First, photo-lifting vanity blogger Perez Hilton got called out on the red carpet by a FilmMagic paparazzo, who accused him of swiping a pic, which appeared to involve a Tommy Lee man-kiss. Now, X17, one of the most popular celebrity photo agencies in the game, has Perez in its sights.

"I think we're close to making a decision about how we're going to handle Perez," X17 V.P. Kelly Davis (the one Perez recently called a lying "cunt") tells Radar. She also adds via e-mail that other photo agencies who've been burned by photo-driven celebrity blogs (and perezhilton.com in particular) are getting organized and getting even.

Even celebrity weeklies are lining up against Perez (real name: Mario Lavandeira), says Davis: "One of the head photo editors at a top weekly mag is helping to organize a class action lawsuit against Mario and, in fact, our competition called us yesterday to discuss this."

A successful lawsuit could send a chill through the parasitic celebrity blog community, effectively putting out of business any webmaster who makes his living off of stolen paparazzi photos—and flooding the job market with unemployed fashion assistants and gossip column interns.

Lavandeira, who was working as a rookie gossip reporter before starting his blog, recently told Radar that the paparazzi willingly shared their shots with him and that he helps drum up a higher asking price for them by creating a buzz. A longtime loather of Perez, Davis insists that, while the agency might have failed to crack down on bloggers for copyright infringement initially, it never granted Perez permission to use pictures without paying, crediting, or linking back to the X17 blog (started several months ago in part to publish the agency's own photos before bloggers poach them). Since sending a letter to Hilton demanding he stop using X17's images, Perez has continued to post the occasional shot, and only takes them down after X17 complains.

Online petitioners have long called Perez on his pilfering and, in fact, wished herpes on him. But the hatred seems to be reaching its most actionable level to date. This time, it's just not feeding into his popularity.

Asked in several messages and IMs about stealing photos from X17 and other agencies, an impending lawsuit, and the paparazzi backlash against him, the man who previously answered questions about his past drug use, sexual fetishes, and suicidal thoughts did not respond.

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