High School Musical young actor and singer, Zac Efron has recently talked with Simon Dumenco for Details Magazine. About gossip blogger Perez Hilton, who is insinuating that Efron, whom he’s nicknamed “Zacquisha”, is gay, Efron’s response is : “I know it’s very addictive to read that kind of stuff. It’s entertainment. Perez has obviously struck a chord in the public eye. He’s doing something right. That deserves admiration, I think he does a great job. Um.” He pauses for a moment, then adds, “Honestly, if the worst he can say about me is that I’m gay, then I think I’ll be fine. I can handle it.” About meeting Perez he says: “I haven’t yet. But I look forward to it,” laughing. “I think it’ll be a fun conversation.”

Source Details

Out Magazine will honor the 100 most influential people in gay culture at the annual 2007 Out 100 Awards on Friday, November 9 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York. Tori Spelling and Tim Gunn will host this 13th annual gala along with a special musical performance by the legendary Chaka Kahn. In its special December issue, Out recognizes the 100 most influential people in gay culture with a special list spanning categories such as film, music, fashion, performance, television, visual arts, media, politics, authors, and business. The star-studded Out 100 will also unveil five celebrities and influencers being recognized for their commitment to their crafts and gay rights, including Lifetime Achievement, Entertainer of the Year, Stylemaker of the Year, Artist of the Year and Breakthrough Artist of the Year. "It's a tribute to those who have fought to make a positive impact in the culture at large, and a reflection of how far our community has come," said Aaron Hicklin, Out magazine's editor in chief. Out began revealing the 100 award winners online including Joe Solmonese (HRC), Ari Gold, Marc Almond, John Waters, John Amaechi, Demarco Majors, Ivri Lider, Perez Hilton (see François Rousseau's pictures below) and portraits of all 100 honorees will feature in the December/January issue of Out.



Source Out

The white-hot center of the celebrity gossip world is currently a back table at a heavily trafficked Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on Sunset Boulevard, just west of Fairfax. There, Perez Hilton, a slightly pudgy, recently blonded 28-year-old Cuban American blogger, has leveraged his reign as "queen of all media" to become a one-man celebrity outing operation, doing his best to uncloset as many gay celebrities as he can, because, as he sees it, they have forfeited their right to privacy on that point. "In American culture, a lot of people still think that being gay is bad, and that being gay will hurt your career. I generally don't think that," said Hilton, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira. He began using his made-up Web moniker full time after getting death threats from Clay Aiken fans who didn't appreciate Hilton's calling the singer Clay Gay-kin. (Aiken has denied being gay.)
With more than 2.5 million hits a day on the site, Hilton wields tremendous power. He does not own a TV or read books and has no Internet at home. He is a voracious consumer of magazines, though, and has a network of trusted friends and tipsters who, he said, have yet to lead him astray. He starts work around 6:30 a.m., sometimes posting 30 times a day, a far more prodigious output than many fully staffed sites. Collaborating with the production company World of Wonder, Hilton will star in his own reality show. He is the subject of a four-page layout in December's GQ, will co-host MTV's New Year's Eve special, will appear on the cover of the Advocate next month and was just named to a list of 25 powerful Latinos by the New York Post, which sued him in May 2005 for trademark dilution, among other things, prompting him to rechristen his original website, Pagesixsixsix (it's now called perezhilton .com). "I guess they didn't find the name funny," said Hilton. Hilton is also smart enough to know that his current good fortune could be fleeting and is working 19 hours a day to make sure it stays. After all, it was only last year that this lower-middle-class, Jesuit-schooled kid from Miami was unemployed, $60,000 in debt, in bankruptcy and deeply depressed. Today, he said, he earns six figures. He has agents, a lawyer, a manager and a public that, despite its craving for the content he provides, can be vicious toward him in comments on his site. Which he loves. "Every time they leave a comment, it's a page view," he said. "I'm laughing all the way to the bank."

Source LA Times

Ready or not, gay celebs as well as politicians are being targeted by bloggers who say publicizing sexual orientation is fair game.
When Neil Patrick Harris was forced to announce last weekend that he was "a very content gay man living my life to the fullest," he was responding to a recent onslaught of online speculation about his sexuality. And just two weeks ago, "Grey's Anatomy" star T.R. Knight revealed that he's gay after he became the target of months of rumors spread on PerezHilton.com and other gossipy blogs and Web sites. In addition, PerezHilton.com posted a list of stars, including a cable news anchorman, an actress, two singers and some TV stars, declaring that they were his next targets.
Joe Solmonese, the president of Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, was loathe to condemn outing, but he does distinguish between targeting celebrities and politicians.

Source ABC News