everyone needs to hear a bit more about.  Now, I know you’re astute enough to already want to point out that the patron saint of Wales (Saint David) has his day in the sun on March 1, but it’s not March 1 anymore, so Rob Brydon can still complain in a proper fashion.

Yes, this month, in our year of the Comedian focus, we’re going to look at Rob Brydon, master of the “Small Man Trapped in a Box”, voice of a million commercials, frequent failure on QI: Quite Interesting, wonderfully funny stand up comedian, and proud father of four.  Very proud father of four.  In fact, in his performance at the Apollo theatre in 2009 resulted in much bragging about his natural inability to actually father children and a brief musical interlude when describing his wife’s giving birth to their fourth child while he did what Rod Stewart would do (he went golfing).

Rob Brydon is a really strangely entertaining man, and like all proper comedians, he doesn’t really view any topic as sacred.  He frequently jokes about his wife, his world and his Welsh heritage, laughing about his love of golf, or harassing audience members with proper Welsh names and asking questions about why we obsess over preserving languages that really have no business being used anymore.  Despite occasionally complaining about institutionalized racism against the Welsh, he is quick to have a go at his nation, pointing out the odd spelling of pretty much everything, the proper Welsh names, the fact that Welsh children learn the language in schools because it’s incredibly useful across Europe and the tendency of the Welsh to complain.  Don’t laugh at those jokes though, that’s racism.

A frequent guest on QI: Quite Interesting and host of Would I Lie to You?, and well known as Uncle Bryn on popular comedy-drama Gavin and Stacey, Brydon does not just limit himself to stand up comedy or television or stage.  He’s also provided his voice for numerous Discworld stories, is the author of Making Divorce Work and is a skilled impressionist and singer.  No, he does not have any albums out, but some of his stand up does result in singing (most entertainingly, he sang “When a Child is Born” whilst describing his youngest son’s birth in a rather Chucky horror film style) and he has sung in a number of television performances.

North Americans may not understand all of his humor, however the vast majority of it is easy to grasp and does not require any understanding of Welsh or British culture.  Certainly, it can help in some cases, but you and I both know you’re smart, so I’m sure you’ll not need to study before seeing any of his shows.  After all, we’ve all heard the joke about the sheep tied to a lamp post in the centre of Cardiff.  I love that one.

Rob Brydon can be found on Annually Retentive, Gavin and Stacey, The Keith Barrett Show, hosts Would I Lie to You? and has a DVD featuring his live stand up show.  He is currently working on an autobiography to be released this fall.

Memories of happier times in Hamilton

I intend to return to the NHL and its recent decision to pursue controversy but wanted to spend time today regarding the other issue which is causing Canadian sports fans great disappointment.  Announcing it’s 2011 schedule in mid-February, the Canadian Football League (CFL) had a lot of good will going into the draft season; ratings have never been higher, all eight teams are on relatively stable footing, including the oft-prone Ontario teams which will soon be rejoined by Ottawa, and a stable of sponsors which is finally growing into a respectable group of cash-flush backers, able and willing to transform the league from a stands-based revenue generator to one which could get significant cash through the developing relationship with TSN and the lucrative TV contracts associated with such activity.

I don’t want to overplay the significance of the gaffes that the CFL walked into so far this year with the release of this year’s schedule…Hamilton is still getting the Half-a-Dome (TM), Montreal isn’t going to fold and the 2010 Canadian all-star Andy Fantuz isn’t going to become the first of an exodus of talented players to the NFL…yes the league clearly dropped the ball in their reintroduction of some sour ideas from its dark days of the 1990s. With the return of Thursday night games, and even see the occasional scrimmage on a Wednesday night, it will stand to be seen if those ratings from Wendy’s Friday Night Football can survive the mid-week doldrums.  Thankfully both incidents are rare, indicating that the league is reintroducing the weekday games more so for Ottawa’s imminent return than out of a desire to retest ideas that clearly didn’t work back when the sport had to do the five game third and long at the beginning of the last decade.

Recently embattled cities Hamilton and Toronto might not feel so grateful though; the season-defining Labour Day Classic, which has come to define the pinnacle of the season for fans on both points along the QEW, will not be happening in Ontario this year, provoking fans to call up league commissioner Mark Cohon in an effort to have the decision reversed.  It’s a noble, but increasingly unlikely effort.  The decision to reinstate the ultimate rivalry game has been met with a poor and somewhat Toronto-centric excuse that the facility formerly known as Sky Dome won’t be available very often for the Argos in the fall due to Rogers owning both the facility and the Blue Jays, which gives the baseball team added advantage in having first picks on the home game dates (MLB wouldn’t likely take kindly to being told to go rearrange its own schedule due to a Canadian league of eight teams insisting on some more flexibility).

This leaves the Argos with little choice but to play their own home game during the September long weekend.  Comparing the Ti-Cats home game schedule with that of the Argos reveals that Steeltown will really be shafted this fall as a result; only four home games will be played inside Hamilton’s borders, while the Argos at least get six. The discrepancy is a little too obvious to be excused as a nasty plot between Rogers and the MLB planners.  The rest of the league doesn’t fare much better, with awkward clumps of home and away games that will steal from some of the exciting thunder during last year’s season (see Montreal’s frequent trips to Hamilton; a two in Saskatchewan/two in Calgary set of games that will hurt the building rivalry between those teams for other examples…)

As I had stated above, this won’t kill the league or lead into a decade of decline, but it does reveal a bit of a misfire on the league’s part.  For a city which was recently in a heated battle to find a new stadium which never materialized, the CFL is taking a risk on further alienating Hamilton’s strong fan base after it last year threatened to move the CFL team out of the industrial city in order to jolt Hamilton city council back to reason during the infamous stadium debate  Conspiracy theorists will no doubt suggest that Bob Young might be trying to get back at Hamilton for failing to deliver on Confederation Park, but it’s more likely that the league just took it’s historic Toronto-first approach (see the #1 spot that the Grey Cup gets played in).

What the planners failed to realize is that Hamilton, and southern Ontario as a whole, needs a greater saturation of CFL exposure if it’s the CFL is going to continue to thrive in the long term.  Moncton and Quebec City seem like obvious suitors for new franchises one day, and that they are, but with a third of the country’s population and untapped pockets like London, Ontario or US-border town Windsor, all with 500,000-sized populations, it’d be foolish to let the NFL have free reign on defining football in these areas if the CFL wants to outgrow the also-played league image that is sadly prominent down here and to continue to generate revenue. I say this as an ardent supporter of the league which has made some excellent decisions over the last five to seven years in particular; ignoring Ontario isn’t so much of a fatal gaffe as it is a squanders opportunity.  With 2011 kicking off shortly, perhaps the league should keep an eye on those overlooked fans come 2012 — it certainly couldn’t hurt the gate sales.

Matthew Campbell is the founding editor of Score Target, an interactive sports news community that allows users to predict the winner of upcoming games and discuss their favourite league and sport games, news and players.

Photo courtesy of Perez Hilton and MichaelTuckerPhotography.com

‘juice,’ as he calls it. The name I’m referring to isn’t, as some would know him, Mario Lavandeira, Jr., but rather Perez Hilton, the genius behind the self styled “Most Sassy Website” of Hollywood. Perez prides himself as offering “Celebrity juice, not from concentrate.” While at the start, he was a guy with a blog writing about his passion — celebrities — in no time at all, he became a force to be reckoned with in the entertainment world, becoming infamous for ‘outing’ celebrities, breaking news before the major entertainment magazines have it, and being an all around awesome dude.

I had the opportunity to interview Perez, and this is what he had to say!

You’ve been extraordinarily successful in the world of celebrity blogging. What made you get started?

• I start blogging in September of 2004, which is forever ago, because it was easy. If it wasn’t easy, I probably wouldn’t have tried it because I’m not very technologically inclined. And not only was it – and still is – easy, but it was and is so much fun for me. I don’t consider it a job; I consider it a way that I’m able to express myself and entertain others.

How have you become as successful in it as you have?

• There is no real secret to my success, other than luck and hard work. I was lucky in that I was one of the first people to use the Internet to really talk about celebrity news. Because, when I first started blogging, many of the celebrity magazines only used their websites to get subscriptions. Now, they’re all breaking news online. The way people consume media has changed. And if it weren’t for the fact that I work really hard at it and take what I do seriously, I probably wouldn’t have become as successful as I have.

In your career, you’ve made some enemies in the celebrity world. How have you managed to have such good relationships with other stars while still being able to give your fans the juiciest gossip?

• I think at the end of the day, celebrities know that I’m just doing a job. And, I am a fan of celebrities. But, what’s great is that nowadays I hope to make less enemies than before. Because I’ve really made a conscious effort to change how I operate, and being conscious of the energy I’m putting out there. I still love celebrities and think that you can discuss them in a way that’s fun and sassy without being mean and hurtful.

As a follow-up, have you ever specifically broken (or held off on writing about) a story about a friend?

• I have done both. [Perez laughs]

What’s been the most shocking (or most popular) story you’ve ever broken?

• For some reason – not all too hard to imagine why – people love celebrity sex scandals or naked photos. Recently, I posted a nude picture of Chris Brown, which got a lot of attention.

In addition to PerezHilton.com, you’ve launched a fashion website, a site for animals, and even a more ‘adult’ focused site as well. Where do you see your brand expanding from here?

• I’ve done a lot of brand expansion recently, but I wouldn’t call it that. I’ve embarked on a lot of new projects recently because I can, and because I wanted to. A lot of these things that I do – other than PerezHilton.com – aren’t that premeditated. I usually just get an idea and I think it would be fun, so I like to act on those ideas. The one area where I really want to expand more on is TV. I want to figure out the appropriate play for myself on television. Whether that be me starring in my own show, being part of a larger show, or producing a show that I don’t even star in, I love doing television and that’s one area where I really want to be more involved in.

Tell us about your new “Fit Perez” initiative — what do you hope to accomplish through it?

• I launched FitPerez.com to inspire people. I myself have embarked on a journey of becoming a healthier person, and in that process I’ve lost 70 pounds, so I wanted to motivate others to live healthier lives, and FitPerez.com talks about all the ways you can be healthier and happier.

You’ve obviously been sued and attacked for things that are often true. Does this negative blowback motivate you or hinder you in your work?

• I think negative blowback, as you say, doesn’t necessarily motivate my work or hinder it, but it helps keep me very grounded. I don’t have a big head, because I constantly have people saying negative things about me. And that’s okay. I can handle it, you know. I am critical of others; I need to be able to accept others being critical of me.

You’ve spoken about your goal of living life openly and without skeletons in the closet: Is this an attitude you’ve held since you started in the public eye?

• I only know one way to be; and that’s honest. I always think — professionally and personally — that if you’re able to be honest in what you do and who you are, then life will just be easier, and that’s what I want…my life to be easy. I don’t know too many people who want their lives to be hard.

In your book, Red Carpet Suicide: A Survival Guide on Keeping Up With the Hiltons, you talk about people who are famous for being famous. What do you think of the Kardashians?

• I think the Kardashians are doing something very right, because they made $65 million last year, and I’m jealous of that.