DOCUMENT: Celebrity, Internet

Woman Sues "FAT GAY PIG" Perez Hilton

Ohioan claims she was fired after blogger posted her nasty e-mail

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Woman Sues "FAT GAY PIG" Perez Hilton

JULY 15--An Ohio woman who lost her job after blogger Perez Hilton posted an e-mail in which she called him a 'FAT GAY PIG' and Angelina Jolie a 'fag lover' is suing the online columnist for $25 million for publishing her name and e-mail address, which she claims triggered hundreds of angry letters and phone calls from fans of the gossip site.

Last December, Diane Wargo, 42, sent Hilton (real name: Mario Lavandeira) a nasty e-mail in response to an item he had posted regarding Jolie and Brad Pitt spending Christmas with their children in New Orleans. As seen here, Lavandeira responded by publishing the missive, along with Wargo's name and her office e-mail address (she worked for a senior living center called Menorah Park).

According to a Court of Common Pleas lawsuit filed yesterday by Wargo and her husband, the publication of the e-mail resulted in Wargo receiving 'several hundred emails threatening her and her family' and 'many threatening phone calls to her listed home phone number.' Additionally, Wargo's Menorah Park supervisors were also contacted by angry Perez Hilton readers, some of who posted scathing comments about her on the popular blog. Wargo contends that she was fired as a 'direct result of the negative publicity and ongoing harassing emails and phone calls' triggered by her e-mail with its anti-gay sentiments.

'Indeed, Mrs. Wargo would not have been fired, but for the publication of her email address,' contends the July 14 complaint, which was first reported by Courthouse News. Shortly after Lavandeira posted Wargo's e-mail, a Menorah Park official wrote him to renounce the 'inappropriate' and 'unauthorized communication' sent by Wargo via the firm's e-mail system. Lavandeira appended that e-mail to his original posting of Wargo's note to him. (11 pages)