Perez Hilton built an empire by saying the things almost nobody else dared to say about celebrities. But nearly two decades later, some of those posts are resurfacing - and they are considerably harder to laugh off.
A new BuzzFeed retrospective has revisited 11 examples from Hilton's wildly influential gossip-blog era, when celebrity humiliation, invasive paparazzi photographs, body-shaming and intensely personal commentary were routinely packaged as entertainment. The piece arrives at an especially sensitive moment: Hilton was recently hospitalized following a disturbing livestream incident, and his family has asked the public for privacy as he receives treatment.
That request has created an uncomfortable collision between Hilton's present suffering and his past behavior.
And for Christians watching the conversation unfold, it raises a difficult question: What does grace look like when someone who publicly humiliated others suddenly needs compassion himself?
The Posts That Haven't Aged Well
Some of the examples collected by BuzzFeed are genuinely startling to revisit.
Perhaps the most infamous involves Britney Spears. During one of the darkest periods of Spears' public life, Hilton repeatedly attacked her parenting and behavior. After Heath Ledger died in 2008, Hilton even sold shirts bearing Ledger's image alongside the words, "Why couldn't it be Britney?" Hilton later expressed regret for his treatment of the singer.
Then there was Taylor Momsen.
According to the retrospective, Hilton published an invasive photograph of the Gossip Girl actress taken while she was performing onstage. Momsen was only 16 at the time. She later recalled the experience as a violation and discussed how little control she had over the image once it circulated online.
Miley Cyrus was also still a minor when Hilton shared a link to a provocative photograph of her in 2010. The image was presented in a manner that prompted intense backlash, although Hilton defended himself by insisting he had never claimed Cyrus was nude.
Other celebrities say the damage went much deeper than embarrassing headlines.
Tallulah Willis has spoken about Hilton mocking her appearance when she was only 13 and 14. Looking back as an adult, Willis said those comments helped plant "seeds of self-hate," while also calling for greater concern for young people's mental health.
Mischa Barton similarly confronted Hilton years later over his relentless body-shaming, telling him that she struggled to move past bullying that had targeted numerous young women. Hilton responded that, given the opportunity, he would behave differently.
And the list keeps going.
The retrospective recalls Hilton publicly discussing or exposing the sexuality of stars including Lance Bass, Neil Patrick Harris and Matt Bomer before they had complete control over how their personal stories became public. Hilton later acknowledged that his pursuit of Harris had crossed a line, admitting that what he once regarded as entertainment involved real people's lives.
That last admission may be the most revealing sentence in this entire story.
They weren't characters. They were people.
Now the Tables Have Turned - But Should Christians Join the Pile-On?
Following Hilton's recent crisis, his family has pleaded for privacy. Predictably, some people online immediately pointed out the irony.
Hilton spent years making money from other people's divorces, bodies, relationships, sexuality, breakdowns and humiliations. Why, critics ask, should he now receive a courtesy he sometimes refused to extend to others?
BuzzFeed captured both sides of that debate. One commenter argued that Hilton contributed negatively to the mental health of others, while another insisted that regardless of his past behavior, nobody should celebrate seeing another human being in such a distressed condition.
For Christians, the second response should sound much closer to home.
Christian grace does not require pretending Hilton's past behavior was harmless.
It wasn't.
Jesus' command to love one's enemies does not mean rewriting history, excusing cruelty or silencing people who were hurt. Scripture repeatedly takes words seriously. James describes the tongue as capable of setting an enormous destructive fire (James 3:5-6), while Paul commands believers to reject corrupting speech and instead use words that build others up (Ephesians 4:29).
By those standards, celebrity culture itself deserves examination.
Millions of people consumed the gossip. Millions clicked. Millions laughed. The cruelty wasn't happening in a vacuum; there was an enormous market for it.
Perez Hilton became one of the most recognizable faces of that culture, but audiences helped make that culture profitable.
Grace Does Not Mean Amnesia
There is also another part of the story that shouldn't disappear.
Hilton has acknowledged wrongdoing.
Shortly before his hospitalization, according to BuzzFeed, Hilton discussed attempting to make amends with celebrities he had targeted, including Khloé Kardashian and Britney Spears. He has also publicly expressed regret over aspects of his earlier career.
Whether every apology was sufficient is not for strangers on the internet to decide on behalf of the people he hurt.
But Christianity leaves room for something modern celebrity culture frequently struggles with: repentance.
A person is not required to remain forever frozen at the worst moment of his or her life.
The Christian gospel simultaneously takes sin more seriously and grace more seriously than the internet tends to. Wrongdoing can be named without hesitation. Victims can tell the truth. Consequences can remain. Forgiveness does not magically erase damage.
Yet Christians also believe people can change.
That means there is something deeply troubling about using another person's moment of profound vulnerability as an opportunity for revenge - even when that person once made a career doing something disturbingly similar to others.
Maybe This Is the Moment to Break the Cycle
There is an obvious temptation to declare this poetic justice.
But Christians should resist it.
"Do not rejoice when your enemy falls," Proverbs 24:17 warns. Romans 12 goes even further: "Do not repay anyone evil for evil."
That may be precisely what makes this moment so uncomfortable.
Christians do not have to choose between saying, "What Perez Hilton did to people was wrong" and saying, "Perez Hilton deserves compassion now."
Both can be true.
Ireland Baldwin's response, as quoted by BuzzFeed, captures that tension remarkably well. She accused Hilton of humiliating her family, sexualizing her when she was young and commenting on her body - yet she also said his children deserve a healthy father and expressed hope that he receives help and heals.
That isn't pretending the past never happened.
It is refusing to become what you condemn.
Perhaps that is the Christian challenge buried underneath this messy celebrity story. We can acknowledge the ugliness of an era when humiliating celebrities became mass entertainment. We can listen seriously to people who say they were harmed by it. We can demand accountability.
But when the person who once threw stones is lying wounded, Christians shouldn't start looking for stones of their own.
Mercy isn't saying the past doesn't matter.
Sometimes mercy is simply refusing to make another person's darkest hour our entertainment.
