You get kicked in the head, are bleeding and think you probably need the cops, what do you do?
A: ask someone nearby to call the police
B: use your mobile phone to call the police
C: use your mobile phone to log onto Twitter and tell your 1,030,000 followers to call the police for you.
Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton might not live in the real world with the rest of us, but they were allegedly real bruises he was sporting last night - and real police officers required to sort out what happened after he chose option C.
The Toronto police department was no doubt thrilled so many of the bitchy blogger’s followers were so quick to report the drama.
The short version of events goes something like this. At a music awards night in Toronto Hilton said something catty to Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie.
Her band mate Wil.I.Am took exception and someone in his entourage clocked Hilton.
This series of tweets then appeared in the stream of Hilton’s followers:
I’m in shock. I need the police ASAP. Please come to the SoHo Metropolitan Hotel now. Please.
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.
Still waiting for the police. The bleeding has stopped. I need to document this. Please, can the police come to the SoHo Met Hotel.
I spoke to my lawyer. I really need to talk to the authorities. Please come to the SoHo Met Hotel. Have called the police. Need them here.
The Toronto police are here now. Thank you. Please stop calling them.
Will.I.Am was pretty quick to issue his own response, in this video. Hilton countered with this angry rant.
These two web-savvy celebs both milked the technology available to them to get what they needed, in Hilton’s case attention, and in Will.I.Am’s case, somewhere to voice a denial.
In the hours following mobs of Twitter users piled on to Hilton, saying everything from he deserved the bashing to pointing out the ridiculousness of using a mobile phone to Tweet instead of dialing the police yourself.
But you don’t have to have followers in the six figures to indulge in public drama.
In May British journalist Tony McDonough found himself caught up in a drive-by shooting and copped a spray of pellets in the head.
I’ve been shot in West Derby Village - pellets have grazed my cheek - I’m ok I think
i have four shotgun pellets lodged in the side of my head. Two of my friends were also hit.
We were stood drinking just inside the doorway of the Sefton Arms when a gunman on a motorbike opened fire from outside - not aiming at us
My t-shirt and jeans were covered in blood
A couple of days after his unusual response to bloody violence made it around the world the modest Pom said: Getting shot seems to have made me popular on Twitter.
In a less violent but potentially dangerous incident NY talk show host and conservative pin-up Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who was at the time quite pregnant (still is) got hit by a bicycle: was hit by a bike today on a sidewalk…thankfully the belly is ok. wondering how many other new yorkers have had the same thing happen…
She later said the Tweet sent her friends and family into a bit of a tizz, but admitted she tweeted before calling anyone, including her husband.
Ok, so if your life is anything like my life it’s nothing like Perez Hilton or Will.I.Am’s lives, but anyone with access to a mobile phone or computer is susceptible to a tweet-first-think-later moment when under high stress.
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