In a welcome turn of events, Perez Hilton, who for six years has per Reuters “delighted in running ‘Hollywood’s most hated web site’, outing gay stars and insulting celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, said on Wednesday he was going to stop being a bully.”

Appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and on a video posted on his website, Hilton, who is openly gay, said he no longer wants to be seen as a “bully and a hypocrite”.

“I’m going to do things differently on my website than I have in the past. I’m not going to call people nasty nicknames. I’m not going to go the mean route. I’m going to force myself to be funnier or smarter…not out people.”

All of this change of heart has come as a direct result of a series of recent suicides by bullied gay teens, including 19-year-old college student Tyler Clementi, who jumped off a bridge last month after his encounter with a gay man was secretly taped and spread on the Internet.

Hilton, who has been speaking out loudly against this type of bullying was instrumental himself in the outing of singer Lance Bass and actor Neil Patrick Harris in 2006.