Perez Hilton is “cautiously optimistic” as he heads into his subpoena hearing in Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni — representing himself.
When the media personality, 47, realized he wouldn’t be able to afford an attorney in the matter, he dove head-first into understanding the law, his rights and the case overall.
“I feel like I’m in my Elle Woods era, or, like, Kim Kardashian studying for the bar,” Hilton told Page Six in an exclusive interview on Tuesday, emphasizing that he “didn’t want to” handle the subpoena by himself.
“Some people think I’m doing this for content. Uh, no! If I would have had a lawyer offer to help me pro bono, I would have jumped at that chance. I could have still gotten a ton of content without having to represent myself,” he explained.
Hilton, who founded the eponymous celebrity gossip website in 2004, was subpoenaed by Lively last month.
The actress, 38, believes Hilton colluded with her “It Ends With Us” co-star and director, Baldoni — whom she is suing for sexual harassment and retaliation — by using his “sizable digital platform” to launch a smear campaign against her.
Hilton’s first reaction was to laugh off the subpoena in an Instagram video because he “thought it would be easy” to navigate given his firm belief in his truth: “Nobody told me to write anything negative about her. Nobody paid me to write anything negative about her. Nobody gave me talking points, etc., etc., etc.”
He admitted he was “wrong” to not take the legal matter more seriously from the jump, confessing that the ordeal has been an “all-consuming” distraction from both his job and his family.
“I wake up thinking about this. I’m in the shower thinking about this. Playing out all the scenarios. How I will respond, what my next move should be, anticipating their next move,” he lamented.
“If a lawyer would have volunteered to help me pro bono for free, I would have absolutely taken them up on that. … And I have the same lawyer as Justin Baldoni, Bryan Freedman, but I have not retained him to help me with regards to the subpoena because I know how expensive he is.”
Hilton noted that he is “not being sued” and claimed he “did nothing wrong,” calling the subpoena “burdensome,” “too broad” and threatening to his “journalistic sources and work product” as well as his “privileged and protected information.”
After he filed a motion to quash, Lively filed a cross-motion to compel, arguing that Hilton does not “hold himself out as operating as an independent journalist, nor does he purport to follow any of the tenets of independent journalism.”
However, according to Hilton, “that’s wrong” because digital journalists are “entitled to the same protections and privileges as traditional journalists.” He said, “I believe that that is a misrepresentation of the law, and that’s what I will argue in court this Thursday.”
Asked his feelings ahead of the hearing, which will take place in Las Vegas, where he lives, Hilton replied, “Exhaustion [and] relief that this is going to eventually be over.”
He made sure to add, “And cautious optimism and tempered confidence. I’m proud of all the work I’ve put into this, of the dozens of hours that I have spent studying the law. I have done all that I can leading up to Thursday. And that’s all that you can do — your best.”
Even though Hilton is “cautiously optimistic that the law is on [his] side and it should be easy for this judge to grant [his] motion to quash in full,” he acknowledged that “anything can happen,” especially since Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, have endless funds for top-notch legal representation.
“It really feels like a case of a real-life David and Goliath. David being Justin Baldoni — and in this instance, me — and Goliath being Blake Lively and her A-list, very powerful, very famous, very rich husband, using their power and money to retaliate against Justin Baldoni and retaliate against me,” Hilton alleged.
According to the entertainment reporter, Lively is the one who mistreated Baldoni, whose countersuit for defamation and extortion got tossed out in June “only because of technicalities.”
Hilton told us, “I believe Blake Lively misrepresented what happened. I’ll take it a step further: I believe she lied. I’ll take it a step further: I believe she bullied and harassed Justin Baldoni based on everything that I have read and seen.”
He continued, “I didn’t need any talking points. I didn’t need anyone to help me form my own opinion. She doesn’t want to believe that it was organic, but it was. And that inability to accept — ‘maybe people are not liking me because the things I’ve said or because of what I’ve filed in the courts’ — that inability is what has led us to this point now.”
He stressed, however, that he is “not Team Baldoni” but rather “Team The Truth.”
In spite of the stress he’s been under, Hilton is grateful to the “Gossip” Girl” star.
“I want to thank Blake Lively and her lawyers,” he said. “Because of them, I am now stronger and smarter. I know a lot more about the legal system, the courts, the laws, and I will use this to be an even better reporter going forward. And it will help me and my job as a journalist.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source pagesix.com ’
