The more resentment Lavandeira elicits, the more opportunities seem to fall his way. Designers send him free clothes, record companies send him music hoping to break new artists and some celebrities befriend him.
After being routinely ridiculed on Perezhilton.com for her refusal to smile for the cameras, among other offenses, Victoria Beckham, the former Spice Girl and the wife of the soccer star David Beckham, set out to ambush Lavandeira at the West Hollywood coffee shop where he often wrote his blog. But it was all to Lavandeira's advantage. On Beckham's NBC reality special, she was seen chatting with him and entertaining his request to send him naked pictures of her husband.
When Lavandeira jokingly campaigned to be a host on The View, it seemed inevitable that he would eventually be invited on the daytime gabfest.
Lavandeira used his platform on The View, to announce his new show on VH1 ("I'm going to be their gay Barbara Walters," he joked) but soon the hostesses were taking him to task for using his blog to mock the children of celebrities.
"I think you're funny," said Behar, who asked whether Lavandeira was himself made fun of as a child. "But a kid, come on?"
Lavandeira, the oldest of two siblings from a working-class Cuban-American family, says he was indeed taunted at the all-boys Catholic school he attended in Miami for his bulky frame and homosexuality. His father died of a brain aneurysm at age 51, when Lavandeira was 15.
But he said he was not exacting revenge by skewering the rich and famous. He pushes the envelope, just as he relentlessly markets himself, because outrageousness translates into more eyeballs and contributors to his site.
"When I go to parties people recognize me and that's another contact, another tool in my bag of tricks," he said. "I don't even have a publicist. I work it."
Lavandeira has shrugged off questions about his wealth, but he has made enough to leave the Sunset Boulevard coffeehouse that was once his office and now produces the site from a rented two-bedroom apartment in a gated community. He is also transforming Perezhilton.com into a family enterprise. He recently hired his 23-year-old sister, Barbara, as his first assistant. His mom, Teresita, 53, is also moving from Miami to help out.
Lavandeira said he has no significant other and no time to date, preferring to work on other potential Perez Hilton brand extensions, such as a clothing line and a music tour of his favorite artists. He also sees three to four children in his future, some adopted and some biological, like a "gay Angelina," he said.
In Lavandeira's eyes, celebrity powerhouses like Jolie, Oprah Winfrey, Madonna and Paris Hilton are not just role models but also kindred spirits.
"I realize my time is now because I'm young and things are hot and happening," he said. "I may be yesterday's news next year."
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