It's time for another Gawker Book Club meeting: Ann Louise Bardach will be discussing her new book Without Fidel: A Death Foretold. Our topic today at 4pm: how Perez Hilton caused havoc in Miami by falsely reporting Fidel's death.

Investigative journalist Bardach has written and reported extensively about Castro's Cuba for Vanity Fair, The New York Times and 60 Minutes. Her new book follows the long end of Fidel Castro's reign and the rise of his brother Raul. One of the more bizarre chapters in that story is the 2007 false report by Perez Hilton that Fidel had died. Usually when Perez prints something fake it only causes trouble for a Hollywood D-lister and/or their publicist. This is Bardach's account of the chaos his dalliance in foreign affairs caused:

From Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana and Washington

In August 2007, several second-string newspapers in Colombia and Bolivia published stories asserting that Castro had, in fact, died. The rumors become so noisy that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez felt it necessary to set the record straight on his Sunday television show. "I spoke with him on his birthday," days earlier, Chavez said, "Rumors are circulating that Fidel Castro has died [but] Fidel is producing, he is writing." Then he proclaimed: "All of us will die one day, but Fidel is one of those who will never die."

But not everyone was convinced. On August 24, a 26 year old Cuban-American blogger named Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr, who posts under the name Pérez Hilton and specializes in teen celebrity gossip, recycled the Bolivian and Colombian dispatches. Lavendeira flatly announced on his blog that Fidel was dead and that the Miami Police Department would be making an official announcement imminently. It was a story of pure confection by a young blogger who had blurred and conflated crucial details.

Miami officials had met that day – but simply to review their contingency operation, dubbed "Alpha-Bravo," in which they would secure neighborhoods near Calle Ocho for a blow-out party once Castro was dead. Lavandeira was perhaps emboldened by fellow exile compatriot blogger, Val Prieto, who had made a similar claim on his ‘Babalu" blog: "Various sources inform that an announcement will come within the next few minutes from the Cuban government on Cuban TV and media." This was news to John Timoney, Miami's chief of police, since 2002.. A bemused Timoney told The Wall Street Journal that his forces had never gone on alert, adding drolly that "Since I've been here, Fidel has died four times already."

In a later post on his "PerezHilton" website, the would-be prophet offered a timeline. "The announcement of Fidel Castro's death will be made at approximately 4:00 P.M. Eastern. PérezHilton.com has just been updated exclusively." When 4 p.m. came and went, the unabashed Lavandeira jumped in with another breathless update. "An official announcement is still expected today. We are hearing that law enforcement wants to wait until rush hour traffic is over in Miami."

Pérez Hilton had made his name chronicling the comings, goings, arrests and rehabs of teen queens like Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. Evidently, he was not deterred in his entry into foreign affairs by his bogus scoop. Indeed, it justified a round of self-congratulation.

"PérezHilton.com was the first media outlet in the world to break the news of Castro's death.. We posted THIS ITEM on it last week!!!! A Cuban broke the story of the oppressive ogre's passing. We are soooo proud and happy!!... There's gonna be a big ol' party en Calle Ocho, mi gente!!"

As it turned out, the novice gossip columnist had something to crow about - having succeeded in getting his story picked up by several credulous mainstream reporters. Soon there were rumors about the rumors. Depending on who one spoke with – embalmers – from both Egypt and Russia – had arrived in Havana to attend to the deceased Castro. Never mind that Castro had already signaled in private conversations and with a few reporters (myself included) that he favored cremation. The rumors begat rumors reaching critical mass by day's end on August 24th. The Miami Herald got in on the action with a story covering the rumor mill: "On Friday, the rumors heated up again for the third week in a row: Fidel Castro's death would be announced, first at 2 p.m., then at 4, then at 5." The Herald story told of callers on Ninoska Pérez-Castellon's daily talk radio show, Ninoska en Mambí, weeping tears of joy believing the Great Satan of Cuba had expired. La Ninoska, the indefatigable anti-Castro radio diva of exile Miami, consoled her call-in supplicants. "The moment will come," she said soothingly, "but this is not the moment.''

"Don't believe a word. It's all a fabrication by the Miami crowd," a senior Cuban official warned Reuters. He was right, of course. Nor was it especially hard to debunk the Pérez Hilton-fueled "Fidel is Dead" rumor that had duped and embarrassed the mainstream media. For one thing, Ricardo Alarcon, the president of Cuba's National Assembly and a key spokesman on US policy -– had gone on vacation- and had not returned. Secondly, Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, flew off to Brazil to attend a -Latin American summit. Moreover, Raúl Castro had made a secretive trip to Italy, a crucial partner in Cuban tourism, in which he toured a state-of-the-art golf course in Tuscany. None of the three – all major players in the Cuban political firmament - would have ventured outside of Havana had Castro been remotely close to death's door.

On August 24, 2007, Castro was having a reasonably comfortable day and was watching his favorite show on television, La Mesa Redonda. He was particularly interested in the show as it featured his old school mate Max Lesnik, the exile columnist and bete noire of the Miami establishment, discussing the 100th birthday of the Cuban reformer, Eduardo Chibas. [A popular political activist, Chibas famously shot himself after his radio show in 1951, one year before Batista seized power.] "With Chibas alive there would have been no way for (Batista) to carry out a coup," Castro wrote in his Reflections "because the founder of the Cuban People's (Orthodox) Party watched him closely."

It was at Chibas' funeral, that a 25 year old Castro made his name, by leaping upon the grave and delivering a fiery denunciation of the Batisa regime. Castro owed much to Chibas – most notably, his own emergence as a political star to fill the void left by his death. There has always been one exception to Castro's aversion towards sentimentality: the Cuban Revolution in which his reminiscences bordered on reverie. Castro could now lie in his private hospital suite, eyes closed, and simply remember. For comfort and reassurance, he possessed his own mental movie: an endless video loop of his own improbable victories as the great guerrilla revolutionary.

By 9 p.m. on August 24th, 2007, Miami radio and television's rumor frenzy had devolved into a no-news meltdown. It was achingly clear that Fidel Castro Was Not Dead - Yet Again.
Castro couldn't help but celebrate yet another victory over "the Miami Mafia," as he designated his enemies in South Florida. Clad in his now familiar track suit, he arranged to be videotaped for a one hour interview for Cuban television. Asked about rumors of his impending death, Castro smiled contentedly and responded "Well, here I am!"

You can find more information on Without Fidel: A Death Foretold, on Annie's site. You can buy a copy at Simon & Schuster's site or on Amazon. If you're an author or a book publicist and you want to participate in the Gawker Book Club, send me an email.

Hilton (né Mario Lavandeira) is being sued for breaching a legal settlement that prevented him from mentioning Jonathan Lewandowski (a/k/a Jonathan Jaxson), the young blogger from whom Hilton allegedly solicited sex tapes in exchange for promoting Lewandowski's blog. When Lewandowski's name cropped up in a post on February 3, he claimed Hilton had violated the agreement. But Hilton was shocked — shocked! — that someone assumed he wrote PerezHilton.com. You see, it was really his sister, Barbara, who wrote the item.

A tipster forwarded us the lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court and you can find in full here.

His lawyer wrote in a letter to Lewandowski's counsel that Hilton's sister wrote the post:

Hilton has hinted at his sister's involvement; he told Time that he worked on the site with his "sister, who's my assistant and helps a little bit." But this is the first time he's confirmed that he has a full-on ghost writer.

Guanabee, meanwhile, has reported that Hilton has had other ghostwriters going back to 2006.

Which wouldn't be a scandal, if Hilton were to only acknowledge the help he gets. Yet he continues to hide the making of his gossip sausage, as though his readers are deeply invested in his oh-so-elegant image as an articulate man of letters and glamorous Hollywood gentleman. Hilarious.

[Lavandeira vs. Lewandowski — court filing]

Perez (née Mario Lavandeira) got a literal slap upside the head by Will.I.Am's manager earlier this week, and a few figuratively slaps upside the head by celebrities who once willingly participated in his sadomasochistic, symbiotic celebrity-industrial complex for his poor handling of Michael Jackson's death. Because of both, Lavandeira's clearly shaken, and isn't doing too well. The cracks in his mini-empire are beginning to show. Little of the trademark viciousness or salaciousness Perez typically attracts readers to his site with has been around lately. Take, for example, a handful of the stories he's posted lately:

- Pictures of Ashley Olson in Paris. Hilton's sure to point out how nice she was, according to the tipster. He also decries her smoking habit.

- Four lines about the legal documents from Michael Jackson's unpaid pharmaceutical bills. Where's the trademark Hilton "zinger" in this one? His kicker: "The case was dismissed a month later, probably as the result of a settlement."

- "NBC To Celebrate Ed McMahon." Again, a tone of reverence and sadness. We're talking about Perez Hilton on Ed McMahon, here.

- Fanboy pieces about a prequel to Inglorious Basterds in praise of Brad Pitt, as well as one about Madonna's new album title. Whee!

- Oh, and: projecting much? "Still More Work Ahead For Equal Rights" was the site's third post of the morning. It's Perez piss-poor populism in taking on an LA Times poll about California's gay marriage laws.

Since his poor handling of the Jackson story, people have been taking him to task. And not just people! But celebrities, who're just like us! They can't stand Hilton, either. Pete Wentz thinks he just needs to own up to getting the story wrong:

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

While John Mayer just thinks he needs to go away:

Perez is doing a bunch of "spin control," running his operation on a very tight, Press-y leash. Especially on Twitter. Now that he's alienated the gay community - even Matthew Shephard's mom won't take his money - he's sending the only people he has left, his deranged base of hardcore fans, plenty of cited messages on Twitter, highlighting and encouraging what little support for him is out there right now. He probably needs it, since advertiser money for his slightly more "family friendly" operation is going to be scarce after his very public PR fiascos.

Truth be told, Perez, cockroach that he is, probably isn't going anywhere any time soon. While more efficient ways of consuming the most brainsucking news out there surely exists, we've sadly let Perez become a brand name for gossip - like Coke, or Pepsi - and it's going to stay that way until someone's writing white lines over pictures of his faked real death or whatever. In the meantime, some of the things he prides himself most on - his celebrity "friends," the support of the gay community as someone of significance - have taken a hit past the point of no return, and there's surely more where that came from. As we all well know by now, Karma - like Perez - is kind of a bitch.The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

In the last hour Perez Hilton has taken down the photo shown here and amended his original post so he doesn't look as bad, but here's the text of what he originally posted.

We knew something like this would happen!!

Michael Jackson was taken by ambulance from his Holmby Hills home to a nearby Los Angeles hospital on Thursday afternoon!!

Supposedly, the singer went into cardiac arrest and the paramedics had to administer CPR!!!

His mother is even on the way to visit him!!!

We are dubious!!

Jacko pulled a similar stunt when he was getting ready for his big HBO special in ‘95 when he "collapsed" at rehearsal!

He was dragging his heels on that just like his upcoming 50 date London residency at the 02 Arena, of which he already postponed the first few dates!!!

Either he's lying or making himself sick, but we're curious to see if he's able to go on!!!

Get your money back, ticket holders!!!!

After Jackson was pronounced dead, Hilton took down the photo and edited the text down to these three sentences:

Michael Jackson was taken by ambulance from his Holmby Hills home to a nearby Los Angeles hospital on Thursday afternoon!!

The singer went into cardiac arrest and the paramedics had to administer CPR!!!

His mother is even on the way to visit him!!!

Meanwhile, the Matthew Shepard Foundation rejected Hilton's offer to donate whatever money he receives from a lawsuit against Black Eyed Peas manager Polo Molina. Here is the statement they released this afternoon:

The Matthew Shepard Foundation was surprised to learn this morning via media reports that blogger Perez Hilton (Mario Lavandeira) has announced he plans to donate, to our organization, the proceeds of a lawsuit he is contesting over an altercation which has been widely reported in recent days.

We had no advance notice or contact from Mr. Hilton or his representatives regarding this proposal, nor any communication since he posted this plan to his website.

We do not know the details of the lawsuit, whether it has been filed, the nature of his claims or the likely outcome. But because the lawsuit presumably involves the physical attack prompted by Mr. Hilton's admitted use of an anti-gay slur, the Foundation will be unable to accept any funds obtained in such a manner.

We very much appreciate the generosity of the offer to support our continuing work to memorialize Matthew through activism in defense of sexual minorities and in favor of understanding, compassion, and acceptance. But because so much of our work involves education to reduce the use of hateful language against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons, or those so perceived, it would be inappropriate for us to benefit financially from circumstances in which such a verbal attack was involved.

While we applaud Mr. Hilton's apology to the LGBT community and their loved ones for his use of such a slur, we also feel compelled to point out that use of epithets can often lead to physical violence, as it appears it may have in this case, and that the Matthew Shepard Foundation has worked for more than 10 years to bring to people's attention the consequences of hateful or inolerant language.

Judy Shepard
Chair, MSF Governing Board

How much longer before Hilton's advertisers begin to flee his hideously tarnished brand?

UPDATE: As pointed out by Idolator's Maura Johnston in the comments below, Perez is engaged in an epic celebrity rhetorical knife fight on Twitter right now with our pals Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson.

Screengrab below via SoupSoup

Buried at the end of a Politico report on the Obama-inspired largesse:

But Obama and his family aren’t the only ones on the receiving end of holiday cheer. The neighbors in Kailua put out tables and chairs outside for the reporters following him to sit on, rather than stay cooped up in the pool bus.

They have also opened their homes to reporters who have needed to use the bathroom.

One neighbor put out a table of snacks and board games for pool reporters on Christmas morning.

Gillan even added something for reporters in her gift bag: oatmeal, cranberry and raisin cookies.

Reporters cheered [Oahu resident Joy] Gillan as [Obama aide Katie] Lillie, once again fielding unsolicited gifts, brought the cookies onto the pool bus. They tore into the plastic bags and began enjoying the cookies.

Then Reuters photographer Hugh Gentry looked into the goodie bag and informed the pool that a live cockroach was at the bottom. Pool reporters stopped eating the cookies and dispersed of their remnants immediately.

This is a problem beyond just the yuck factor. Darryl Zeldin, a senior scientist with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, says: "Cockroaches significantly increase asthma symptoms in allergic individuals. And while a third of inner-city residents are cockroach-sensitive, sensitivity to cockroach exposure is widespread in our nation - not just in the inner cities."

If Whole Foods' "green" move starts a trend among food stores, it may contribute to New York's asthma epidemic.

Stier also argues that people reuse plastic bags, whereas paper bags are just, I don't know, set on fire and tossed out the window. If you always suspected Whole Foods of being in league with cockroaches, YOU HAVE BEEN PROVEN RIGHT. Only plastic can save us now.