Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today calls himself a

pioneer, and the field in which he chose to push boundaries and explore new territory was

gossip and scandal mongering. His real name is Mario Lavenderra, the son of Cuban immigrants to the

United States, but you're more likely to have heard of him as

Perez Hilton, the name he assumed for his showbiz gossip blog, which became a massive online hit

after its launch in 2004. Perez Hilton specialized in trashing celebrities, peddling stories,

rumours and pictures that

exposed their floors, foibles and secrets.

It made him a lot of money and a lot of enemies amongst the rich and famous.

He lost millions of dollars in lawsuits, but for years he was the king of Hollywood gossip.

But then he had a change of heart.

He apologised for his shaming of stars, his outing of closet gay celebrities,

and said he would seek out the positive, not the negative, in showbiz gossip.

Sure enough, he is no longer the alistor he used to be.

In fact, his whole blog-based modus operandi is beginning to look a bit old school in the fast-changing digital world.

So when he talks of regrets, it's his main one that he simply couldn't keep up.

Well, he joins me now from Los Angeles.

Perez Hilton, Welcome to Hard Talk.

I called you Perez Hilton.

I wasn't sure actually whether to call you Perez or Mario because obviously we need to start with that name.

Perez Hilton.

You, when you set up this showbiz blog site in 2004, you basically took the name of one of the most famous celebrities of the moment,

...