There were few tears shed among America's celebrity community today after news broke that Perez Hilton, scourge of the famous, had received a pugilistic dose of his own medicine.
The gossip blogger alleged that he had been assaulted at a music awards ceremony in Toronto on Sunday by the manager of the Black Eyed Peas. The outbreak of fisticuffs, allegedly also involving the band's frontman Will.I.Am, left Hilton with an impressive shiner.
Hilton announced the alleged assault almost in real time, via a stream of increasingly frantic Tweets from the MuchMusic Awards. "I'm in shock. I need the police ASAP," came the first.
"I was assaulted by Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas and his security guards. I am bleeding." He added through Twitter: "Please, I need to file a police report. No joke."
In a later video blog, kept to a pithy 11 minutes, Hilton said he had been assaulted by the band's manager Polo Molina outside Toronto's Cobra club. Molina was arrested and charged with assault.
The spat is reported to have begun after Will.I.Am approached Hilton regarding the blogger's recent criticism of the hip-hop act's latest album The.End. He wrote that he hated the No1 hit from the album, Boom Boom Pow.
Will.I.Am claimed Hilton inflamed the row by calling him a "faggot".
In five years of running a celebrity blog, it is safe to say that Hilton, real name Mario Lavandeira, has acquired plenty of enemies. But he insists he has never been physically attacked by any of his celebrity victims.
In the video, he makes an impassioned plea that violence is never justified. "I know that I say things that can really upset people. That's never a reason to hit someone."
