The winner in the Perez Hilton-will.i.am feud is... Rumor Rat

We have no problem with Perez Hilton. We like the kid. When he's linked to our posts once or twice, it's given us a boost in traffic. And we don't think anybody should respond to the written words of any blogger, Internet writer or critic or journo with violence, as apparently happened (with a little help from Perez' bitchy mouth) in the case and of him and that supposedly cultured and political Obama guy from the Black Eyed Peas.

But the incident in Toronto that threw a spanner into young Mario's plans to become a kinder, gentler and more mainstream media personality has also marked a changing of the guard in Internet entertainment journalism.

When word got out that Perez got poked, Harvey Levin, the shaved bronzed midget frontman of the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com, ran himself silly trying to kiss every ass cheek thrust in his direction-- first siding with will.i.am after he sent a denial video to the sewer site, then jumping back under Perez's sheets when the blogging queen released an epic 11+ minute soliloquy-- only to hop back into the anti-Perez line after GLAAD tried to wash Perez's mouth with soap, then-- well, basically revealing TMZ as the amoral waterboy for whoever wants to splash it in watersports.

And as these instant dinosaurs stumble-- one literally punch drunk, the other high on hate-- comes the latest shift in Hollywood entertainment reporting as the Hollywood gossip site that's done the best play-by-play and kept up with every twist in the tiff is that upstart gossip site, Rumor Rat. The mysterious site that's broken onto the scene in recent weeks is just smart and clever and nasty enough to never fall into the jealous, antagonistic smut that circles the TMZ bowl.

While we at TabloidBaby.com are getting international attention and record traffic with our breaking coverage of the Danny Gans and Farrah Fawcett stories, upstart Rumor Rat, which first nibbled into the general awareness by skittering around Perez and leaving its droppings across the TMZ bow, is taking over the Hollywood rumor and celebrity news mantle.

We know Harvey storms around his office asking who this giant mouse and Big Cheese may be. We've gotten accusatory phone calls from his sister operations. We've also learned exclusively that Rumor Rat's experienced an 800% boost in "unique visitor" traffic over last week, and is growing by the day, in part thanks to its coverage of its rivals.

Just as TMZ's shameful launch capsized the bounding Defamer and sent its correspondents to the couch in their bunny slippers to transcribe episode of Oprah and The View, so is RumorRat.com turning into the Ratatouille chef of the stew of Hollywood gossip sites.

BTW, if you haven't noticed how our criticism of TMZ has led to its neutering, check out their announcement of the death of Ed McMahon. While in the past, Harvey and his boys would ridicule the passing of elderly celebs with tasteless puns, they now bow to the powers behind the ones they taunt: