If you spent any significant time on the internet between 2005 and 2023, you probably have a specific memory of clicking onto a bright yellow website with a logo that looked like it was designed in Microsoft Paint. That was Dlisted. And the man behind the curtain—the guy who turned snark into an actual art form—was Michael K from Dlisted. He didn't just report on Hollywood; he rebuilt it in his own image, populated by "lucite-heeled" starlets and "chicken cutlet" implants.
But then, on June 30, 2023, the site went dark. It wasn't a scandal or a lawsuit that took it down. It was just time.
Honestly, the internet feels a lot quieter without him. While the rest of the celebrity gossip world was busy trying to become "influencers" or getting invited to the Met Gala, Michael K stayed in the shadows. He didn't want the fame. He just wanted to talk trash with his friends.
The Anonymous King of Snark
When Michael K started Dlisted in January 2005, he was working an admin job at a gay hookup site. He was bored. He started the blog under a pseudonym—never revealing his last name—because he didn't want to get fired. That anonymity became a core part of his brand. While Perez Hilton was busy scrawling crude drawings on paparazzi photos and trying to be best friends with Paris Hilton, Michael K was the anti-Perez.
He stayed in the gutter. He liked it there.
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His writing style was a wild mix of high-brow vocabulary and bottom-of-the-barrel insults. He didn't just call someone a celebrity; he called them a "pissy-faced trick" or "Fishsticks" (looking at you, Gwyneth Paltrow). It was a language you had to learn to speak. If you knew what "Hot Slut of the Day" meant, you were part of the club.
Why he actually walked away
The closing of Dlisted wasn't a sudden decision. On the final episode of Dlisted: The Podcast, Michael K chatted with his long-time co-writer Allison Davey about the "why."
It basically came down to burnout and the changing landscape of the internet.
- The Eye Condition: For years, rumors swirled on Reddit that Michael K was dealing with a serious eye issue that made staring at a screen for 10 hours a day painful. While he never made it the center of his "sob story," it was a factor.
- The Social Media Shift: In the early days, blogs were the town square. Now? Everything happens on TikTok or Instagram in real-time. You can't be a "fast" blogger when the celebrity has already posted their own apology note on a Notes app screenshot before you've even opened WordPress.
- The Tone Shift: People got sensitive. The mid-2000s were a brutal time for celebrity coverage (just look at how the media treated Britney Spears). Michael K actually evolved better than most—dropping features like "Blind Items" when they felt too dark or related to sexual assault—but the "snark blog" format started to feel like a relic of a meaner era.
What Michael K from Dlisted Got Right
Most people get this wrong: they think Dlisted was just about being mean. It wasn't. It was about pointing out the absurdity of the "popular kids" from the perspective of the nerds in the back of the bus.
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Michael K's ethnicity—Mexican, Chinese, English, and Danish—gave him a perspective that felt more grounded than the typical Hollywood reporter. He grew up in L.A. but lived in Manhattan, and he saw through the "glamour." To him, celebrities were just junk food. Delicious, but ultimately trash.
He was also weirdly ethical for a gossip blogger. He refused to "sell out" and become friends with the people he wrote about. "Paris Hilton is the enemy!" he told the Seattle Times back in 2006. He knew that the second you take a selfie with a Kardashian, you lose the ability to tell the truth about them.
The legacy of the "Hot Slut"
One of the most enduring parts of Dlisted was the Hot Slut of the Day. This wasn't about A-listers. It was about the weird, the obscure, and the delightfully tacky. It could be an 80s commercial actress, a bizarre piece of fruit, or a local news legend.
This was the "human" side of Michael K. He celebrated the oddballs. In a world obsessed with perfection, he found beauty in the "D-list." It was a reminder that you don't need a million followers to be iconic; you just need to be authentically weird.
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Where is he now?
Since the site closed in 2023, Michael K has mostly stayed out of the public eye. He isn't out there chasing "likes" on a new platform. He didn't launch a Substack or a paid newsletter. He basically did what every legendary writer should do: he said what he had to say and then he left the party.
If you’re looking to scratch that itch, there are a few places where the spirit of Dlisted lives on.
- The Archives: The site is still up (for now), serving as a time capsule of two decades of pop culture madness.
- The Podcast: You can still find old episodes of Dlisted: The Podcast on most platforms. It’s the closest you’ll get to hearing his actual voice.
- LaineyGossip: Sarah from LaineyGossip wrote a beautiful tribute when the site closed, and that site still maintains a bit of the old-school blog energy.
Moving forward without the snark
The era of the independent gossip blog is officially over. We live in the age of the "controlled narrative," where celebrities run their own PR through Instagram stories. We don't have the Michael Ks of the world to call out the "fuckery" anymore.
If you want to keep that energy alive, stop following the curated feeds. Look for the writers who aren't afraid to be "bitchy" (his word, not mine). Support independent media that doesn't rely on access. And maybe, every once in a while, find something absolutely tacky and celebrate it as your own personal Hot Slut of the Day.
The internet is a lot more corporate in 2026. Everything is optimized and polished. But Michael K showed us that you could build a million-dollar empire on nothing but a cheap laptop, a dark sense of humor, and a refusal to take Hollywood seriously.
The next steps for any displaced Dlisted fan:
Check out the podcast archives if you haven't already. It’s the best way to understand the man behind the monikers. Beyond that, keep an eye on the "Where Are They Now" threads on the Dlisted subreddit; the community there is still active and occasionally shares updates on where the former writers have landed.