Perez Hilton (pictured) yesterday filed a lawsuit against a fellow celebrity gossip blogger for libel, slander, invasion of privacy and harassment. OMG!
The complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that Jonathan Wayne Lewandowski, a/k/a/ Jonathan Jaxson, a Florida blogger, slandered Hilton, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, by claiming Hilton solicited sexual favors from Jaxson in exchange for help promoting Jaxson’s nascent web site, entitled J&J’s Dirt.
The suit refers to February 28 article in the NY Post’s Page Six, in which Jaxson — a former publicist for the Backstreet Boys — told the Post that Hilton encouraged him to send sex tapes of himself. “He would tell me he would give me stories for my blog,” Jaxson told the Post. “He used me.” Also contributing to Hilton’s unhappiness: Jaxson published Hilton’s cell-phone number on his blog.
For those LB’ers unfamiliar with the Hilton brand, the lawsuit describes it thusly: “[Hilton] is a world-renowned Internet celebrity gossip ‘blogger’ . . . . Celebrities are the focus of his blog, and when the sometimes newsworthy events of their lives unfold, the content of his site transforms gossip into journalism.”
Hilton claims he’s “suffered loss of his reputation, shame and mortification” and “mental anguish.” The suit doesn’t specify monetary damages, but seeks general, special, and punitive damages, and legal fees. Jaxson told the Smoking Gun that, while he’d yet to see the complaint, he found it “hilarious” that Hilton was suing him. “I have not lied about him. What Perez did to me was hurtful.”