American blogger Perez Hilton is quite the phenomenon. Since it began in 2004, his bitchy celebrity website has become one of the most famous blogs in the world, loved and hated with Marmite-like intensity. It’s also turned 29-year-old Perez into something of a star himself. In town for the Brit Awards, we caught up with him for a chat...

What have you been up to in London?
Perez Hilton: Just keeping busy. I went to a lot of Fashion Week parties, DJed on Friday night, went to see Billy Elliot, met up with friends for dinner…

Did you go to Kerry Katona’s “baby shower” promotion?
Perez Hilton: Yes, I went to that.

How was it?
Perez Hilton: [pause] It was kinda lame.

How so?
Perez Hilton: I dunno – they were screening her TV show and they didn’t set it up in a way where everyone could watch the show with, like, nice sightlines and hear it well and everything. It wasn’t amazing. And there were all these Z-listers and… whatever.

What differences between the British and American celebrity scenes have you noticed?
Perez Hilton: There’s a lot more reality TV stars who are famous in the UK. Celebrity culture as a whole is a very aspirational thing and here it’s a lot more attainable, because you have all these reality TV stars who are famous, all those Wags – anyone can date a soccer stud. And I think in the UK people here like their stars to be real and more flawed. You don’t need that image of perfection.

Why did you start blogging about celebrities in the first place?
Perez Hilton: Because I didn’t want to write about myself.

Haven’t you found yourself doing that anyway?
Perez Hilton: Erm, not as much as I write about celebrities.

How do you explain the general obsession at the moment with celebrity culture?
Perez Hilton: I don’t think it’s anything new – I think people have always been obsessed with it. I just think that celebrity news has become more mainstream now because it’s so profitable, so everyone is talking about it.

If you could change one thing about celebrity culture, what would it be?
Perez Hilton: Um. Good question. I wish there was a way to make it more universal. I would love to have more characters to write about and more people to write about. You know, I try to keep up with the UK celebrities, but it would be good to see what’s going on with celebrities everywhere, worldwide.

So do you find yourself writing about the same celebrities over and over again?
Perez Hilton: Well the good thing is, I get to write about whomever I want, so it’s not just the same ones, but still, you could always use more.

Who’s your favourite?
Perez Hilton: Britney.

Is she going to be OK, do you think?
Perez Hilton: I hope so. I’m feeling a little more optimistic.