http://www.inlamagazine.com/1107/columnists/karel.html An Open Letter to a Hilton
by Charles Karel Bouley II
Dear Perez:
You don’t know me and I do not know you personally. I have occasionally read your blog, but find it far too sexist and unnecessarily vulgar for my taste. But still, I was happy for your success. You parlayed a mediocre gossip blog into a TV show for VH-1 and several other ventures. And I applaud any time an openly gay or lesbian person makes it in mainstream media. As one of the first “Queens of all Media,” as you call yourself, I delight when we make it in a business not really accepting of us in front of the camera or microphone yet.
Often I have thought you have gone over the line in terms of representing gays and lesbians in the media, but the last thing I want to do is draw a line for you. However, recently, you have done something that simply has gone too far and I now must denounce you. And I hate that. But you have sold your soul for the fame you write about—you no longer wish to be the observer, you wish to be the star. And when you cross that line, what you do publicly matters.
Recently you proudly attended the annual White House Correspondent’s Dinner. Now, you don’t cover politics or the White House, so I gather you attended as a guest of a magazine that had tickets. Gone were your trademark purple hair and outrageous fashions. Instead, you butched it up as best you could to fit in with all the “respectable” people, I suppose.
You sat silent while George Bush made jokes at the expense and blood of our nation. You remarked how odd it might be to run into Karl Rove. But my question is—what were you doing there? Was the salmon dinner you were eating while there are food riots around the world from this administration’s failed energy and food policies worth it? I mean, this was no stale chicken dinner.
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