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. At TMZ, tips often turn into stories within minutes. Mark Blum, who starred in "Desperately Seeking Susan," "Crocodile Dundee" and the Lifetime/Netflix series "You," died on March 26 of coronavirus complications. This is the guy! Linda Torres, known as Angela Raiola's friend on VH1's reality series "Big Ang" and "Mob Wives," died of COVID-19 on April 1, 2021, following breast cancer surgery. Harvey Levin's Post. More than a hundred tips arrive every day. In 2011, when Lohan went on trial for theft, TMZ repeatedly posted confidential information. It often aired late at night, and it struggled to find viewers. In 2013, TMZ broke a series of stories about hackers swatting celebrities: calling 911, falsely claiming to be the celebrity victim of a home invasion, and then watching as a swat team descended on the celebritys house. You find neighbors. The presiding judge compared the site to the C.I.A., and expressed bewilderment at how these things leak out. He added, Thankfully, this case doesnt involve military secrets where peoples lives are at stake. (Holley denies giving information to TMZ. In a phone conversation, Braun pleaded with Levin not to post the video, saying, Youre going to ruin this kids life. Levin hesitated for four seconds, then said that he was moving ahead, and that he would need a statement from Braun by the morning. In the 2010 lecture at the University of Chicago Law School, Levin hinted at his calculations in such moments. Then, on September 8th, TMZ published a second surveillance video from the Revel. Harvey Levin, TMZs founder, leaving an L.A. gym. But the reality star and entrepreneur put it on hold in October 2015. . Steve Honig, a public-relations adviser who, for a time, represented Lindsay Lohan, told me, When my phone rings and its TMZ, I pretty much stop what Im doing and pick it up. Rick May, a voice actor best known to gamers as the husky-throated Soldier in Team Fortress 2, died in Swedish nursing home on April 13 after contracting COVID-19. . TMZ has learned. Were a news operation. (Dr. Phil, on a 2014 episode of his program, said, I know Harvey Levin. Harvey called him up, went over, wrote him a check for five grand, and bought the URL, Rowe said. The domain name tmz.com, however, was owned by a man who built robotsthe sites initials stood for Team Minus Zeroand he showed little interest in selling. Chef Floyd Cardoz, winner of "Top Chef Masters" Season 3, died at the age of 59 of coronavirus complications on March 25. I wanted him to die in my arms, while looking into my eyes, and I wanted to say to him, Oh, Harvey, you thoughtless little pig. Baldwin added, He is a festering boil on the anus of American media., But for some the significance of the Sterling and Rice stories called for a reassessment. The hosts condition was not immediately clear, TMZs Harvey Levin was injured in a pretty bad bike accident that kept him from hosting Thursdays edition of TMZ Live.. Sex tapes were Blatts specialty. Im into it.. Levins exposure on television has turned him into a celebrity himself. American rock musician Alan Merrill, best known for co-writing and recording the original version of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," died March 29 of complications from the coronavirus. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Blatt, who has thinning hair and a goatee, made small talk with the bartender and the cocktail waitress. After the Democratic House Impeachment managers unveiled never before seen security footage, we spoke with TMZ's Harvey Levin & election law expert Jason Har. Grammy-winning country music singer Joe Diffie died March 29 due to complications from the coronavirus. He started celebrity-spotting bus tours in L.A. and New York. I dont think weve ever posted as many stories per day as were posting now that theres so much going on.. Citron said, That was the moment the rest of the world discovered TMZ., Four months later, Michael Richards, the former Seinfeld star, was performing at a comedy club in L.A. when he singled out an African-American in the crowd: Fifty years ago, wed have you upside down with a fucking fork up your ass. One of Levins deputies, Evan Rosenblum, got a call from a college friend in the middle of the night. and is being treated for an aneurysm that was located near his heart . Most read in Entertainment. He had carefully followed the campaign and learned Kennedys mannerisms: the Los Angeles Times, which covered Levins speech, noted that Levin even jabbed his finger the Kennedy way. In 2009, TMZ broke the news of Michael Jacksons sudden death, and two years ago it revealed a recorded phone call between Donald Sterling, then the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, and his mistress, in which Sterling urged her not to bring her African-American friends, including Magic Johnson, to Clippers games. Charley Pride, one of the first Black performers to break through in the country music scene, died of complications from COVID-19 on Dec. 12, just weeks after his final performance at the CMA Awards show back in November. There is so much material. Russ Weakland, a former TMZ producer, told me that he sometimes negotiated payments with tipsters who were anxious about releasing sensitive information. Currently, TMZ has three reporters stationed full-time at the courthouse; the Los Angeles Times has one court reporter. In February, 2009, a private bank, Northern Trust, which had just received $1.6 billion in federal bailout funds, hosted a golf tournament and party in the Los Angeles area. Ellis Marsalis Jr., New Orleans jazz legend and father of Wynton and Branford Marsalis, died at 85 from COVID-19 complications, Branford said. Levin, in the absence of video, generally tells his reporters to keep digging.) In early 2007, he sent Gillian Sheldon there on a scouting mission. Photographing celebrities going in and coming out was like fishing an overstocked pond. At first, most of his earnings resulted from his connections in the porn industry, but he had begun diversifying. In the early aughts, he successfully pitched an idea to Telepictures, a division of Warner Bros.: a weekday newscast dedicated to celebrity court cases. Kevin Blatt, a source for TMZ who also worked in the pornography industry, got a call a few hours later from an adult-film director. Producers knew that they werent real, but they played ball to get interviews with the stars. Most journalism about stars, he said, was built on a lie. He set out to infuse celebrity coverage with an investigative ethos by tracking legal filings and court cases. The TMZ production banner was founded in 2005 by Harvey Levin, the former KCBS-TV Los Angeles correspondent, and the late Telepictures executive Jim Paratore as a division of Warner Bros . Over the years, he has trained many employees in the art of court reporting. TMZ, the Times declared, has the league on the run. Roger Goodell, the N.F.L.s commissioner, ducked questions about why its own investigators had not obtained the footage, and said, We dont seek to get that information from sources that are not credible. But the video was unimpeachable, and its impact was immediate. Blatt leaned over and introduced himself to Jim Bellino, who was wearing a gray sports coat over a white T-shirt picturing Ringo Starr. At 8:41 a.m., Hope Solos Husband Busted for D.U.I. appeared on the TMZ home page. He predicted the demise of cable television (and the Internet) and said that, in an age of digital disruption, media companies need to evolve or we die. At one point, he said, When I first heard rap, I thought, Thats not gonna last. He was 79. (Parachini, who now lives in Hawaii, denies the allegation. She didnt wanna say how she knew, but told me Hope Solos husband Jerramy Stevens was arrested in Manhattan beach 2 nights ago for DUI. (Solo is a top soccer player.) Roskop recounted her evening with Sheen, which included tennis-ball-size hunks of cocaine and attempting to have sex. Paratore had been contemplating a new Web site that could feature unused footage amassed by Extra, also a Telepictures production. Harvey Levin House. The piece, which was titled Bailout Bank Blows Millions Partying in L.A., sparked immediate condemnation of Northern Trust. .. Stills featuring Shakur were posted as evidence for non-believers. The tape itself was never made public. After Braun and Levin had their phone conversation, numerous flattering Bieber-related exclusives appeared on the site: a photograph of Bieber backstage during a commercial shoot; pictures of him getting a haircut; a video of him and his girlfriend Selena Gomez performing karaoke; a story about how he bought every single flower at a florists and sent the flowers to Gomezs house; video from a trip that Bieber took to Liverpool; and others, including a report of him watching Titanic one night, with Gomez, inside an otherwise vacant Staples Center. At the start, Levin had only a dozen or so employees. Ron Jeremy is in critical condition at an L.A. hospital . In less than a year, TMZ had become a dominant venue for celebrity news. In July, 2006, a tipster called a TMZ employee to say that he had just seen Mel Gibson on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway. A source close to the situation told me that when Bieber was informed of the leak he broke down, confessing that he had made the video a while back, as a joke, and that he thought he had deleted it from his laptop, which was later stolen. Howard Kurtz, the host of Media Buzz, reminded his audience that TMZ had published memorable scoops, such as posting police records, in 2006, that exposed Mel Gibsons drunk-driving arrest and anti-Semitic rant. Phil Valentine, Right-wing radio host, died after more than a month-long battle with COVID. YouTube. Levin assumes the role of semi-hip unclecool for his age but amusingly out of step with his younger colleagues fads and jokes. On January 20, 2015, at 8:32 a.m., a senior producer sent an internal e-mail that noted, Got a tip from a friend I know from high school. Levin insists that his photographers are not paparazzi. Three days later, Levin promoted the story on Twitter, saying, Its the real deal. Over the coming days, TMZ published eight stories pertaining to the tape: Sex Tape Surfaces, 6-Figure Bidding War Erupts, 2Pacs Family: Well Sue anyone Who Tries to Sell the Sex Tape, and so on. Last year, Page Six reported that TMZ paid two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for surveillance footage of Beyoncs sister, Solange, attacking Jay Z in an elevator at the Standard, in New York. TMZ has paid at least one mole inside B.L.S., a limousine service, to provide lists of celebrity customers, their planned routes, and the license-plate numbers of their vehicles. Such information helps TMZs crew of a dozen or so paparazzi know when and where to drop in on a celebrity who is transiting through an airport. He mapped out a new site, TMZDC, and interviewed several local gossip reporters, including Patrick Gavin, who produced a 2015 documentary about the White House Correspondents Dinner, titled Nerd Prom, and Anne Schroeder, who was working at Politico at the time. Zion Harvey is a bright and precocious 8-year-old who has told his doctors that he cannot wait to someday throw a football. Alvin Ing, star of Broadway's "Flower Drum Song" and "Pacific Overture" died July 31, 2021 after battling COVID-19 for two weeks. Harvey Weinstein remains hospitalized at New York's Bellevue Hospital after being convicted of rape in the third degree and committing a criminal sexual act in the first . Soon afterward, Levin formed a local committee called Citizens for a Safe Society, and he lobbied the Los Angeles* city council for a gun-reform initiative that would require prospective gun buyers to complete a written competency test. When she further complained about her firing at that time, the complaint said, TMZ founder Harvey Levin, TooFab managing editor Shyam Dodge and TooFab senior producer Ross McDonagh threatened. Action Crime Drama A car hits Harm; Mac takes him to a hospital, where an Israeli official undergoes a heart transplant. We actually really appreciate Harvey, Bellino said. The vehicle's driver took time to help her call an ambulance. No, Bellino said. According to a former security supervisor at the Revel, nearly eighteen hundred cameras streamed video to a pair of monitoring rooms on the mezzanine floor. In an e-mail dated January 29, 2014, a TMZ manager informed her colleagues that the star of an ABC drama had been spotted sitting in first class, in seat 2A, on Delta Flight 1061, from Orlando to Los Angeles, when his plane was rerouted to Dallasthe result of a bomb threat issued on Twitter. The veteran character actor and regular on New York City stages was 69. He was selective about whom he brought on, prizing loyalty, energy, and connections over experience. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, the dark genius of William dAlton Mann, the publisher of Town Topics, was his realization that stories that came into his possession were perhaps worth more untold than told. In the nineteen-fifties, Confidential gained access to the head of Columbia Studios by leveraging tapes of Rock Hudson that referred to his homosexuality. "Knight Rider" and "Magnum P.I." SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY NEWSLETTER, FIRST TAKE, Harvey Levin Thinks His 'TMZ' Shows Look Better Now Than in Studio, died from complications of the coronavirus. Schroeder said, Its not like you could pay a staffer twenty bucks to get a schedulethey are government employees who can be prosecuted for leaks., In L.A., numerous officials have lost their jobs for allegedly giving information to TMZ. TMZ reporters sneaked into the tournament and recorded sponsored performances by Chicago and Sheryl Crow, and took photographs of Tiffany gift bags that were being distributed to guests. Justin Kaplan, a former production associate at TMZ, recalls meeting a B.L.S. . Tycoons and politicians were the initial focus of the gossip trade; one British photographer bribed a gardener to gain entrance to Winston Churchills house, where he hid, waiting for the perfect shot, until Churchill spotted him and chased him away. I do. She handed me a laptop, and a disk, and I gave her the check. We started working on it at 4 a.m., Rosenblum said, in a Los Angeles Daily News article. He went to the hotel, drank several Martinis at the bar, and eventually snapped a cell-phone photo of Stiviano in the lobby, while paparazziwho were prohibited from entering the hotelwaited outside. Valour! We roll through a lot of people, Levin conceded, in a speech last year. Harvey Levin created the tabloid news site under the Telepictures Productions umbrella, which is owned by Warner Bros, in 2005 along with Jim Paratore, who died in 2012. A month later, Kennedy came to Los Angeles for an event at the Ambassador Hotel. Levin, who opposed the measure, faced off against Jarvis in several public debates. You dont burn bridges. In 2012, Ellen DeGeneres, whose show is produced by Telepictures, implied on the air that TMZ outed gay people. Its a terrible joke.. In July, 2007, Levin moved TMZ into a space in West Hollywood. Literally, that video made Kim.. Blatt waved his fork and declared, This is off the hook. Then, across the restaurant, he spotted Alexis and Jim Bellino, the co-stars of The Real Housewives of Orange County. Blatt said that he contacts TMZ whenever he sees someone famous. (The News of the World published the photos.) In 2009, for example, he took the call that led to TMZs breaking the news that Chris Brown had physically assaulted Rihanna. As the show's host and legal reporter, Levin introduces the cases to viewers, and then literally takes "The People's Court" to the . Sergio Rossi, the Italian shoe designer, died at age 84 after being hospitalized with the virus, the brand confirmed in an Instagram post Friday. Blatt, citing a clause in his TMZ contracts that prohibits publicizing the terms with anyone other than an accountant, an attorney, or a judge, refrained from disclosing precise amounts that he has received, adding, Even if I could tell, I would probably undershoot.. Co-host Charles Latibeaudiere said Levin was in a pretty bad accident and hell need a little bit of time to heal. He did not offer details about the accident or Levins condition but said he was glad that Levin was wearing a helmet. (Older gossip publications followed this strategy as well. The pair starred in a spinoff of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" from 2011 to 2012. He rented a car and headed to an apartment building on the outskirts of the city. He has pointed out that he frequently passes up the juiciest stuff. In 2008, he received photographs of Michael Phelps, the Olympic swimmer, smoking a bong, but elected not to publish them. On TV, Levin always appears congenial, but, according to numerous accounts, when the cameras switch off he often turns abrasive and domineering. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 . Dasrath managed several of TMZs critical sources, including those inside Delta and the limo company. Its hard for people to wrap their heads around $800 billion in bailout money, he told the Times. Hilary Heath, an actress and producer who starred opposite Vincent Price in horror movies in the late 1960s and early '70s, died in April of COVID-19 complications. It was a coup for Levin, even though, he conceded, Blackmuns appearance turned out to be terrible television., In 1990, Superior Court was cancelled, and Levin took a reporting job with NBCs Los Angeles affiliate. In 2007, he created TMZ on TV, and the TMZ Live newscast followed, in 2012. He considered pursuing a Ph.D. but chose law school instead, at the University of Chicago. What we did, we did legally, he said. Celebrity Justice continued to do poorly in the ratings, and after three years it was cancelled. !), The waitress at Craigs placed a dish of jalapeo creamed corn on the table. Kaplan drove to the Burbank airport and caught the next flight to Las Vegas. Two minutes later, a senior news producer confirmed the arrest from an online database. The case combined Levins core professional interestslaw, celebrity, scandaland he worked tirelessly on it. On a recent episode of TMZ Live, he said, There are a group of renegade photogs out there that are dangerous and act like criminalswhere they run people off the road, where they chase people, where they go after peoples kids, where they incite people. Fox Corp. 's entertainment division has closed its acquisition of TMZ from WarnerMedia, confirming that founder and managing editor Harvey Levin will continue with the newly situated company.. Art director Matteo De Cosmo, who worked on films including "Emergence," "The Punisher" and "Luke Cage," died of coronavirus complications. Levin suggested an abbreviated version: TMZ. That video just went everywhere, Levin said. On May 7, 1968, Levin, then a senior at Cleveland High School, in Reseda, California, stepped up to a microphone, faced a football stadium filled with his classmates, and did his best impression of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was running for President. *An earlier version of this article misstated where Levin lobbied the city council. Patricia Bosworth, a stage and screen actress turned journalist who penned celebrity biographies, died April 2 from complications of the coronavirus. When the video was posted on TMZ, Rices attorney issued a statement, warning viewers not to make judgments until all of the facts emerged, adding, Neither Ray nor myself will try this case in the media. Three months later, Rice and Palmer held a press conference. She was 86. LEVIN, HARVEY LYNN On Thursday, June 26, 2003, at INOVA Fairfax Hospital, HARVEY LYNN LEVIN, of Falls Church, VA. Beloved husband of the late Barbara M. Levin; dear father of Carl. BIRTHDAY BLUES . In May, 2012, the judge overseeing the case of a man who allegedly extorted Stevie Wonder caught a TMZ cameraman illicitly taping the courtroom proceedings. His works included "Master Class," "Love! Simmons was hospitalized for indigestion and said that he felt under the weather. She was 76. Carol Sutton, actress who has starred on HBOs Lovecraft County and OWNs Queen Sugar" and appeared in such films as "Monster's Ball," "Ray" and "The Help," died of complications of COVID-19 on Dec. 10. ), The host led us to a leather banquette near the bar. ), Dozens of current and former employees characterized the TMZ offices as an uncomfortable workplace. The rest was like organ rejectionit just didnt work.. session after the talk, a student asked Levin how he had obtained the video of Solange attacking Jay Z in the elevator of the Standard. The league suspended Rice for two games, but by early September he was preparing to return to play. I use my law degree every five minutes, Levin has said. into a crisis. (Deadspin published the messages.) (According to a former TMZ photographer, the site paid fifteen thousand dollars. His office accepts new patients. In 2013, the co-founder, owner, and managing editor at TMZ, Harvey hoisted his long-time home in West Hollywood, CA on the market with a celebrity-style $5,300,000 asking price. A first responder, upon arriving at Jacksons house, called TMZ to tip off the site. He was 82. The House report describes both a catastrophe and a way forward. Blatt relayed the tip to TMZ, which confirmed the story and broke the news of Weintraubs death. Just on a slightly different level, he added. In a 2013 radio interview, Levin said that his kind of journalism was as rigorous as any other: You could take me, put me in Afghanistan, and Ill use the same principles Id use with Britney Spears., In January, 2011, an anonymous tipster, using a voice modulator to disguise her identity, called TMZ, offering to sell a compromising video of Justin Bieber. Ben Presnell, who worked at Celebrity Justice and, later, at TMZ, told me he spent most of his days at the Los Angeles County Municipal Courthouse, searching for new filings and trying to charm clerks into giving him information. Many of them received free publicity on TMZ, and were referred to by cheeky nicknames. TMZ never really did that. TMZ did not create its aesthetic. Levin confided that hed been unable to sleep. Several of Levins colleagues told me that he is determined to maintain his youth. Several paparazzi stood outside, fiddling with their cameras. But Loretta Pickus, the former general counsel at the casino, told me that it could not be determined with certainty which employee had recorded the footage with a phone. The tapes owner had called Blatt anonymously. I watch your show so much, read the Web site, like, all the time, so youre just, like, my idol, a young woman said. He was 74. It felt like he was set up, he told an audience at the National Press Club. (The National Enquirer also seeks photographic and video evidence, but when it is not available the Enquirer will subject sources to polygraph examinations. Both Gavin and Schroeder told me that they remained skeptical that TMZ could ever reproduce its tipster regime in Washington. sourcea Hispanic gentlemanat a gas station in Van Nuys, handing over an envelope filled with cash, and receiving in return a client list. After hours of poring over casework, it was, he says, just like crack., Levin returned to California, to teach at the Whittier College law school. Levin founded TMZ in 2005, and continues to serve as its managing editor, delivering Hollywood scoops and rumors. Investigators at the Revel, trying to discover who had taken the video, ascertained its timing by scrutinizing the clips audio track; while the phone was recording the footage, a general request for chips to be refilled could be heard on the casino intercom. (In a message to a TMZ staff member, the source asked to be paid five thousand dollars.) Two years later, Levin declined to post voice mails and lewd text messages that purportedly had been sent by the quarterback Brett Favre to a New York Jets gameday host. officers were reprimanded in 2009 for purportedly selling TMZ the photograph of Rihannas bruised face; one was later fired. It was single-handedly creating the news cycle, Stone said. (Levin drove a Mercedes.) . Well hire kids, and well train them, he has said. He beats you down, but the second youre about to say, Screw this place, he gives you a compliment, and you live for that. The former TMZ photographer recounted that Levin once screamed, I could get a monkey to do your job! and, on another occasion, Do you want me to draw this out in crayons for you fucking idiots? The former news reporter said that, on one occasion, Levin compared his staff to a roomful of handicapped people. Rory Waltzer, another former cameraman, told me, Harvey Levin would have been a great dictator: he is charming enough so that you want to follow him, but terrifying enough so that you dont want to fail., Some of Levins subordinates, such as Evan Rosenblum, the TMZ deputy, mimic his style. Soon afterward, he offered TMZ a lead on a tape involving Tupac Shakur. (Wasser said, This firm has a strong policy of not speaking with media about our cases.), Multiple sources told me that Levin is close to Shawn Holley, a lawyer who has represented Lindsay Lohan and other celebrities. Practice. It is extremely rare for people to get a severe reaction from the coronavirus. . These are the names of some notable figures from Hollywood and the media that we have lost. With Donald Trump: Donald, a lot of rappers always use your name in their lyrics. (Thats right. He also spoofed Harvey Levin in the XXX . Kim has hired disso-queen Laura Wasser, who has repped the likes of Britney Spears, Maria Shriver, Angelina Jolie, Ryan Reynolds, and Robyn Gibson, the accompanying story read. Ask me anything about rap now. Blatt took fifteen per cent, as his commission. He was 61 years old. producer Joel Rogosin died of coronavirus at the MPTF nursing home. Michael Jackson had died at the age of 50. Harvey thought it was so unfair that these clubs would get away with it, just because they were selling to celebrities, Gillian Sheldon, the former TMZ publicist, told me. When Carol Burnett sued the National Enquirer for defamation, in 1981, he observed that her lawsuit faced significant challenges: she must prove that the Enquirer published the article about her with either an intentional or reckless disregard for the truth., Levin began consulting on The Peoples Court, and in 1986 he joined the staff of a rival program, Superior Court, where he was eventually promoted to managing editor. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. TMZ resembles an intelligence agency as much as a news organization. (Mee declined to comment. Levin seemed affronted to see Ross so stripped of glamour. He was 34. Eddie Large, one-half of the comedy duo Little and Large, died April 2 after contracting coronavirus while hospitalized for heart failure.