My Life with the B-List
How MIA saved my Lolla weekend after a disappointingly short interaction with Perez Hilton
by Maya Henderson
I never thought I’d sing the lyric, “I salt ’n’ pepper my mango,” with so much voracity, but seeing MIA at the Q101 Lolla concert at the House of Blues Aug. 4 felt good after meeting Perez Hilton and being a little more than disappointed. The gossip gangsta himself was in town to host the Blender afterparty at the Hard Rock Hotel Aug. 3, but upon arriving for my highly anticipated interview, I was informed that he would only do five-minute sessions. Below are the highlights of my chat with the bleach-blond blog phenom.
If you could make anyone in Hollywood your boytoy, who would it be?
Oprah, because I love her! I want to go on her show! She’s my favorite. I’m an Othiest. I made that up.
Yeah, every time I talk to my mom she encourages me to get a job with her.
Make it happen. [He then goes into a verse and half the chorus to the Mariah Carey song.]
OK. Now that you’re famous and getting a show, do you worry about your image? Thinking of doing Celebrity Fit Club?
No! I showed my balls the other day and it ended up on the Internet. I don’t care. I’m the fattest I’ve ever been but I own it. Like Oprah would say, I own it, so it’s OK.
What’s up with the show? How are you going to keep interest in both the site and the show?
The only way to keep interest is to keep working as hard as I do. I don’t know anyone who works as hard as me. The show is going to be series of one-hour specials, so I’m going to be the gay Barbara Walters. It’s going to be all celebrities, all the time. We already started shooting, and it’s amazing the caliber of talent we’re getting. People are going to love it.
So, pretty short and sweet, right? Depressed that I only had a few short minutes with Perez, I made my way over to HOB for MIA. I arrived minutes before MIA went on and was able to get a good view of the stage, since tickets were sparse and only available on Q101’s Web site. Which left more room for me to shake and sing along to songs off MIA’s Arular, like “Bucky Down Gun,” “Sunshowers” and, of course, “Galang.” She also performed tracks off her new album, Kala (out August 21) like the tribal-influenced “Bird Flu” and “Boyz.”
As good as the new songs sound, I was still surprised at how much energy she exerted on stage. On Arular, I thought she sounded a little flat on some songs. But seeing her pop it, dance and interact with her hypewoman, Cherry, around the stage in tight lameé stretch pants, a long black T-shirt and sunglasses instantly changed my mind.