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Perez Hilton – who normally spreads the word on celebrity spats – seems to be at the centre of one himself this morning.
The celeb blogger - born Mario Armando Lavandeira- claims he got in an argument with Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.I.Am and was subsequently assaulted by the band's manager, Liborio "Polo" Molina, at an after party following last night's MuchMusic Video Awards. Molina, 36, of California, turned himself in for questioning at downtown 52 Division station around 7 a.m. He was charged with one count of assault before being released from custody on a promise to appear in court Aug. 5, Toronto Police Const. Tony Vella confirmed.
"The allegation was that he was assaulted by a security guard that is associated to the band the Black Eyed Peas," Brown said. "The assault is minor in nature."
Drama hit the online world around 3 a.m. with a tweet from Lavandeira.
"I'm in shock. I need the police ASAP. Please come to the SoHo Metropolitan Hotel now. Please," Lavandeira posted on his Twitter page, twitter.com/PerezHilton.
The message was followed by this post: "I was assaulted by Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas and his security guards. I am bleeding. Please, I need to file a police report. No joke."
He later goes on to say that he filed a report with Toronto Police.
According to the police report, Lavandeira was found with "a mouse under his eye ... like a little reddish mark," Brown said.
Brown didn't have the name of the person who turned himself in for questioning, but said "it was a security person, maybe the manager."
TMZ.com is reporting Molina is the one in custody.
"Whether or not charges will be pursued is yet to be determined. Even if they are, they're minor in nature and the person will be released," Brown said.
It appears Will.I.Am, born William J. Adams, created a Twitter account (twitter.com/iamtherealwill) to respond to the allegations.
"I just made a Twitter account because it isn't cool for someone to blame you and blast you with lies...," he posted around 4 a.m. This video response was posted an hour later.
"This dude twists it and says that I assaulted him when I was the one that came to him with respect and he was the one that called me a f--- outside the club," Adams said in the video. "Whatever. Um. I hit you Perez? Come on dude. I didn't hit you. I told you that I didn't like the fact that you disrespected us."
Referring to Lavandeira's early morning tweets before police were called, Adams went on to say: "It sounds like somebody wants mad attention and is not really concerned about his health. I didn't hit you. And this is very wrong that you are twitting that I did that, once again disrespecting me and everything that I stand for. And they're lies, and that's wrong. Shame on you. Shame on your behaviour and that's just messed up. Peace."
Perez Hilton in turn posted a detailing his allegations around 10:20 a.m.
At 10:18 a.m., Lavandeira snapped back at Adams with an angry and at times tearful video post on his website."Will.I.Am is a coward and a disgusting human being for lying. And I'm making this video because I want to make it clear, I would never make something up like this. I would never lie about something so serious. I have ten million plus people that visit my website everyday. I don't need press. I don't need publicity. I don't need or want this. I didn't ask for this. I didn't deserve this. I like writing about other people's drama. I don't want drama in my own life," Lavandeira said.
The celebrity blogger said he was approached by Fergie during a dress rehearsal Saturday night. "She said, 'Hey, why are you being mean? Why are you being angry? I thought we were cool.' And I told her, 'I'm not angry at you and the new single has grown on me.' I was being honest and I was letting her have her moment. I'm a big boy. I dish it. I can take it," Lavandeira said.
On Sunday night, during the live video awards, Lavandeira was "shouldered" by a member of the Black Eyed Peas entourage something he mentioned to the media after the show, he said.
During an after-party at Ultra nightclub, Fergie approached him again "and said, 'Hey Perez , you know, man, I thought we were so cool,'" Lavandeira said in his video.
"I can't believe people are getting this upset about me not liking their music or me saying Fergie's fugly, or whatever," he said.
Lavandeira said he left Ultra and went to another after-party at Cobra Lounge.
"We were there for like an hour. We get ready to leave around 2:30 or three in the morning and as we were actually getting ready to leave. Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas comes into the club, sees me like a heat-seeking missile and comes directly towards me. And he says, 'Yo, I need you to do me a favour. I need you to never write about my band on your website again.' Right in my face he was saying this, very aggressively," Lavandeira said.
"He's like, 'You need to respect me.' At that point in my mind I was like, 'You know what? I'm not going to let this man intimidate me,'" Lavandeira said. "I told him, 'You know what? No. I don't need to respect you. I don't respect you.' And that's when I made the split-second decision that I was going to say what I thought was the worst possible thing that thug would ever wanna hear. Because I was standing my ground without being violent or physical, which I would never do. I told him, 'And you know what, I don't need to respect you. And you're a f--. You're gay and stop being such a f-----.'"
"We leave the club and as soon as we leave, there's Will.I.Am again outside of the club. He followed us outside. Then his manager, Polo, whom I have met before, from behind comes up to me, clocks me in the eye, right here, and punches me two or three times. I am in shock. I did not know what to do. I touch my eye and it was bleeding. I see my fingertips and I'm bleeding. I think my eye might be falling out of my head."
"I cannot wrap my brain big or little as it may be that a person who functions in the capacity of a manager, who's supposed to be a professional, would do something so unprofessional and illegal. And Will.I.Am, f--- you because you f------ lied, you f------ mother f-----."
Lavandeira said he went back to his hotel and was "followed" by Will.I.Am, who was staying at the same hotel.
"I did what should be done when someone is assaulted and when you're in fear of your safety. I called the police," he said. "I called 911. I spoke to the police and they explained to me that, you know, they would try to make it, but there were actual emergencies going on. But I was in fear for my safety and I had been assaulted."
And so he reached out for help in a different way. He tweeted.
"I could have told Will.I.Am I hope he dies. I could have told him I hope Fergie sits on a stick and impales herself. I could have said anything I wanted. That was not an excuse for their manager to attack me. So when the police are taking their time and they're not coming, I'm freaking out, I took to Twitter because I was freaking out and I felt helpless. And that was my very public cry for help."
With tears brimming in his eyes, Lavandeira thanked everyone who called police on his behalf. "Because I am a human being and no one deserves to be treated that way. Violence is never the answer," he said.
A press release put out by Metropolitan Hotels, which operates the SoHo hotel, said Lavandeira tweeted about the alleged assault from a friend¹s room in the hotel.
"After Hilton's messages appeared on Twitter at approximately 3:30 a.m. ...we started receiving phone calls from as far away as China and India," hotel general manager David Kelley said in a statement. "The police appeared almost immediately afterwards, and we cooperated fully with the investigations."
Many of the presenters, winners and performers of the MMVAs were guests at the hotel, the press release said.