Gillian Sheldon told me, I cant tell you how many times we got calls from Britney Spears, or her people, who called to say, Shes going to get a tan., In 2006, Levin told the Times, What I love is the business of creating and preserving celebrity. His proudest moment, he said, during a talk in 2010, at the University of Chicago Law School, was when Levine captured footage of the actress Tara Reid standing behind the velvet rope outside of Hyde, a Los Angeles night club, while Paris HiltonReids former best friendwalked right in with a new friend, a previously unknown woman named Kim Kardashian. In this conversation. Gillian Sheldon called Levin to ask him for permission to speak to methough she left TMZ in 2008. Chef Floyd Cardoz, winner of "Top Chef Masters" Season 3, died at the age of 59 of coronavirus complications on March 25. Blatt sold this to TMZ for about a thousand dollars. John Kerry, then a senator, declared that he was sick and tired of reading about another idiotic abuse of taxpayer money while our country is on the brink. (The bank insisted that it did not use any bailout funds for the tournament.). So then, for months, Harvey was, like, Blueberries! all the time.. He remembered filming Paris Hilton and her boyfriend at a movie theatre in Los Angeles in 2007; Hilton appeared surprised by Levines presence, even though, according to Levine, he was acting on a tip from Hiltons own publicist, Elliot Mintz. The officer then called TMZ. With the rise of Hollywood, actors became gossips prime quarry; the magazine Confidential courted lawsuits by printing stories with titles like Mae Wests Open Door Policy., On the Fox News program, Kurtz asked Levin whether his willingness to buy material tarnished TMZs integrity. He recalls paying a member of the hotel staff about a hundred dollars to take the photo for him. (TMZ said that its employees are expected to obey the law. The process had been so well honed, Kaplan told me, that we barely said a word to each other.. 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. Objectified: With Harvey Levin, Pamela Anderson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Judy Sheindlin. Palmer and Rice, a running back for the Baltimore Ravens, were arguing as the doors slid shut. If you see a dollar on the road, you pick it up, he said. In Memoriam: Dr. Harvey Levin Press Releases Contact Phone 713-798-7246 Fax 713-798-4688 Patient Appointments 713-798-7246 H. Ben Taub Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 7200 Cambridge Street Houston, TX 77030 Connect with us In Memoriam: Dr. Harvey Levin Harvey Steven Levin, Ph.D. passed away peacefully on April 1, 2022. As Bloomberg points out, Levin, an openly gay man based in Southern California, supports LGBT rights, animal cruelty prevention, and "various liberal causes" which doesn't fit with Trump MAGA. TMZ would not discuss payments, or other internal matters, but called this figure overblown.) 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. This is the guy! (Time Warner, the corporate parent of Warner Bros., had recently merged with AOL.) One woman held a Pomeranian under her arm. You call the record label, you call the N.A.A.C.P.what do they have to say about it? Such posts draw more readers to the original story, helping it to go viral. At around 4:30 a.m., one of the surveillance officers, sitting at a monitoring-room computer, reviewed footage from a camera that faced the elevator and, using a cell phone, surreptitiously recorded the screen. I dont apologize for being an aggressive reporter.. Photograph by Peter Bohler for The New Yorker In the early-morning hours. Though the proposition ultimately passed, Levin made a positive impression, and the Los Angeles Times hired him to contribute an advice column, titled The Law and You. Levin wrote about, among other things, a passengers rights when he or she is bumped off a flight, and whether blood tests can conclusively establish paternity. Verified account Protected Tweets @; Suggested users He was 69. 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. This one, bought for almost ninety thousand dollars, revealed what occurred inside the elevator: after the doors shut, Rice punched Palmer on the left side of her head. Harvey is a TV producer, legal analyst and a former lawyer, best known for founding the TMZ celebrity news website. If I call in now and say, Im with Alexis Bellino, and they give me fifty bucks, thats fifty bucks that paid for my dinner.. Several paparazzi stood outside, fiddling with their cameras. We get it, a colleague retorted. He is able to treat people like shit because everybody wants to be near the limelight., Levin continued to break big stories. Good stories dont come easy, Levin said. (Last month, according to Quantcast, TMZ.com recorded more than seventeen million.) He has a jittery manner, a wide smile, and a deep tan. Chris Trousdale, a member of the boy band Dream Street, died of coronavirus complications on June 2. Thats nothing to sneeze at for a fucking Web site, he added. In July, 2007, Levin moved TMZ into a space in West Hollywood. 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. Sex was discussed casually, as a commodity, another former producer said. The Extra-Terrestrial" and "The Color Purple". Most read in Entertainment. Laura Wasser, a divorce attorney, was the Disso-Queen. On the second floor, a middle-aged African-American woman in an oversized T-shirt answered the door. Levin had volunteered to stand in for him during Clevelands mock election. 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. He initially contacted Warren Burger, who had just stepped down as Chief Justice. Other terms of the deal were not disclosed. Blatt relayed the tip to TMZ, which confirmed the story and broke the news of Weintraubs death. Blatt leaned over and introduced himself to Jim Bellino, who was wearing a gray sports coat over a white T-shirt picturing Ringo Starr. Dr. Harvey Levin, DDS Dentistry Male Dr. Harvey Levin, DDS is a dentistry practitioner in Washington, DC and has over 45 years of experience in the medical field. Rosenblum later said that the Gibson story put us on the map, but the Richards video made us what we are.. Honestly, I go to a black barbershop now. In opening remarks, Sheila Sullivan, the acting executive director of the U.C.S.B. The issue is, did somebody else do something that might have gotten them in trouble? Without naming Mee, he likened him to Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers to the Times and other publications. After the speech, as Kennedy was walking through the hotels kitchen, an assassin shot and killed him. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Other hands went up. Apart from running the Web site, Levin hosts two syndicated television shows: a one-hour newscast, TMZ Live, and a thirty-minute program, TMZ on TV, which is taped each morning, between seven and nine, on the floor of the TMZ newsroom, and features Levin clutching a mug of iced green tea and bantering about the latest celebrity news with his colleagues. How does TMZ get this stuff? Kurtz asked. On the website, we are posting more stories than we have in years. ***An earlier version of this article misstated the job of the person who received Brett Favres voice mails and texts. ), And in 2006, after Levin broke the story about Mel Gibsons anti-Semitic tirade, the Los Angeles County sheriffs department launched an investigation to identify Levins source. Celebrity Justice continued to do poorly in the ratings, and after three years it was cancelled. In less than a year, TMZ had become a dominant venue for celebrity news. Kaplan drove to the Burbank airport and caught the next flight to Las Vegas. With Donald Trump: Donald, a lot of rappers always use your name in their lyrics. (Thats right. It was widely circulated. They liked the way I handled things, and they used to pick me to go on these cool trips, Kaplan told me. The major media outlets publicly condemn Levin's practice of paying as much as six figures to his sleazy sources, but, as the magazine points out, he's landed stories like Mel Gibson's anti . Just on a slightly different level, he added. TMZ personality Harvey Levin interviews big name celebrities and newsmakers in this new Sunday night series. He was 82. Harvey, 18, began to feel unwell hours after having the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab on Friday and was taken to hospital. Its so funny to me that people ask that question, Levin replied. Terrence McNally, a four-time Tony Award-winning playwright, died on March 24 at the age of 81 of complications from the coronavirus. You find affected groups. But Levin taught us what else to look for, Angela Laughlin, one of the early hires at TMZ, said. It felt like he was set up, he told an audience at the National Press Club. The vehicle's driver took time to help her call an ambulance. Share Overview Locations Ratings 284 Insurance About Me Locations 1 + This nickname has appeared on TMZ hundreds of times. In October, 2014, TMZ received an e-mail that, under the subject heading Drake at Stadium Club in D.C., announced, I have the original footage. 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. (In a 2015 e-mail, a TMZ employee asked colleagues if anyone had yet established a source at Uber.) ), The host led us to a leather banquette near the bar. 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. 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. 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. As Bloomberg points out, Levin, an openly gay man based in Southern California, supports LGBT rights, animal cruelty prevention, and "various liberal causes" which doesn't fit with Trump MAGA. 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. She also fostered relationships with hackers. She was 67. 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. Gabe Ginsberg via Getty Images TMZ big shot Harvey Levin is known for exposing the secrets of Hollywood's biggest stars, but now he's revealing a few of his own. Im not gonna say, Levin replied, emphasizing the importance of protecting sources. According to the lawsuit, Rosenblum routinely belittled, berated and humiliated her, screaming at her in front of co-workers, and telling her, I fucking hate this shit you hand in. She called the workplace environment at TMZ hostile or offensive. (Levin isnt named in the suit, although TMZ Productions is. The Guardian, in a 2009 profile of Levin, referred to him as the high prince of sleaze. Alec Baldwin, who has been the subject of several harsh TMZ storiesincluding one, from 2007, in which the site posted a voice-mail recording of Baldwin calling his eleven-year-old daughter a rude, thoughtless little pigtold me, There was a time when my greatest wish was to stab Harvey Levin with a rusty implement and watch his entrails go running down my forearm, in some Macbethian stance. 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. (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.) TMZ has, in fact, done so, though the results have been awkward. At home, he turned on the TV and, to his surprise, saw Levin onscreen: I was flipping through the channels, and there was Harvey on High Rollersa game show hosted by Alex Trebek. He was told that his account was absolutely untrue. But later that day he secured a copy of the original police report, which contained four pages, excised from the version on file, detailing Gibsons anti-Semitic rant. Literally, that video made Kim.. We were getting our asses kicked, Brittain Stone, who was Us Weeklys photography director from 2001 to 2011, said. Blatt drove with her to her bank, photographed the check, and brokered a deal, in which, according to Blatt and Roskop, Roskop sold TMZ the licensing rights to the image for roughly eight thousand dollars. Blatt feared that Roskops statement alone would not be enough for TMZ to run a story; he knew that Levin expected documentary proof. My technical team figured this out and didnt miss a beat. sourcea Hispanic gentlemanat a gas station in Van Nuys, handing over an envelope filled with cash, and receiving in return a client list. Ive sold aluminum siding. Although her cause of death was not immediately known, a friend told the Associated Press that she had been diagnosed with COVID-19. Levin called a Telepictures executive and said, of DeGeneres, Shes ruining the brand! DeGeneres phoned Levin to apologize, according to three former TMZ employees, but he refused to take her call. 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. 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. 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. . Jack was 76. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Levin also disapproved of the way that publicists leveraged access to celebrities in order to control the media coverage of their clients. When the elevator arrived in the lobby, Palmer was lying unconscious, face down, on the floor. She handed me a laptop, and a disk, and I gave her the check. 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. Action Crime Drama A car hits Harm; Mac takes him to a hospital, where an Israeli official undergoes a heart transplant. (In a message to a TMZ staff member, the source asked to be paid five thousand dollars.) He also appeared in "Star Wars: Episode VII" as a member of Leia's resistance. The Corrupt World Behind the Murdaugh Murders. 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. Not because Im bowing to the gods at TMZ but because, when something from TMZ runs, it spreads so quickly that, if there is any inaccurate information, within five or ten minutes its been picked up by a hundred other outlets. (In 2009, TMZ published a black-and-white photograph supposedly showing John F. Kennedy sunbathing on the deck of a yacht, in the company of four topless women. So who cares whether you pay money for it?. 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. The former security supervisor told me that casino officials also identified which computer had been used to review the footage. Thirty-five hundred years ago, Mesopotamian scribes used cuneiform to record the impeachment hearings of a mayor who had been accused of corruption, kidnapping, adultery, and the theft of manure. 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. !), The waitress at Craigs placed a dish of jalapeo creamed corn on the table. Popular Japanese comedian Ken Shimura, whose career spanned decades, died March 29 due to complications from the coronavirus. Led by L. Scott Levin, MD, FACS*, . Two minutes later, a senior news producer confirmed the arrest from an online database. The video is still the video. Mark Blum, who starred in "Desperately Seeking Susan," "Crocodile Dundee" and the Lifetime/Netflix series "You," died on March 26 of coronavirus complications. 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. We were going to be shopping in Beverly Hills, or whatever, so I said, If the bus is coming by. Italian actress Lucia Bos, who starred in such films as Michelangelo Antonionis "Story of a Love Affair" (1950) and Juan Antonio Bardems "Death of a Cyclist" (1955), died on March 23 of pneumonia after contracting COVID-19, according to the Guardian. In November, 2005, TMZ began operations, on the second floor of an aging studio complex in Glendale. 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. did not seem especially determined to find out. (Older gossip publications followed this strategy as well. Two L.A.P.D. 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. Last April, Levin gave a lecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara, titled The New Journalistic Environment. A few minutes after 7 p.m., he came onstage wearing a blue V-neck sweater, slip-on sneakers, and baggy stonewashed jeans. Stills featuring Shakur were posted as evidence for non-believers. The tape itself was never made public. producer Joel Rogosin died of coronavirus at the MPTF nursing home. 1 420 Bainbridge St Ste 201E, Philadelphia, PA 19147 (215) 627-7080; Map. (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. The stories that were being told werent real, he said, in a 2009 interview. I was on my motorcycle and there were, like, twenty-five other cars, all paps, weaving in and out of traffic, running red lights. Burgers assistant, according to Levin, told him to quit trying. Then, Levin has said, he reached out to Harry Blackmun, who had written the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade, and who had a contentious relationship with Burger. Deedswhere Adam Sandler surprises Winona Ryder with a date at Madison Square Garden.) Bieber also made some appearances on TMZ Live., In June, 2014, the Sun published a copy of the scandalous One Less Lonely video. In 2014, Adweek named Levin the digital editor of the year, noting, Whatever topic your co-workers are talking about around the water-cooler, they probably read it first at TMZ. The television journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell, who is a friend of Levins, told me, Harveys a truth-tellerhe has exposed things that people want to keep secret. Sports Business Daily wrote, Like it or not, the effect that TMZs coverage had with its Ray Rice and Donald Sterling stories was Watergate-esque. And after Ben Bradlee, the former editor of the Washington Post, died, in late 2014, Deadline Hollywood praised TMZs game-changing work, and asked of Levin, Is he the next gen Ben Bradlee, or just the face of the new incarnation of the National Enquirer?. Assistants and couriers would bring them in stacks, the former news reporter said. . By the end of the day, the Smoking Gun revealed that the photo had been lifted from the November, 1967, issue of Playboy, and showed a male model, not J.F.K.). But Levin was not interested in managing a site that functioned as another thing to puff up Hollywood, Bankoff recalled. Colin Powell is the latest notable person to die from complications of the illness. Roskop said that Sheen had written her a thirty-thousand-dollar check, which she had already deposited. These are the people who call me with stuff, he said. 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 often aired late at night, and it struggled to find viewers. He cultivated sources among the hotel employees. 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. ), The attention that Levin receives is not always so adulatory. In 2007, he created TMZ on TV, and the TMZ Live newscast followed, in 2012. The clip pitched the N.F.L. He graduated from HOWARD UNIVERSITY in 1977. Nevertheless, Jim Paratore, the president of Telepictures, wanted to find Levin another project. Bieber later called Levin and thanked him. You get shut down all the time, and if somebody shuts the door youve got to find the way around the door. He said that he told his staff, Find twelve ways around the word no. After Levin finished, students crowded around him, asking for autographs and selfies. She was 54. Theyve never done anything slanty on you? Blatt asked. Paratore had been contemplating a new Web site that could feature unused footage amassed by Extra, also a Telepictures production. Legendary Auburn football coach Pat Dye died on June 1 after combating COVID-19 and other medical conditions. Several of Levins colleagues told me that he is determined to maintain his youth. 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. The friend had a sister, and one of her boyfriends buddies had been at the club and had recorded Richardss outburst on a digital camera. (The Web site is wholly owned by Warner Bros., but Levin is an executive producer of TMZs TV shows. Another was the son of the assistant sheriff in Orange CountyMike Walters, now the head of TMZs news desk. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. While many have recovered, some have died from complications of the illness. 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. Walters wanted to see the video, so Blatt called his source, who lived in Oakland, and, a few hours later, the three of them met at a Kinkos in the Bay Area. ), Dozens of current and former employees characterized the TMZ offices as an uncomfortable workplace. On one of the first nights, its lone cameraman caught Paris Hilton and her boyfriend leaving a club in her Bentley, crashing into a parked truck, and fleeing the scene. But she didnt want to chat. There was definitely a misogynistic culture in the office that was perpetuated by Evan, a former producer said. It is extremely rare for people to get a severe reaction from the coronavirus. By February, 2007, TMZ was drawing more Web traffic than the sites of People and Entertainment Tonight combined. The world continues to be upended by the coronavirus pandemic, with more people contracting COVID-19 as the days pass. Levin confided that hed been unable to sleep. 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. Harvey called him up, went over, wrote him a check for five grand, and bought the URL, Rowe said. TMZ's brand has since expanded beyond its website with TMZ on TV, TMZ Live, TMZ Sports, and the TMZ Celebrity Tour. At the house, Andy Mauer gave Kaplan an envelope containing a check for about eighty thousand dollars. He considered pursuing a Ph.D. but chose law school instead, at the University of Chicago. Members of the Hamas seize control of two floors, to hold the official as a hostage for a prisoner exchange. ), 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.
