Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton is being sued again – this time over a topless Jennifer Aniston pic which appeared on his site.

Universal studios said that the shot of Aniston, which ended up on the cutting room floor, was “misappropriated and illegally copied,” and that Perez “illegally obtained a copy of all or part of the stolen footage.”

Apparently, the studio sent a letter to Perez, requesting that he remove the footage in question from his site. He refused, and the footage is still there.

Perez claims that the picture was all over the web, and that the accusations were “unfair.”

His attorney released a statement: “It is unfortunate that Universal has chosen to bring this lawsuit as our client has done nothing wrong.” He added that Perez did take the offensive photograph down at Universal’s request.

“Our client questions whether this lawsuit was in fact motivated by Ms. Aniston as a result of her disdain for viewpoints expressed about her on the site.” (He called her “Maniston”)

There is more to this story, but I’m a little lazy right now

If you’d like to read more, click here.

[tags] jennifer aniston, sues, perez hilton, universal, stolen, footage, boob, photo[/tags]

A full-scale search is continuing for CNET senior editor James Kim, who left his family’s stranded car in snowy southwest Oregon Saturday to seek help.

Rescue teams are currently searching for James in a 5-mile stretch of a narrow canyon a few miles from where the car was found, Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson said at a press conference Tuesday, adding that “it is a very rugged, remote area; the teams are having some difficulty because of the terrain and conditions.”

Kim’s wife and two young daughters were found alive and well Monday after surviving more than a week stranded in the wilderness. They have since been reunited with family.

The lost family had “minor provisions” and stayed warm using the car heater, then burned tires when they ran out of gas, authorities said. Kati Kim also nursed the girls.

“James set up camp for them, just like it was a camping trip for them, to help them get through it. They had the store of things that they would normally have for the girls…bottled water, blankets,” Sandy Fleming, Kati’s mother, said Tuesday on the ABC program Good Morning America.

At about 1:45 p.m. PST on Monday, rescuers were notified that a vehicle and a female waving an umbrella were spotted by a helicopter search crew near the Rogue River in the area of Bear Camp Viewpoint off Bear Camp Road, according to Oregon State Police. The location is a 3,500-foot mountain pass in the Siskiyou National Forest.

The helicopter that spotted the trio was reportedly a private aircraft contracted by the family.

The Kim family left their home in San Francisco two weeks ago on a Thanksgiving road trip to the Pacific Northwest. They had been last seen on the Saturday after the holiday in Portland and later at a Denny’s restaurant in Roseburg, according to the San Francisco Police Department’s missing persons’ report.

The family was expected to return to San Francisco on Monday, November 27. When both James and Kati failed to show up for appointments on Tuesday, November 28, co-workers began to worry for their safety. The Kims are known for keeping in touch daily with their friends and co-workers, either by phone or e-mail.

In a search-and-rescue mission spanning multiple counties, state and federal personnel began searching highways and remote area roads by land and air for the family’s silver Saab station wagon. Some of those roads are difficult to travel, described by authorities as narrow and curvy, with steep bordering embankments. Sno-Cats have been assisting with the search in sections covered with up to 6 inches of frozen snow.

Kim is a senior editor covering digital audio. He also co-hosts a weekly video podcast for the Crave gadget blog. He has been writing a book on Microsoft’s Zune MP3 player. Formerly, he was an on-air personality on the now-defunct cable television network TechTV. [Source]
[tags]james, kim, missing, search[/tags]

One of the top celeb bloggers around, Perez Hilton, has been sued for a whopping US$7.5 Million for copyright infringement.

The agency behind the suing claims that Perez used their hard-earned photographs on his website “without permission from the agency, thereby violating federal law.”

They believe that their photos have played a huge part in the success (& money earnt!) of Perez’s blog, perezhilton.com, and say they are suing for a ‘loss of profits’ and ‘injury to their reputation.’

Perez released a statement to TMZ, and said: “I have yet to be personally served with this lawsuit. My lawyers and I will address the situation when we have the opportunity to review the materials.”

This could be the beginning of the end for Perez…

[tags]perez hilton, sued, million, copyright infringement[/tags]

Celebrity Blogger Perez Hilton, friend to some stars such as Paris HIlton is making headlines himself for all the wrong reasons.

TMZ reports on a little tiff between Perez and a photog outside an Xbox 360 party at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The photographer confronted Perez, accusing him of stealing photographs for his blog.

When the photog asked about a specific picture that was on his site, Perez shot back, “Nobody contacted me to take it down, so shut up you fluffy wombat, or words to that effect.

Being Friday here, it seems like a good opportunity to see exactly what people think of Perez, so I have put up a poll in the sidebar for everyone to vote on.

Feel free to leave comments on your thoughts on Perez.

[tags]perez hilton, photog, argument[/tags]

No one has publicly come forward to lay claim to her work, but she is starting to look as connected in Hollywood as any starlet. Three lonelygirl15-obsessed amateur Web sleuths set up a sting using tracking software that appears to show that e-mails sent from a lonelygirl15 account came from inside the offices of the Beverly Hills-based talent agency Creative Artists Agency.

The apparent CAA link takes its place alongside other tantalizing pieces of evidence that lonelygirl15 is not who she claims to be: a copyright for the name obtained by an Encino lawyer, and a plot line that, leading speculation suggests, will turn out to be the lead-in to a horror movie’s marketing campaign.

CAA spokesman Michael Mand said he “could neither confirm nor deny” that the agency is representing whoever is behind the 27 video posts. (Other talent agencies and production companies contacted by The Times denied any connection.)

As to horror film rumors, calls made to several studios found no such plans — but plenty of fascination for the way in which a Hollywood-ready cultural phenomenon has been built from a grass-roots Web platform. Lonelygirl15, many say, is the next-generation “Blair Witch Project,” using interactive forms of storytelling that, like the 1999 hit, tries to trick an audience into thinking it’s true.

So is it all just an elaborate viral marketing campaign? [Source]

[gv data="http://www.youtube.com/?v=fn9J2K4UMR8"][/gv]

[tags]Lonelygirl15, hoax, video, youtube[/tags]