Blogger Perez Hilton is facing widespread outrage, and possibly legal trouble, for posting an apparently explicit paparazzi shot of Miley Cyrus taken when the pop star was climbing out of a car.
Hilton, 32, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira Jr., posted the offending photo on Monday. He has since removed it. But since it exposed Cyrus, 17 – a minor – he could potentially face child-pornography charges.
Reaction to his posting of the image – which PEOPLE will not reproduce, even in a censored form – has been swift and damning, with Tuesday's morning talk shows full of anger and recrimination at Hilton. What remains to be seen is whether it was not just a poor decision but a criminal one.
Jeffrey Douglas, a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney specializing in child pornography cases, told Salon.com that it was "suicidal" for Hilton to distribute the image. "We're not talking about a misdemeanor," he said. "You don't have to know what the definition of the law is; all you have to do is knowingly distribute the photograph."
Even if, as some have suggested, the image has been Photoshopped, that would not absolve Hilton. "That is still a crime, and it is punishable just the same," says Douglas, adding that even clearly manipulated images – a child's head Photoshopped onto an adult's body, for example – is punishable under the law.
In a video posted on his Web site Tuesday afternoon, Perez Hilton addresses what he calls the "fake" controversy. "Sure I like to be controversial," he says, "but I don't want to go to jail." He then adds that Cyrus was "clearly" not showing anything inappropriate.
Cyrus has not commented.
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