Red Carpet Suicide: A Survival Guide on Keeping Up with the Hiltons
by Perez Hilton (with Jared Shapiro) | Celebra, $24.95
Ever find yourself feeling lost in the ever-expanding maw of celebrity culture in the age of Facebook and Twitter? Maybe you’re confused about Lindsay’s latest DUI or wondering just what it would take to grab your very own 15 minutes of fame in our celebrity-saturated world. Thankfully, we’ll always have Perez Hilton. Pink-haired, crass and sarcastic, Hilton (Mario Lavandeira) is the quintessential gossipy gay blogger providing endless fodder for his fans (and detractors) with his eponymous website, PerezHilton.com, and his new book, Red Carpet Suicide.
It isn’t surprising that the self-proclaimed “Queen of All Media” has penned a book (your “bible to fame whoredom,” as he writes) that details the twelve red-carpet suicides it takes to become a Hilton. With chapter titles like “Put the ‘Ho’ in Hollywood,” “Pretend to Give Back,” and “Replace a Snack with Crack,” Hilton’s tome is a light, giggle-inducing romp through modern culture–zipping through the diets, drug arrests and sex tapes, along with the surgeries, breakups and staged paparazzi shots. One chapter details how to be a “skinny bitch” and features sample diets of Tara Reid, Nicole Ritchie and Oprah Winfrey. Most of this is best enjoyed with a stiff drink and your tongue planted firmly in your cheek.
The book is an extended version of PerezHilton.com, with his trademark childlike scrawling and a few bonus factoids (he receives about 300 tips per day). Hilton’s sassy tone and his willingness to lambaste Hollywood hypocrisy makes for a fun read. Along the way, he debunks a few of his favorite rumors (What’s really going on between Chace Crawford and Ed Westwick of Gossip Girl? Is Tom Cruise controlling Katie’s every move? Are Oprah and Gayle King just platonic best friends? ) and tells the story of how he got started, when he actually met socialite Paris Hilton and his now-infamous run-in with an angry Tara Reid poolside at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. It will hit the- aters this fall. Cheers!
