Perez Hilton Dishes On The Criss Angel Brouhaha, His Workload and His Income

Perez Hilton led a busy weekend of making national news. First, he goes to Criss Angel’s “Believe,” where Angel cusses and berates him publicly. Then he sits on the Miss USA panel of judges, where he asks Miss California about gay marriage — and her clumsy, homophobic answer costs her the crown.

I caught up with Perez on Saturday night, before the Miss USA flap, so we talked about Angel. But he also told me he’s so busy putting together PerezHilton.com everyday — by himself, with no assistant — that he doesn’t read, see TV or go to the movies much.

But let’s start with Angel. It was fresh on his mind. Although, he hadn’t even blogged the brouhaha.

“I didn’t write about it on my Web site, because I was trying to be a diva, and hoping that other people would write about it,” he said. “If other people write about it, it’s cooler.”

Perez said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if Angel attacked both him and me (for columns I wrote on Angel here and here). I said Angel wasn’t going to attack anyone. Then Perez taunted:

“He probably has a small dick. I have a very large penis — Cuban.”

So with a smile on his face, and in a great mood, he gave me the run-through of what happened at the Luxor on Friday night:

“I was going to see the ‘Believe’ show, because I love Cirque du Solelil. And I’ve seen all of their shows, and there’s not one they’ve done in Vegas that I hadn’t loved. In fact, ‘O’ was one of the most thrilling experiences I’ve ever had. It blew my mind.

“So I was expecting it [‘Believe’] to be mediocre. People were saying it’s bad. I was like, OK, maybe it’s bad in comparison to everything else they’ve done. I wasn’t expecting it to be bad-bad. But it was unbelievably bad. It was painfully bad.

“I was Tweeting during the show. I was saying, ‘I’d rather have a root canal’ and things like that. And then there was a technical malfunction. At first, I thought it was scripted and part of the show. But after the five minute mark, I was like, no this is really a technical malfunction.

“And he [Angel] came out to apologize and said, This is live, and blah blah blah. And my friend went to get us more drinks at the bar. Thank God, because if I was 100 percent sober, I would want to be stabbing my eyes out.

“Afterward, the show’s over, and I think two people applauded. And there was an encore. But before the encore, he did something along the lines of this: ‘There’s somebody very special in the audience tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Perez Hilton. Perez stand up. Stand up.’

“So I begrudgingly stood up, and he’s like, ‘Give it up for Perez, the world’s No. 1 douche bag, f...ing moron asshole.’ And I said, Hey, thanks for the free tickets!’ And I sat my ass down, and left.

“And I was actually thrilled, because at least people in the audience had something to go home and tell their friends, like, ‘The show sucked but when Perez Hilton was there …’

“See if people were on his side, and were happy that he’d given a good show, they would have booooed me. There wasn’t any booing going on, which tells me he was awful.”

Perez said he didn’t have anything against Angel when he entered the theater.

“I had never seen Criss Angel’s TV show. I don’t have an opinion on him either way. He’s kind of douchey, but whatever. I went into the show with an open mind. And I didn’t realize he had such a thick, Long Island accent. And the first 20 minutes is just him talking. I’m like, ‘Oh. Oh no.’

“There was a whole stretch, like, maybe a third of the way through the show where he doesn’t talk. That was kind of bearable.

“The costumes were great. I liked the choreography. I wish there had been more acrobatics and Cirque elements to it, like fire or whatever. But even his tricks were lame. When the pigeons come out — that’s not magic. That’s animal training. That’s animal training!”

Perez really has become quite the star. Photographers on the red carpet took more photos of him than of Mel B, Kelly Monaco, or maybe any other celeb at the opening of “Peepshow” at Planet Hollywood.

I asked him what that fame feels like.

“It feels very rewarding in that I’ve struck a chord along the same lines [as] Howard Stern,” he said. “Howard Stern, I think, is somebody who transcends his genre. People want to say he’s a radio personality. No, he is a celebrity. And I think I’ve been able, through a lot of hard work, to transcend my genre.

“And I’ve become more than just a blogger. And I do more than just blog. I have a book that came out this year. I have a syndicated radio show that’s on 115 radio stations throughout the U.S., and 10 in Canada. I do a lot of TV appearances. I hustle. I’m a hustler.”

No one but Perez posts items on PerezHilton seven days a week, he said.

“No one,” he said. “I work when I’m sick. I’m Cuban. We have a good work ethic.”

That leaves him very little personal time.

“I don’t read books. I don’t watch TV. I barely go to the movies. All I do is work. And I’ve been making time to work out and get in shape.”

But through all that work, Perez has blown up the happy-faced facades of entertainment news on TV. I told him about my recent interview with Mark McGrath, when McGrath said the only thing he misses as an ex-host of “Extra” is the money.

“Honest answer,” Perez said.

McGrath also said Perez and TMZ.com are making the publicist-scrubbed, pro-celebrity approach of TV entertainment news meaningless.

So does Perez feel victorious?

“I didn’t really try. I was just doing my own thing,” he said. “I’m happy doing it, and working really hard. Still, I don’t know if people realize how much I really work on the Web site. When I say I put in 16 hours a day, I’m not exaggerating.

“I set my alarm for 4. I’m out of bed by 4:20. And I don’t go to bed till like 10, 10:30. And other than going to the gym that one hour a day — which I’ve been forcing myself to do — I’ve been working nonstop.

“But I’m not complaining. I love what I do, and I get to do really cool things, like come to Vegas often, which I love. I love Vegas. It’s one of my favorite cities in the world. And I don’t even gamble. I just love coming to see shows and going to nice restaurants, because I don’t get to do that in L.A.”

Last question: “What’s your net worth at this point? Millions?”

“No, no, I’m worth way more. Like a couple billion!,” he joked. “I don’t know. The honest answer is I have a business manager who handles all of that. He sends me statements. But I don’t really look at them. I’m too busy.

“I’m doing well enough.”