Perez Hilton says he can take it, even if it's from 'Chelsea Lately'

Set your TiVos for bloodshed if the Gossip Gangstar actually appears on E!'s "Chelsea Lately" tonight.

When celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, who bills himself as the Gossip Gangstar in radio reports, was at the Mall of America signing copies of his book "Red Carpet Suicide," I told him that his paragraph about how comedian Chelsea Handler landed her second TV show stunned me.

"That's page 50, right," Hilton said. Impressive, although he would slip up later. "I'm supposed to be on her show on Tuesday. I would love to just clear the air with her. She talks some smack about me, too, in the most recent issue of Elle magazine. But I don't care. I dish it, I can take it. My feelings aren't hurt. She is really funny, though."

If that interview happens, it's sure to be a bleep-fest.

Split personality? It is hard to reconcile this incredibly benign, unassuming, reasonable-sounding person you'll see at startribune.com/video with the vicious beast who pens Perezhilton.com and adorns photos with sometimes graphic, crude scribblings of hearts and private body parts.

Perez's audience is not offended. "Way more flavor than any other celebrity magazine, so that's why we love it," Ellen Goerss told me. Goerss and her two sisters, Greta and Ingrid -- they're all from Iowa but now live in metro -- were the fans in the cute, very sophisticated-looking pink T's that read "mpls heart perez" who waited in line for three hours. When Greta was telling me Monday that they made the T's themselves, with lettering and a heart bought at Jo-Ann Fabric, I asked her if she'd be surprised to hear that Perez was a little nervous about whether anyone would come to his book event at the MOA. "Really," Greta said. "I am surprised."

In my interview, Hilton said, "I never thought I'd be at the Mall of America having a signing! Hopefully, a good number of people will show up." The man who claims 9 million Web hits a day had nothing to worry about and the people at Barnes & Noble could not have been more tickled with the turnout, which I estimated at more than 400.

Terrific average, but is Perez angry with the person who told him Fidel Castro had died?

Nope: "It's a really good source, who's given me reliable information in the past. They got it from someone in the government, a really good source who obviously was wrong."

While accuracy concerns Perez, he's totally at peace with his mean, nasty side. "Who says you have to like everyone?" Perez told Fox 9's Jason Matheson, whose first episode of "Weekend Buzz" Thursday may include an interview with the blog star. In the interview with Matheson, Perez explained that in his eyes Jennifer Aniston and Satan have something in common. He doesn't like either one. He also doesn't like Katie Couric, but here's the cold comfort for the CBS news anchor: She's not up there (down there) with Aniston and Satan in Perez's esteem.

Perez also did a little singing for Matheson. The Gossip Gangstar, who dreams of singing "Mr. Cellophane" in a production of "Chicago," has a good voice!

Name that celebrity In an attempt to discern whether Perez wrote this book himself, I asked him who were Jim Ramstad, page 80, and Onterrio Smith, page 81.

Keeping it in the family Perezhilton.com is a mom, sister and brother operation. That's it.

"I have her do mom-like things; I pay her really well," he said of his mother's help. "I moved her from Miami to Los Angeles" and have taken her all over the world. "Everyday she makes my bed. She washes my clothes."

Hold up. The Gossip Gangstar can't make his own bed? "I could, but that's [why] I pay my mom very well," Perez said.