He took himself out of the debate.

The kiss of death was when he said he was going to be nice.  That’s like Dick Cheney caring what the public thinks, that’s like Sarah Palin suddenly saying Obama’s great, that’s like Paul Krugman saying trickle down economics work.  A LEOPARD CAN’T CHANGE HIS SPOTS!

In other words, you’d better make it on who you really are, because if you want to change midstream, you’re in trouble.

Perez has a fatal flaw.  He wants to be liked.

Don’t forget, Sally Field acknowledging her weakness, that she had low self-esteem and cared what people thought of her, and this dented her career, she went from winning multiple Oscars to nowhere and then TV.  Marlon Brando refused to show up to accept his Oscar.  Didn’t hurt him a whit.  In other words, once you start giving the public what it wants, you’re doomed.  You’ve got to follow your own path, tick to your own inner clock, or else you’ll get blown away by the whims of the public.

Perez was successful because not only did he reveal gossip, he commented upon it.  At first people flocked to his site because he broke the news.  Ultimately, TMZ did this better than he did, but Perez’s audience stuck with him because of the attitude.  TMZ is faceless.  Whereas Perez was all about personality…  HIS PERSONALITY!

An overweight ethnic gay who was not accepted by society.

Perez invented himself, played by his own rules, and became not only a star, but a starmaker.  His fans listened to him and wannabe stars played up to him, because of the huge audience he controlled.

Then Perez drank his own Kool-Aid.  Instead of seeing himself as a blogger with an attitude, suddenly he was a media star.  Not only appearing all over radio and TV, which is an excusable victory lap, but always pays short term dividends, the media needs fodder today and doesn’t care about you tomorrow, but hosting his own concert tour and expanding into fashion and animal and god knows how many other blogs.

Perez was at the cutting edge of gossip blogging.  He knew the ins and outs.  What did he know about fashion?

He had an opinion.  But so does everybody else.  Perez was leveraging the brand, but there was nothing underneath, there was not the 10,000 hours in fashion design.  And he’s got a pup and a mother, who doesn’t?

It’s hard to make it in one tiny sliver of entertainment.  Do you really think you can dominate in all of them?  Hell, Madonna couldn’t even make it as an actress!

You’ve got to know what made you.  Perez took his eye off the ball.  He didn’t realize his gossip blog was his cash cow, his identity.

And then he decided to play nice.

Sure, he could have done a mea culpa for bad behavior, which he exhibited on more than one occasion, that’s what I love about newbie stars, their success far outstrips their maturity.  But why eliminate the snark?  We’re ALL snarky!  Gays have been backbiting forever.  It’s a sport.  Which they perform in better than the straights.  It’s a cultural thing.

But the straights love to gossip too.  If we can’t put someone down, we’re not alive.  It’s as old as the hills.  Dragging down he or she who’s more famous, more successful.  Suddenly Perez Hilton is going to change human nature?  As I stated above, Perez does not have the best gossip anymore, but no one can steal his attitude.

Be unique.  And stay there.  If you’re like everybody else, you can be imitated into oblivion.

Like Jennifer Grey.  She was cute with a big nose.  She wanted to be beautiful with a tiny little perky nose but after rhinoplasty she looked like everybody else, no one could recognize her, she lost her individuality, her career was through.

If you make metal music, don’t start working with beats, don’t follow the flavor of the moment.  You might have momentary success, but then what?  You’ve alienated your core for an evanescent new fan base?

Don’t mind the slings and arrows.  It goes with the territory.  If you don’t have haters, you don’t have a profile.

I don’t think Perez Hilton can come back.  But his only option, his only chance at reclaiming his throne, is by canning all the extracurriculars and focusing on his main site, and returning to the doodles and the attitude.

It’s not like the vacuum’s been filled.  Sure, we’ve got Bonnie Fuller, but she seems to want fame and notoriety so much it’s creepy.  Sure, Perez wanted fame and notoriety too, but he started off NOWHERE, not as the editor of "Us" and "The Star".

And RadarOnline.com’s got no personality.

Perez needs a comeback.  He’s got to get back to where he once belonged.

Let this be a lesson to you.  Don’t go for world domination.  Be happy you triumph in your own niche.  Maximize the brand you’ve got.  And don’t change your identity!  If someone married a curvy brunette they don’t want to wake up next to an anorexic blonde!