TMZ founder Harvey Levin told . (The National Enquirer also seeks photographic and video evidence, but when it is not available the Enquirer will subject sources to polygraph examinations. Harvey is a TV producer, legal analyst and a former lawyer, best known for founding the TMZ celebrity news website. Roskop said that Sheen had written her a thirty-thousand-dollar check, which she had already deposited. Sex was discussed casually, as a commodity, another former producer said. The power of secret information was a gun that Hoover always kept loaded, Tim Weiner* writes, in Enemies, a 2012 book about the bureau. Kathy Griffin on Saturday blasted TMZ's Harvey Levin and released his personal number in retaliation against his gossip site and TV show. 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. Palmer and Rice, a running back for the Baltimore Ravens, were arguing as the doors slid shut. ****An earlier version of this article misstated Biebers age. Paris Jackson, the daughter of late pop legend Michael Jackson, was hospitalized Wednesday after an apparent suicide attempt, according to reports. I agree with TheWrap's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and provide my consent to receive marketing communications from them. There was definitely a misogynistic culture in the office that was perpetuated by Evan, a former producer said. 1 420 Bainbridge St Ste 201E, Philadelphia, PA 19147 (215) 627-7080; Map. The company gained notoriety for its unflinching scoops, which included being the. Listen to our #podcast that explores how security and connected medical devices are embedded into the hospital experience. Everybody rats everybody else out, Simon Cardoza, a former cameraman for the site, told me. Please call me for price. Fifty-nine minutes after a producer forwarded the tip to colleagues, TMZ posted a clip showing the rapper accidentally dropping thousands of dollars outside a Washington strip club. In 2009, for example, he took the call that led to TMZs breaking the news that Chris Brown had physically assaulted Rihanna. 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. Rapper Fred the Godson died after contracting coronavirus, a representative confirmed to Complex. Tom Dempsey, New Orleans Saints legendary kicker who was born without toes on his right foot and wore a flat shoe that he kicked with, died on April 4 from complications of COVID-19. In 2011, when Lohan went on trial for theft, TMZ repeatedly posted confidential information. Gillian Sheldon called Levin to ask him for permission to speak to methough she left TMZ in 2008. But theres nothing like selling celebrity fucking dirt. . 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. You dont burn bridges. Kaplan tried to ascertain the womans identity: did she have a son who was friends with Bieber? (That night, a TMZ cameraman captured John at the door. Arms crossed, he expressed displeasure over the fact that I had contacted current and former TMZ employees, and referred me to his publicist. (In July, an employee at a hotel in Santa Barbara notified Blatt that Jerry Weintraub, the Oceans Eleven producer, had just been taken away in an ambulance. 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. Harvey has no problem publicly shaming you, a former assignment-desk producer told me. A former writer for TMZ told me that, for Levin, there was more to gain by sitting on the clip, and earning Biebers good will, than by running it and ruining his career. Practice. In this conversation. Roskop recounted her evening with Sheen, which included tennis-ball-size hunks of cocaine and attempting to have sex. Five months after the Northern Trust story, Michael Jackson died. Almost anything. He graduated from HOWARD UNIVERSITY in 1977. ), 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. Radar Online also owned a copy of the footage.). (Unbeknownst to Levin, the seller had continued to shop around copies of the footage. One former employee came to lunch in a disguise, worried that she might be recognized speaking to a reporter. 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. Trini Lopez, the singer of "If I Had a Hammer" and an actor in "The Dirty Dozen," died on Aug. 11 from COVID-19. As they dispersed, I stepped forward to introduce myself. Harvey Levin House. 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. The tapes owner had called Blatt anonymously. We had court documents coming out of our ass., Levin also maintained close relationships with defense attorneys. 2023 Cond Nast. In 2010, the Los Angeles County Superior Court dismissed its chief spokesman, Allan Parachini, for supposedly providing confidential information to TMZ. In July, TMZ caught up with Bernie Sanders: Senator, your campaign is almost like the Passion of Christ movie. A lot of people call me and tell me Im an assholethey say, Fuck you, Levin said. 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. Bankoff, who is now the chairman of Vox Media, liked the concept: Telepictures would supply the content, and AOL would handle the technical and commercial side. Currently, TMZ has three reporters stationed full-time at the courthouse; the Los Angeles Times has one court reporter. The vehicle's driver took time to help her call an ambulance. I dont have the words to tell you how awesome our technical team is but I think theyre about the best technical team in television, Levin gushed, noting the TMZ team made the decision to work from home before any official orders came down to do so. The world continues to be upended by the coronavirus pandemic, with more people contracting COVID-19 as the days pass. (The first episodes of the game show, South of Wilshire, recently aired.) In July, 2007, Levin moved TMZ into a space in West Hollywood. Harvey also went on to create a number of shows prior to launching TMZ.com, such as 'Celebrity Justice', 'Rock & A Hard Place', and 'Beyond Twisted', to name a few. October 28, 2017 11:25am. 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. This nickname has appeared on TMZ hundreds of times. . (The site subsequently published a police photograph of Rihannas battered face.) It is extremely rare for people to get a severe reaction from the coronavirus. In place of the usual lyrics, Bieber had substituted nigger for girl. He giggled as he sang, Therell be one less lonely nigger and If I kill you, Ill be part of the K.K.K., Levin faced a tough decision. Director Tony Wharmby Writers Donald P. Bellisario R. Scott Gemmill Stars David James Elliott Levin is sixty-five. Two years later, Blatt learned that V. Stiviano, Donald Sterlings mistress, was taping an interview with Barbara Walters at the Four Seasons, in Beverly Hills. In 2014, Taryn Hillin, a former TMZ writer, took legal action, alleging sexual discrimination and unlawful termination. button. 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. You didnt. 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. I watch your show so much, read the Web site, like, all the time, so youre just, like, my idol, a young woman said. Patricia Bosworth, a stage and screen actress turned journalist who penned celebrity biographies, died April 2 from complications of the coronavirus. 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? I dont apologize for being an aggressive reporter.. Though Levin did not post explicit videos on TMZ, he was adept at translating the existence of a tape into news, Blatt said. 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. He was 70. 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. 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. The success of the Web site inspired Levin to branch out. 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 used to say, to all of us, My fucking dogs are smarter than you! You become like a battered child. 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. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Good stories dont come easy, Levin said. Thats the way Harvey controls the game.. But Levin taught us what else to look for, Angela Laughlin, one of the early hires at TMZ, said. . Levin insists that his photographers are not paparazzi. ), During his 2010 talk at the University of Chicago, Levin discussed the legality of the Gibson story. Im a hustler, he said. 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.) (Deadspin published the messages.) And if theres a cease-and-desist that comes after that, thats another story.. Levin attempted to give Superior Court more credibility. When people have choices, you cant sell that gray coat anymore., From the start, Levins crusader mentality at TMZ caused some consternation, Lewis DVorkin, a former senior vice-president of AOL, told me. On a Thursday evening not long ago, I met Blatt at Craigs, a popular steakhouse in West Hollywood. 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. I had a whole pocketful of hundreds, he told me. In September, 2002, Levins new TV show, Celebrity Justice, premired. ), Inside Craigs, the bar area was crowded with women in stiletto heels and sleeveless furs. Several paparazzi stood outside, fiddling with their cameras. After a deal was made for the Bieber clip, Justin Kaplanthe former production associate who had received the limo lists at the gas stationwas sent to Levins house. At the same time, celebrity-friendly clubs in Hollywood touted their lenient policies with respect to minors. Then, on September 8th, TMZ published a second surveillance video from the Revel. The Society of Professional Journalists condemns the practice of paying sources, saying that it threatens to corrupt journalism. Levin was unapologetic. Levin also disapproved of the way that publicists leveraged access to celebrities in order to control the media coverage of their clients. So then, for months, Harvey was, like, Blueberries! all the time.. TMZ also bought a screen shot of a text in which she informed Sheen that she was pregnant. producer Joel Rogosin died of coronavirus at the MPTF nursing home. 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. ), 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. 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. These are the names of some notable figures from Hollywood and the media that we have lost. (Parachini, who now lives in Hawaii, denies the allegation. Harold Budd, ambient musician and composer for several Hollywood films, died from complications of the coronavirus, his manager said Dec. 8. We want you to trust us., On February 19th, four days after the incident at the Revel, TMZ posted a fuzzy clip of Rice dragging Palmers limp body from the elevator. He was 79. Eddie Large, one-half of the comedy duo Little and Large, died April 2 after contracting coronavirus while hospitalized for heart failure. The veteran character actor and regular on New York City stages was 69. Popular Japanese comedian Ken Shimura, whose career spanned decades, died March 29 due to complications from the coronavirus. Most valuable was a shot of the bathtub, still filled with water, where paramedics discovered Houstons body. Two L.A.P.D. Charles Gregory, an Emmy-nominated hairstylist who frequently collaborated with Tyler Perry on his films and TV shows, died of complications from COVID-19 on April 8. You find family. Michael Jackson had died at the age of 50. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. . 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. (He declined repeated requests for an interview.) 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. 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. Another stood me up; she later apologized, saying, I was scared. Numerous former employees confessed to going on medication to manage workplace anxiety. Levin attended. Other hands went up. On the October 19th episode of TMZ on TV, one staffer mentioned that the rapper The Game had recently given Diddy a Ferrari. The estranged husband of a former sitcom star recently made threats against him, persuading him to take on a twenty-four-hour security detail. Early life and education [ edit] 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.. UrgencyHarvey used that word all the time, Jeff Rowe, another former AOL executive, told me. Zion Harvey is a bright and precocious 8-year-old who has told his doctors that he cannot wait to someday throw a football. 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. 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. The site needed a name, and Feed the Beast, Frenzie, and Buzz Feed were all considered, according to Rowes notes. Photographing celebrities going in and coming out was like fishing an overstocked pond. Chris Trousdale, a member of the boy band Dream Street, died of coronavirus complications on June 2. He shared desk space with another general-assignment reporter, Kent Shocknek, who later became the anchor of the morning newscast. Dr. Levin has over 62 years of healthcare experience. Back in the day, she wouldnt do that, he said. He was hospitalized in Atlanta just days after attending a campaign rally for Donald Trump in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was seen without a mask. Its almost like an African jungle safaritheyll come up to the bus, Levin said recently. Broadway star Nick Cordero passed away on July 5 due to complications from coronavirus. It was a pretty terrible show. Levin lost. 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 . Russ Weakland, a former TMZ producer, told me that he sometimes negotiated payments with tipsters who were anxious about releasing sensitive information. He was 82. Then Levin seemed to catch himself, and he laughed. Theres nothing like a good sex-tape story to really drive clicks and searches, Blatt told me. He had obtained and marketed a video of Paris Hilton, and one of Verne Troyer, the actor who played Mini-Me in the Austin Powers franchise. One early hire was the daughter of Paris Hiltons attorney. Anytime you went to talk to him, you felt like a supplicant, a former senior producer told me. Verified account Protected Tweets @; Suggested users Its a terrible joke.. Harvey Robert Levin [1] (born September 2, 1950) is an American television producer, legal analyst, celebrity reporter, and former lawyer. [2] He is the founder of celebrity news website TMZ, and the former host of OBJECTified, which aired on the Fox News Channel . No, Bellino said. But Levin was not interested in managing a site that functioned as another thing to puff up Hollywood, Bankoff recalled. And celebrity blog TMZ had broken the news exclusively. The league suspended Rice for two games, but by early September he was preparing to return to play. 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. After TMZ published images of the four pages, the story made national headlines. He was 78. 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. The fierce advocate for the AAPI community was 89. He has a jittery manner, a wide smile, and a deep tan. Theres nothing wrong with it, he said. Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza who sought the Republican nomination for president in 2012, died July 30 from complications of the coronavirus. Harvey gets it. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. My technical team figured this out and didnt miss a beat. Harvey, 18, began to feel unwell hours after having the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab on Friday and was taken to hospital. Instead of taking a corner office, he placed his desk on a riser in the center of the newsroom, creating an editorial panopticon. Locations. Harvey Levin, television producer, lawyer, legal analyst, and founder of TMZ, joined Bob Sirott to talk about the latest news in Hollywood. We have to get him before he leaves! I cant tell you how many times I had to wait for a crew because Harvey convinced the dispatcher that he had the story of the year, every single day., After a few years, Levin quit and joined the CBS affiliate. Rice was cut by the Ravens and suspended indefinitely by the N.F.L. (The tours are managed by Andy Mauer, Levins chiropractor partner.) * It felt like bedroom police to me, he said at the time. In the morning, Braun and Levin spoke again. Grammy-winning country singer K.T. The next week, Stone confronted his student. That afternoon, TMZ contacted Biebers manager, Scooter Braun, for comment. His father had run a liquor store in Reseda, and in Harveys youth it was subjected repeatedly to sting operations by police officers who suspected that minors were being allowed to buy alcohol. We went in with an envelope full of money and said, Lets see the video, Blatt recalled. After guards responded to the incident in the lobby, several surveillance officers gathered and wondered aloud if a tape of Rice and Palmer could be sold to TMZthe Web site that, since its inception, in 2005, has taken a merciless approach to celebrity news. He wrote on social media of his diagnosis on April 6, but he did not recover. I cant give you a rigid principle on where the line of privacy is. He claimed that he struggled with this dilemma all the time., Twenty-four hours after the Bieber video came in, the newsroom learned that Levin had decided not to run the story. He did not destroy his copy of the video, however, and Biebers camp was aware that Levin could reverse his position and post it. Both Gavin and Schroeder told me that they remained skeptical that TMZ could ever reproduce its tipster regime in Washington. John Prine, one of the most influential and revered folk and country songwriters of the last 50 years, died on April 6 at the age of 73 after being infected with the COVID-19 virus. He was 80. Cause theyre smart.), Levin once tried to set up a bureau in Washington, D.C. In February, 2012, after Whitney Houston was found dead in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton, Blatt drove there and checked into a room. sourcea Hispanic gentlemanat a gas station in Van Nuys, handing over an envelope filled with cash, and receiving in return a client list. 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. 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. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. (In a 2015 e-mail, a TMZ employee asked colleagues if anyone had yet established a source at Uber.) 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 . Im not putting the video up. Braun broke down in tears. Jack was 76. 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. Blatt drove across town to see her. *An earlier version of this article misstated where Levin lobbied the city council. If there were gaps in your stories, if you didnt have enough detail, if he wanted another question answered, he would fly off the handle, a former news-desk reporter told me. Just on a slightly different level, he added. Levin confided that hed been unable to sleep. TMZ resembles an intelligence agency as much as a news organization. After a few more minutes of conversation, Bellino turned back to his table. Levin claims to live by a code that precludes him from crossing certain lines, such as targeting minors or policing bedroom affairs. Rice expressed regret, saying, Me and Janay wish we could take back thirty seconds of our life. What happened during those thirty seconds? 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. 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.) 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.). The document supplied both evidence of Gibsons bigotry and proof that the sheriffs department had attempted to cover it up. He wanted a site that created a sense of urgency.. 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. Did such posts, Kurtz asked, signal an intent to change TMZs reputation as a raunchy tabloid operation? These shows, in which legal disputes were resolved in fake courtrooms, represented a fresh formreality TVthat blended the everyday and the outlandish. Kardashian filed for divorce in 2013. By February, 2007, TMZ was drawing more Web traffic than the sites of People and Entertainment Tonight combined. 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. Co-host Charles Latibeaudiere said Levin was in "a pretty bad accident and. The Bellinos slid into the banquette beside ours. Theyve never done anything slanty on you? Blatt asked. 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 representative for the company told TheWrap, Harvey Levin was injured yesterday in a bicycling accident. How does TMZ get this stuff? Kurtz asked. The process had been so well honed, Kaplan told me, that we barely said a word to each other.. Gossip sites have published paparazzi shots of Levin drinking iced coffee with his partner, Andy Mauer, a chiropractor. TMZ personality Harvey Levin interviews big name celebrities and newsmakers in this new Sunday night series.