Justin Kaplan, a former production associate at TMZ, recalls meeting a B.L.S. With Donald Trump: Donald, a lot of rappers always use your name in their lyrics. (Thats right. One days list, from June, 2010, included the flight details for Robert Redford and Jack Kevorkian; another one, two months later, had the itineraries of Julius Erving, Kathy Ireland, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner. He ran a forklift at one point, Levin once said of Walters. Levin had volunteered to stand in for him during Clevelands mock election. One day, Levin decided to go see the man, and he asked to borrow Rowes modest rental car, so that he wouldnt appear to be wealthy. There was definitely a misogynistic culture in the office that was perpetuated by Evan, a former producer said. The stories that were being told werent real, he said, in a 2009 interview. A Web site called the Smoking Gun was already publishing such documents online. And its terrible, and Im the first one to say those guys should be dealt with very strongly, thrown in jail, when they do it. Josh Levine, TMZs original photographer, questions this statement: We dont follow people or do car chases? The world continues to be upended by the coronavirus pandemic, with more people contracting COVID-19 as the days pass. Los Angeles was, as he put it, a very Kevin Bacon-like city, and he wanted reporters who either had celebrity connections or showed an eagerness to build them. Blatt sold this to TMZ for about a thousand dollars. Harvey Levin, the managing editor of TMZ who co-founded the company in 2005, will stay on board and report up to Fox's management. Chef Floyd Cardoz, winner of "Top Chef Masters" Season 3, died at the age of 59 of coronavirus complications on March 25. Blatt, who has thinning hair and a goatee, made small talk with the bartender and the cocktail waitress. Harvey Robert Levin was born in Los Angeles, California USA, on 2 September 1950 - his zodiac sign is Virgo and he holds American nationality. One day, Stone was sick and cancelled the class. The station issued what the Los Angeles Times called an extraordinary public apology., Levin went on the air and said, We made a mistake, we know how it was made, weve corrected it, and it is something that will not happen again. He added, I stand on my record and the stories that Ive broken. ), Blatt surveyed the room. 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. 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. 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. Its much easier to understand paying for a Sheryl Crow concert. The Times piece quoted Waltzer, the former cameraman, saying, Britney is fluff, but the stories about Northern Trust and Madoff and politicians in D.C. really have an impact on the country. (TMZ reported that Kevin Bacon and Larry King had invested in Madoffs Ponzi scheme.) You dont burn bridges. Theres nothing wrong with it, he said. Verified account Protected Tweets @; Suggested users Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. 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. Almost anything. In February, 2012, after Whitney Houston was found dead in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton, Blatt drove there and checked into a room. Sportswriters declared that TMZ had shaken the league to its foundation., Six days later, Harvey Levin, the founder of TMZ, appeared on the Fox News program Media Buzz to discuss the Rice story. Blatt leaned over and introduced himself to Jim Bellino, who was wearing a gray sports coat over a white T-shirt picturing Ringo Starr. Mark Blum, who starred in "Desperately Seeking Susan," "Crocodile Dundee" and the Lifetime/Netflix series "You," died on March 26 of coronavirus complications. She was 86. Due to his success in a multitude of areas involving media and law, Harvey has gone on to amass a net worth of $20 million! How TMZ gets the videos and photos that celebrities want to hide. It was a pretty terrible show. Levin lost. The judge announced, The courts just been made aware that, unbeknownst to counsel and the court, a microphone was placed at counsel table. (The tape was turned over to the judge for review. At the house, Andy Mauer gave Kaplan an envelope containing a check for about eighty thousand dollars. He became the fifth person to die from COVID-19 complications at the facility. At the time, Shocknek told me, the station had more reporters than cameramen; Levin, he recalled, perfected a great trick to secure a crew, regardless of the merit of his story. Shocknek explained, He would be on the phone, setting up an appointment, and then he would slam the phone down, and yell, I got it! The Bellinos slid into the banquette beside ours. media center, which served as host for the event, described Levins reporting as very powerful and impactful. When she mentioned that Levin graduated from the University of Chicago, one of the top five law schools in the nation, Levin interjected, Three., He spoke for thirty minutes, describing how TMZ had broken down the barriers once maintained by publicists. 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. The power of secret information was a gun that Hoover always kept loaded, Tim Weiner* writes, in Enemies, a 2012 book about the bureau. producer Joel Rogosin died of coronavirus at the MPTF nursing home. We look forward to his return soon., Also Read: Harvey Levin Thinks His 'TMZ' Shows Look Better Now Than in Studio. (Ed Winter, the L.A. assistant chief coroner, is also a regular source, according to numerous former employees; Winter says that it is part of his job to speak to reporters.) The case combined Levins core professional interestslaw, celebrity, scandaland he worked tirelessly on it. In an e-mail from last year, a photographer reported having four airport sources for the day, including Harold at Delta, Leon at Baggage service, Fred at hudson news, Lyle at Fruit and nut stand. A former TMZ cameraman showed me expense reports that he had submitted in 2010, reflecting payments of forty or fifty dollars to various sources: to the counter girl at a Beverly Hills salon, for information on Goldie Hawn; to a valet, for Pete Sampras; to a shopkeeper, for Dwight Howard; and to a waiter, for Hayden Christensen. Id have to talk people off cliffs, Weakland said. In 2007, he created TMZ on TV, and the TMZ Live newscast followed, in 2012. Mar 19, 2016, 09:30 AM EDT In a new essay, TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin revealed shame caused him to keep his sexuality secret for many years. ), Many people declined to discuss TMZ on the record, citing nondisclosure agreements and a fear of antagonizing Levin. According to the Los Angeles Times, the sheriffs department examined his cell-phone records and discovered two calls from the home of James Mee, the deputy who arrested Gibson, to Levin in the hours after Gibsons arrest, and an additional eight calls from Levin to Mees home in the following days. A first responder, upon arriving at Jacksons house, called TMZ to tip off the site. In 2009, for example, he took the call that led to TMZs breaking the news that Chris Brown had physically assaulted Rihanna. Radar Online also owned a copy of the footage.). 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. He used to say, to all of us, My fucking dogs are smarter than you! You become like a battered child. The pair starred in a spinoff of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" from 2011 to 2012. Ive sold porn. In July, TMZ caught up with Bernie Sanders: Senator, your campaign is almost like the Passion of Christ movie. Levin is sixty-five. [2] He is the founder of celebrity news website TMZ, and the former host of OBJECTified, which aired on the Fox News Channel . He was a teacher, a father, and an icon and words arent sufficient to describe the art, the joy and the wonder he showed the world," New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said also. This is the guy! More recently, a transgender sex worker from Dennis Hofs Love Ranch, near Carson City, Nevada, contacted Blatt to inform him that one of her clients, the former basketball player Lamar Odom, had just collapsed at the brothel. After Blatt commended Bellino for his performance on the show, he commented that he sometimes worked for Harvey Levin. She was 67. He considered pursuing a Ph.D. but chose law school instead, at the University of Chicago. Blatt relayed the tip to TMZ, which confirmed the story and broke the news of Weintraubs death. 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. TMZ also bought a screen shot of a text in which she informed Sheen that she was pregnant. Its not an accident the guy with a camera is waiting at the Delta check-in counter at 8 a.m., a former TMZ employee wrote, anonymously, on Defamer, a Hollywood site owned by Gawker. Gossip sites have published paparazzi shots of Levin drinking iced coffee with his partner, Andy Mauer, a chiropractor. The veteran character actor and regular on New York City stages was 69. Judge Judy just called Harvey Levin from her hospital bed to tell him she's fine, saying, "I'm just exhausted, and my body was telling me it needed a day to chill." Judge told Harvey, "I. ), The host led us to a leather banquette near the bar. October 28, 2017 11:25am. Instead of taking a corner office, he placed his desk on a riser in the center of the newsroom, creating an editorial panopticon. Tom Seaver, Hall of Fame baseball pitcher, died on Aug. 31 in his sleep of complications of Lewy body dementia and COVID-19. (The tours are managed by Andy Mauer, Levins chiropractor partner.) . Grammy-winning country music singer Joe Diffie died March 29 due to complications from the coronavirus. Later in the show, the conversation turned to a photograph of Diana Ross leaving a CVS, at night, wearing sunglasses and carrying a package of toilet paper. Levins face lit up. Senator, why do you think you are bringing out so many people? (We are touching a nerve, Sanders replied.) 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. 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. If I know who got offered the tape, thats a story, he said. Kaplan tried to ascertain the womans identity: did she have a son who was friends with Bieber? "Ellis Marsalis was a legend. In isolated, poor regions of South Carolina, coming from an lite familyoffereda feeling of impunity. As they dispersed, I stepped forward to introduce myself. Ellis Marsalis Jr., New Orleans jazz legend and father of Wynton and Branford Marsalis, died at 85 from COVID-19 complications, Branford said. (According to a former TMZ photographer, the site paid fifteen thousand dollars. Good stories dont come easy, Levin said. I mean, thats what youre supposed to do. Indeed, the site has built a deep network of sources, including entertainment lawyers, reality-television stars, adult-film brokers, and court officials, allowing Levin to knock down the walls that guard celebrity life. In early 2007, he sent Gillian Sheldon there on a scouting mission. The Corrupt World Behind the Murdaugh Murders. I do. Roskop told me that she received a small sum for it. 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. (In a message to a TMZ staff member, the source asked to be paid five thousand dollars.) Harvey would yell if we didnt get the shot. Other photographers offered similar accounts. Trini Lopez, the singer of "If I Had a Hammer" and an actor in "The Dirty Dozen," died on Aug. 11 from COVID-19. In November, 2014, according to a leaked e-mail, Jonathan Stinson, a publicist from Relevant Relations PR, submitted gossip about a former child star, backed up with legal/hospital documents left in a backpack of her former roommate. Mike Walters, TMZs news director, told his colleagues, We dont want to be involved with hospital records. (When reached by phone, Stinson claimed that he had been trying to sell the records on behalf of an acquaintance.). Sex was discussed casually, as a commodity, another former producer said. ), In the months before TMZ obtained the video, its coverage of Bieber had often been antagonistic; it ran a post suggesting that he had hit a twelve-year-old boy during a game of laser tag. The video, which went viral, had the phrase TMZ SPORTS embossed in the centera branding practice known as bugging.. Levin replied, If you wont tell anyone I lost, I wont tell anyone you were watching High Rollers., In the mid-seventies, Levin accepted a teaching job with the law faculty at the University of Miami, a period that he recently described as the single greatest year of my life. He loved combining the seriousness of academia with the wild fun of South Beach. It felt like he was set up, he told an audience at the National Press Club. Co-host Charles Latibeaudiere said Levin was in "a pretty bad accident and. Everybody rats everybody else out, Simon Cardoza, a former cameraman for the site, told me. 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. 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. Sheldon, who was the publicist at Celebrity Justice, recalls, We were breaking news all the time, but we werent doing it on the show. Rather than unveiling scoops in the middle of the night, to meagre audiences, Levin and his reporters often took the best material to more established shows like Access Hollywood, or to CNN and Fox News. 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. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. He was 52. Dasrath managed several of TMZs critical sources, including those inside Delta and the limo company. Just on a slightly different level, he added. . 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. Harvey is ruthless, Simon Cardoza, the former cameraman, said. Levin called the Northern Trust story the most important thing weve ever done, and commended his team for dealing with the financial crisis in terms that ordinary Americans could appreciate. Levin, TMZs longtime managing editor, told TheWrap back in April that he believed TMZ on TV and TMZ Live which feature Levin and the rest of the newsroom staff looked even better with the hosts broadcasting remotely than they did in their Playa Vista studio. 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. Blatt arranged other deals for Roskop, including an appearance on Good Morning America. He helped make a video of her discussing Sheens binge, which she sold to TMZ for twenty-five hundred dollars. Levin had witnessed this double standard himself. Plus, Bob asks about Harvey's thermal cup situation 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. Maria Mercader, a CBS News veteran who worked for over 30 years as a reporter and talent director, died March 29 after testing positive for coronavirus. The medium arrived in America in the late nineteenth century, when a weekly named Town Topics began publishing blind items, in a section called Saunterings. (In 1905, the sections editor attempted to blackmail Emily Posts husband after learning of his infidelity.) Harvey is a TV producer, legal analyst and a former lawyer, best known for founding the TMZ celebrity news website. When the elevator arrived in the lobby, Palmer was lying unconscious, face down, on the floor. Ryan Linkof, an associate curator at the Academy Museum of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has noted that, in 1911, the Daily Mirror published a photo spread of Prime Minister H. H. Asquiths wife, Margot, which showed her looking pinched, pale, almost skeletal, and her dress crumpled. But TMZs crude look also emphasized that it prioritized speed over polish. Its a terrible joke.. There is so much material. It often aired late at night, and it struggled to find viewers. Levin replied, Thank you. (She declined repeated requests for comment.)