Earlier last week, infamous Hollywood gossip monger Perez Hilton aimed his somewhat twisted view of the celebrity life at none other than one of poker’s more visible celebrity players, actress Shannon Elizabeth.
In a blog on his website entitled “Shannon Elizabeth Is NOT Going To Like This” on Thursday, Hilton posted an e-mail he received from an anonymous source regarding a home game that Elizabeth was allegedly running from her home in Hollywood. The writer of the e-mail states, “Last Friday, a few friends and I were invited to a house poker game in Los Feliz and it turned out to be Shannon Elizabeth’s house… This is kind of cool and we at first think it’s really a treat to be playing poker with her.” The writer then goes on to describe what they found to be alleged objectionable practices.
The e-mail to Hilton says that not only was Elizabeth not participating in the game, she would also only come in to “collect money from people and take a rake from the pots.” The writer of the e-mail recalled, “One pot I was in had only $70 in it, but the dealer took $25 out for the house. Anyone who plays poker knows this is nuts.”
Hilton’s source continues with a statement that contradicts what the writer said at the start of the e-mail in that “it was a treat to be playing with her (Shannon).” The writer’s contradiction comes at the end of the e-mail: “The few times I have played with her, she’s thrown childish hissy fits and stormed off, throwing cards and chips. She’s mean, immature, disrespectful, and just an all-around shallow greedy has-been.”
The story has generated a great deal of activity on not only Hilton’s blog, but also on poker message boards. On Hilton’s site, many of the posters call him out for randomly publishing an e-mail that cannot be confirmed through investigative channels and note that he posts information that could be potentially litigious. Others note that Elizabeth couldn’t possibly have been in the game, as during the time period in question, she was in Las Vegas playing at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Elizabeth notes this through her Twitter account when she calmly posted, “In response 2 the Perez thing-it’s so silly & untrue cause U can go back & look at my postings & see I was in Vegas @ The WSOP competing.”
On TwoPlusTwo, an eight-page thread was generated before moderators shut it down. Many posters brought out the possibility that the hand explained in the e-mail is what is called a time collection pot. In that instance, there is no rake charged, but at certain time intervals, a set fee is taken from a pot. Overall on both threads, Elizabeth has more support from posters than Hilton does.
Hilton seems to make a living out of being a lightning rod for controversy in the Hollywood gossip world. His history of controversy dates back to 2005 and, more recently, he has been the focal point of several brouhahas in the entertainment community. In 2009, when he was a judge for the Miss USA pageant, he infamously asked Miss California representative Carrie Prejean her views on same sex marriage, which received abundant coverage in the mainstream media. He also had a backstage face-off with will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas and, the same week as the Elizabeth poker story, posted questionable pictures of an underage Miley Cyrus.
Elizabeth has been a part of the poker community for several years, earning various short-term sponsorships from several online poker rooms. She has been on several made-for-television events playing poker for her primary charitable cause, Animal Avengers. She has been a fixture at the WSOP over the last few years, earning four cashes, and famously finished in third place in 2007 at the National Heads-Up Poker Championship.