cover image TMI: My Life in Scandal

TMI: My Life in Scandal

Perez Hilton with Leif Eriksson and Martin Svensson. Chicago Review, $26.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-64160-404-8

Celebrity blogger Hilton (Red Carpet Suicide: A Survival Guide on Keeping Up with the Hiltons) recounts his exploits—and surprisingly self-aware regrets—in this delicious memoir. Growing up gay in 1980s and ’90s Miami, Cuban-American Hilton (“back then,” he reveals “my name was Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr.”) was taunted for his weight and sent to a therapist to “make sure I wasn’t gay.” But he got the last laugh by toggling between New York City (“a mecca for gay men”) and L.A., where he started a red-hot gossip blog. No one was exempt from his snarky repartee as he climbed the fame ladder—something he claims he now regrets, along with other “self-destructive, impulsive” behavior such as selling not-yet-released books online, running up credit card debt and declaring bankruptcy, and alienating Kim Kardashian. Hanging out with the likes of Paris Hilton, Amanda Bynes, Amy Winehouse, and Lady Gaga, Hilton mercilessly spread insider secrets, including the time when John Mayer put his tongue in the author’s mouth. Hilton also waxes poetic (and rather touchingly) about his three children, conceived via surrogate, and how they’ve softened his world view. This is catnip for Hollywood gossip hounds. Agent: Daniel Kim, Arena Scripts Literary & Film Agency. [em](Oct.) [/em]