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class="SpaceHolr-oayp fXtswJ ad-height-hold"></div><ma id="ma-ntent" tabx="-1" class="BasePageMaContent-kFvAuh ewPCZH pagema-ntent"><article class="article ma-ntent" lang="en-US"><div class="ArticlePageLeBackground-EufvU tFsh"><hear class="ContentHearWrapper-clujbs eYlKuB ntent-hear articlentent-hear"><div data-ttid="ContentHearContaer" class="ContentHearContaer-cGKRbE knDxNq"><div class="ContentHearHedAccredatnWrapper-GFiQf cDNVlV"><div data-ttid="ContentHearTleBlockWrapper" class="ContentHearTleBlockWrapper-cjmSKp jbzVNV"><div data-ttid="ContentHearRubric" class="ContentHearRubricBlock-LmpbT kkDiIx"><div data-ttid="ContentHearRubricDateBlock" class="ContentHearRubricDateBlock-kAQcZP fTFWxD"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX dZhWBL bric ContentHearRubricContaer-eTudtt iRsSlw"><a class="RubricLk-gRWSOU fgWnkQ briclk" href="/magaze/letter-om-los-angel"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Letter om Los Angel</span></a></div></div></div><h1 data-ttid="ContentHearHed" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearHed-NCyCC iUEiRd NbxED hpJvIc">The Digal Dirt</h1></div><div class="ContentHearAccredatn-lfctVB enhwXT ntent-hearaccredatn" data-ttid="ContentHearAccredatn"><div class="ContentHearDek-bIqFFZ Mtme">How TMZ gets the vios and photos that celebri want to hi.</div><div class="ContentHearByle-kmPyCa gvUmxJ"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset ContentHearContributorImage-cvjZXn jKACOU"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa ContentHearContributorImage-cvjZXn jKACOU rponsive-image"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="66px"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="66px"/><img alt="" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src="></picture></span><div class="ContentHearByleContent-dpPmNn DRFq"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl ContentHearByl-cZqgyJ bqbBYQ"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH ivtvgj byle bylbyle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU bylename"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss bylepreamble">By </span><a class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM ByleLk-gEnFiw iUEiRd ggMZaT cXqSTL eErqIx bylename-lk button" href="/ntributors/nicholas-schmidle">Nicholas Schmidle</a></span></span></p></div><time data-ttid="ContentHearPublishDate" dateTime="2016-02-14T23:00:00-05:00" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearPublishDate-eIBicG iUEiRd kYZrFA kEBrdf">Febary 14, 2016</time></div></div></div></div></div></hear></div><div data-attribute-verso-pattern="article-body" class="ArticlePageContentBackGround-cNiFNN kbAoLA article-bodyntent"><div class="ActnBarWrapperContent-lasBkU cAHp"><div class="ActnBarWrapperComponent-cjwxLS bEeSLb"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" 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data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="bodyner-ntaer"><div class="GenericCalloutWrapper-tojWn iHBnEl llout--has-top-borr set-embedd-le" data-ttid="GenericCallout"><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embedasset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO KhjZz AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset rponsive-image rponsive-image--expandable"><noscript><img alt="Harvey Lev TMZs founr leavg an L.A. gym. TMZ rembl an telligence agency as much as a news anizatn." class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w, 1920w, 2240w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></span></div><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn AssetEmbedCaptn-fNQBPI fmQnYP asset-embedptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo iXWezO ptntext">Harvey Lev, TMZ’s founr, leavg an L.A. gym. TMZ rembl an telligence agency as much as a news anizatn.</span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT jbIJNS ptncred">Photograph by Peter Bohler for The New Yorker</span></div></figure></div><p class="has-dropp has-dropplead-standard-headg">In the early-morng hours of Febary 15, 2014, Ray Rice and his fiancée, Janay Palmer, stepped to an elevator at the Revel hotel and so, Atlantic Cy. Palmer and Rice, a nng back for the Baltimore Ravens, were argug as the doors slid shut. When the elevator arrived the lobby, Palmer was lyg unnsc, face down, on the floor.</p><p class="paywall">Acrdg to a former secury supervisor at the Revel, nearly eighteen hundred meras streamed vio to a pair of monorg rooms on the mezzane floor. After guards rpond to the cint the lobby, several surveillance officers gathered and wonred aloud if a tape of Rice and Palmer uld be sold to TMZ—the Web se that, sce s ceptn, 2005, has taken a mercils approach to celebry news.</p><p class="paywall">At around 4:30 <em class="small">a.m</em>., one of the surveillance officers, stg at a monorg-room puter, reviewed footage om a mera that faced the elevator and, g a cell phone, surreptly rerd the screen. The officer then lled TMZ.</p><p class="paywall">It was the middle of the night Los Angel, where TMZ is based, so a msage was left on the tip le. More than a hundred tips arrive every day. On September 29, 2015, an ternal e-mail summarizg tips om the prev night referred to “ regardg Gee Clooney’s weddg,” “a vio of a pro athlete gettg attacked by a goat,” and “pictur of Meek Mill beg rcerated.” (The e-mail is one of many that were leaked to <em>The New Yorker.</em>) The tip le also rerd a claim that a major pop star “wears a fake booty her mic vios” and employs a “person who mak the fake butts.”</p><p class="paywall">Many tipsters ask to be paid, and the se often pli. In October, 2014, TMZ received an e-mail that, unr the subject headg “Drake at Stadium Club D.C.,” announced, “I have the origal footage. Please ll me for price.” Fifty-ne mut after a producer forward the tip to lleagu, TMZ posted a clip showg the rapper accintally droppg thoands of dollars outsi a Washgton strip club. (In a msage to a TMZ staff member, the source asked to be paid five thoand dollars.) Rs Weakland, a former TMZ producer, told me that he sometim negotiated payments wh tipsters who were anx about releasg sensive rmatn. In 2009, for example, he took the ll that led to TMZ’s breakg the news that Chris Brown had physilly asslted Rihanna. (The se subsequently published a police photograph of Rihanna’s battered face.) Weakland told me that his attempts to persua sourc to follow through wh a leak often rembled a therapy ssn. “I’d have to talk people off cliffs,” Weakland said. “I’d tell them, ‘We’re not gog to reveal our sourc, bee we want you to be a source for aga. We want you to tst .’ ”</p><div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--article-mid-ntent" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-unslot nsumer-marketg-unslot--article-mid-ntent nsumer-marketg-unslot---ntent"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><p class="paywall">On Febary 19th, four days after the cint at the Revel, TMZ posted a fuzzy clip of Rice draggg Palmer’s limp body om the elevator. (Acrdg to a former TMZ photographer, the se paid fifteen thoand dollars. TMZ would not discs payments, or other ternal matters, but lled this figure overblown.) The vio, which went viral, had the phrase “TMZ SPORTS” embossed the center—a brandg practice known as “buggg.”</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-1 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Invtigators at the Revel, tryg to disver who had taken the vio, ascertaed s timg by sctizg the clip’s d track; while the phone was rerdg the footage, a general requt for chips to be refilled uld be heard on the so ter. The former secury supervisor told me that so officials also intified which puter had been ed to review the footage. But Loretta Pick, the former general unsel at the so, told me that uld not be termed wh certaty which employee had rerd the footage wh a phone.</p><p class="paywall">When the vio was posted on TMZ, Rice’s attorney issued a statement, warng viewers not to make judgments until “all of the facts” emerged, addg, “Neher Ray nor myself will try this se the media.” Three months later, Rice and Palmer held a prs nference. Rice exprsed regret, sayg, “Me and Janay wish we uld take back thirty sends of our life.” What happened durg those thirty sends? Rice, the Ravens, and the N.F.L. did not seem pecially termed to fd out. The league spend Rice for two gam, but by early September he was preparg to return to play. Then, on September 8th, TMZ published a send surveillance vio om the Revel. This one, bought for almost nety thoand dollars, revealed what occurred si the elevator: after the doors shut, Rice punched Palmer on the left si of her head.</p><p class="paywall">The clip pched the N.F.L. to a crisis. TMZ, the <em>Tim</em> clared, “has the league on the n.” Roger Gooll, the N.F.L.’s missner, ducked qutns about why s own vtigators had not obtaed the footage, and said, “We don’t seek to get that rmatn om sourc that are not credible.” But the vio was unimpeachable, and s impact was immediate. Rice was cut by the Ravens and spend fely by the N.F.L. Sportswrers clared that TMZ had shaken the league “to s foundatn.”</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embedasset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoonimage-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoonimage rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“Several plats that the meatballs are grty.”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoonptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptntext">“Several plats that the meatballs are grty.”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178637)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M16.3488 10.5017C16.2107 10.7357 16.2926 11.035 16.5318 11.17C16.7709 11.3052 17.0767 11.225 17.2148 10.991L18.4648 8.87225C19.5694 7.00002 18.9139 4.60601 17.0007 3.52508C15.0875 2.44415 12.6412 3.08562 11.5366 4.95785L9.53657 8.34782C8.432 10.22 9.08751 12.6141 11.0007 13.6949C11.1888 13.8012 11.382 13.8908 11.5785 13.9642C11.7819 14.0403 12.0058 13.9485 12.1147 13.764C12.2794 13.4849 12.1103 13.1276 11.8083 12.9992C11.7041 12.9549 11.6014 12.9044 11.5007 12.8475C10.0658 12.0368 9.57417 10.2413 10.4026 8.83712L12.4026 5.44715C13.2311 4.04298 15.0658 3.56187 16.5007 4.37257C17.9356 5.18327 18.4272 6.97878 17.5988 8.38295L16.3488 10.5017ZM7.6526 13.4983C7.79067 13.2643 7.70873 12.965 7.46959 12.8299C7.23044 12.6948 6.92464 12.775 6.78657 13.009L5.53657 15.1278C4.432 17 5.0875 19.394 7.00068 20.475C8.91385 21.5558 11.3602 20.9144 12.4648 19.0422L14.4648 15.6521C15.5694 13.78 14.9139 11.3859 13.0007 10.305C12.8127 10.1988 12.6195 10.1091 12.4229 10.0357C12.2195 9.95975 11.9956 10.0515 11.8867 10.236C11.7221 10.5151 11.8911 10.8724 12.1932 11.0008C12.2973 11.0451 12.4 11.0956 12.5007 11.1525C13.9356 11.9632 14.4272 13.7587 13.5988 15.1628L11.5988 18.5529C10.7704 19.957 8.93555 20.4382 7.50068 19.6274C6.0658 18.8167 5.57417 17.0212 6.4026 15.6171L7.6526 13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn kdMXRM shoppg-alert" role="dialog"><div aria-hidn="te" role="prentatn" class="AlertArrow-daOgye AlLda alert-arrow"></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc cxFROy alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="has-dropp has-dropplead-standard-headg paywall">Six days later, Harvey Lev, the founr of TMZ, appeared on the Fox News program “Media Buzz” to discs the Rice story. Lev is sixty-five. He has a jtery manner, a wi se, and a ep tan. For the TV appearance, he was wearg a tight black T-shirt, which showed off his physique—he works out every weekday before dawn, prr to gog to the office. Several of Lev’s lleagu told me that he is termed to mata his youth. Gillian Sheldon, TMZ’s first publicist, who later beme a supervisg producer, said, “Once, Sumner Redstone”—the former executive chairman of Via, who is nety-two—“told him that one of the secrets of his longevy was that he ate blueberri every day. So then, for months, Harvey was, like, ‘Blueberri!’ all the time.”</p><div class="Contaer-bkChBi byNLHx"></div><p class="paywall">Howard Kurtz, the host of “Media Buzz,” remd his dience that TMZ had published memorable sops, such as postg police rerds, 2006, that exposed Mel Gibson’s dnk-drivg arrt and anti-Semic rant. Later that year, the se released vio footage of Michael Richards makg racist ments durg a edy-club route. In 2009, TMZ broke the news of Michael Jackson’s sudn ath, and two years ago revealed a rerd phone ll between Donald Sterlg, then the owner of the Los Angel Clippers, and his mistrs, which Sterlg urged her not to brg her Ain-Amerin iends, cludg Magic Johnson, to Clippers gam.</p><p class="paywall">“How do TMZ get this stuff?” Kurtz asked.</p><p class="paywall">“It’s so funny to me that people ask that qutn,” Lev replied. “We’re a news operatn. I mean, that’s what you’re <em>supposed</em> to do.” Ined, the se has built a ep work of sourc, cludg entertament lawyers, realy-televisn stars, adult-film brokers, and urt officials, allowg Lev to knock down the walls that guard celebry life. (He cled repeated requts for an terview.) TMZ has paid at least one mole si B.L.S., a limoe service, to provi lists of celebry ctomers, their planned rout, and the license-plate numbers of their vehicl. (In a 2015 e-mail, a TMZ employee asked lleagu if anyone had yet tablished a source at Uber.) Jt Kaplan, a former productn associate at TMZ, rells meetg a B.L.S. source—“a Hispanic gentleman”—at a gas statn Van Nuys, handg over an envelope filled wh sh, and receivg return a client list. The procs had been so well honed, Kaplan told me, that “we barely said a word to each other.”</p><p class="paywall">At least one employee of Delta Airl suppli TMZ wh the nam and erari of celebry passengers travellg through Los Angel and New York. In an e-mail dated January 29, 2014, a TMZ manager rmed her lleagu that the star of an ABC drama had been spotted stg first class, seat 2A, on Delta Flight 1061, om Orlando to Los Angel, when his plane was rerouted to Dallas—the rult of a bomb threat issued on Twter. Such rmatn helps TMZ’s crew of a dozen or so paparazzi know when and where to “drop on” a celebry who is transg through an airport. One day’s list, om June, 2010, clud the flight tails for Robert Redford and Jack Kevorkian; another one, two months later, had the erari of Juli Ervg, Kathy Ireland, and Mallm-Jamal Warner. “It’s not an accint the guy wh a mera is wag at the Delta check- unter at 8 <em class="small">a.m.</em>,” a former TMZ employee wrote, anonymoly, on Defamer, a Hollywood se owned by Gawker.</p><p class="paywall">TMZ rembl an telligence agency as much as a news anizatn, and has turned s doma, Los Angel, to a cy of stool pigeons. In an e-mail om last year, a photographer reported havg four airport sourc for the day, cludg “Harold at Delta, Leon at Baggage service, Fred at hudson news, Lyle at F and nut stand.” A former TMZ meraman showed me expense reports that he had submted 2010, reflectg payments of forty or fifty dollars to var sourc: to the unter girl at a Beverly Hills salon, for rmatn on Goldie Hawn; to a valet, for Pete Sampras; to a shopkeeper, for Dwight Howard; and to a waer, for Hayn Christensen. “Everybody rats everybody else out,” Simon Cardoza, a former meraman for the se, told me. “That’s the bety of TMZ.”</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layoutasi"><asi class="PersistentAsiWrapper-VGrR daRVRt persistent-asi" style="posn:absolute;top:to;height:to" data-ttid="PersistentAsiWrapper"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-boxprimary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="adslot adslot--rail" data-no-id="pxn4tk"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-unslot nsumer-marketg-unslot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></asi></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="adslot adslot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="u0j40x"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layoutntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body bodyntaer articlebody" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="bodyner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">Though Lev has changed the l for nfirmg gossip, by sistg on documentary proof, sndal has been chronicled for lennia. Thirty-five hundred years ago, Mopotamian scrib ed cuneiform to rerd the impeachment heargs of a mayor who had been acced of rptn, kidnappg, adultery, and the theft of manure. In 1709, the first morn gossip magaze, <em>The Tatler</em>, started publitn, London. The medium arrived Ameri the late neteenth century, when a weekly named <em>Town Topics</em> began publishg bld ems, a sectn lled “Sntergs.” (In 1905, the sectn’s edor attempted to blackmail Ey Post’s hband after learng of his fily.) Tyons and policians were the ial foc of the gossip tra; one Brish photographer bribed a garner to ga entrance to Wston Churchill’s hoe, where he hid, wag for the perfect shot, until Churchill spotted him and chased him away. Wh the rise of Hollywood, actors beme gossip’s prime quarry; the magaze <em>Confintial</em> urted lawsus by prtg stori wh tl like “Mae Wt’s Open Door Policy.”</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-2 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">On the Fox News program, Kurtz asked Lev whether his willgns to buy material “tarnished” TMZ’s tegry. Last year, Page Six reported that TMZ paid two hundred and fifty thoand dollars for surveillance footage of Beyoncé’s sister, Solange, attackg Jay Z an elevator at the Standard, New York. (Acrdg to a former TMZ employee knowledgeable about the al, the price was closer to five thoand dollars.) The Society of Profsnal Journalists nmns the practice of payg sourc, sayg that “threatens to rpt journalism.” Lev was unapologetic. “There’s nothg wrong wh ,” he said. “The vio is still the vio. So who r whether you pay money for ?”</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embedasset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoonimage rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“Id like a full nteen wh lemon.”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoonptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptntext">“I’d like a full nteen wh lemon.”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178637)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M16.3488 10.5017C16.2107 10.7357 16.2926 11.035 16.5318 11.17C16.7709 11.3052 17.0767 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11.0956 12.5007 11.1525C13.9356 11.9632 14.4272 13.7587 13.5988 15.1628L11.5988 18.5529C10.7704 19.957 8.93555 20.4382 7.50068 19.6274C6.0658 18.8167 5.57417 17.0212 6.4026 15.6171L7.6526 13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn kdMXRM shoppg-alert" role="dialog"><div aria-hidn="te" role="prentatn" class="AlertArrow-daOgye AlLda alert-arrow"></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc cxFROy alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">Kurtz noted that, amid all the gossip, TMZ had aired some nsequential stori. In 2012, the se published a vio showg four mar Afghanistan uratg on ad surgents, which prompted a crimal vtigatn and disciplary actn agast the mar. Did such posts, Kurtz asked, signal an tent to change TMZ’s reputatn as “a rnchy tabloid operatn”? (On the day the Fox terview aired, TMZ’s home page featured an “exclive” about Iggy Azalea, the Atralian rapper, who was threateng to sue an adult-film pany over the release of a sex tape.) Lev’s face l up. “We’ve been around for ne years, and if you look at the stori that we’ve broken they are stori that lerally every newsst Ameri has put on the air,” he said.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropplead-standard-headg paywall">Apart om nng the Web se, Lev hosts two syndited televisn shows: a one-hour newsst, “TMZ Live,” and a thirty-mute program, “TMZ on TV,” which is taped each morng, between seven and ne, on the floor of the TMZ newsroom, and featur Lev clutchg a mug of iced green tea and banterg about the latt celebry news wh his lleagu. Lev assum the role of semi-hip uncle—ol for his age but amgly out of step wh his younger lleagu’ fads and jok. On the October 19th episo of “TMZ on TV,” one staffer mentned that the rapper The Game had recently given Diddy a Ferrari.</p><p class="paywall">“Why <em>did he</em>?” Lev asked, several tim.</p><p class="paywall">“We get ,” a lleague retorted. “It’s a terrible joke.”</p><p class="paywall">Later the show, the nversatn turned to a photograph of Diana Ross leavg a CVS, at night, wearg sunglass and rryg a package of toilet paper. Lev seemed afonted to see Ross so stripped of glamour. “Back the day, she wouldn’t do that,” he said.</p><p class="paywall">Lev’s exposure on televisn has turned him to a celebry himself. The Los Angel <em>Tim</em> has followed his attempts to sell his hoe Hollywood Hills Wt, for which he is askg almost four ln dollars. Gossip s have published paparazzi shots of Lev drkg iced ffee wh his partner, Andy Mer, a chiropractor. When Lev appeared on “The Howard Stern Show,” 2011, Stern said he’d heard that TMZ was worth as much as four hundred ln dollars. “That’s nothg to sneeze at for a fuckg Web se,” he add. (The Web se is wholly owned by Warner Bros., but Lev is an executive producer of TMZ’s TV shows.)</p><p class="paywall">The attentn that Lev receiv is not always so adulatory. The tranged hband of a former s star recently ma threats agast him, persuadg him to take on a twenty-four-hour secury tail. The <em>Guardian</em>, a 2009 profile of Lev, referred to him as the “high prce of sleaze.” Alec Baldw, who has been the subject of several harsh TMZ stori—cludg one, om 2007, which the se posted a voice-mail rerdg of Baldw llg his eleven-year-old dghter a “, thoughtls ltle pig”—told me, “There was a time when my greatt wish was to stab Harvey Lev wh a sty implement and watch his entrails go nng down my forearm, some Macbethian stance. I wanted him to die my arms, while lookg to my ey, and I wanted to say to him, ‘Oh, Harvey, you thoughtls ltle pig.’ ” Baldw add, “He is a fterg boil on the an of Amerin media.”</p><p class="paywall">But for some the signifince of the Sterlg and Rice stori lled for a reasssment. In 2014, <em>Adweek</em> named Lev the digal edor of the year, notg, “Whatever topic your -workers are talkg about around the water-oler, they probably read first at TMZ.” The televisn journalist Jane Velez-Mchell, who is a iend of Lev’s, told me, “Harvey’s a tth-teller—he has exposed thgs that people want to keep secret.” <em>Sports Bs Daily</em> wrote, “Like or not, the effect that TMZ’s verage had wh s Ray Rice and Donald Sterlg stori was Watergate-que.” And after Ben Bradlee, the former edor of the Washgton <em>Post,</em> died, late 2014, Deadle Hollywood praised TMZ’s “game-changg” work, and asked of Lev, “Is he the next gen Ben Bradlee, or jt the face of the new rnatn of the <em>Natnal Enquirer</em>?”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropplead-standard-headg paywall">On May 7, 1968, Lev, then a senr at Cleveland High School, Reda, California, stepped up to a microphone, faced a football stadium filled wh his classmat, and did his bt imprsn of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was nng for Print. Lev had volunteered to stand for him durg Cleveland’s mock electn. He had refully followed the mpaign and learned Kennedy’s mannerisms: the Los Angel <em>Tim</em>, which vered Lev’s speech, noted that Lev even “jabbed his fger” the Kennedy way.</p><p class="paywall">A month later, Kennedy me to Los Angel for an event at the Ambassador Hotel. Lev attend. After the speech, as Kennedy was walkg through the hotel’s kchen, an assass shot and killed him. Soon afterward, Lev formed a lol mtee lled Cizens for a Safe Society, and he lobbied the Los Angel<a href="#edorsnote"></a> cy uncil for a gun-reform iative that would require prospective gun buyers to plete a wrten petency tt. “Anyone buyg a gun should be faiar wh s adly potential,” he told the Los Angel <em>Tim</em>.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-3 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">That fall, Lev enrolled at the Universy of California, Santa Barbara, where he studied polil science. He nsired pursug a Ph.D. but chose law school stead, at the Universy of Chigo. One of his profsors, Geofey Stone, relled him as a nfint stunt who was “always eager to bate.” Lev took Stone’s class on evince. One day, Stone was sick and ncelled the class. At home, he turned on the TV and, to his surprise, saw Lev onscreen: “I was flippg through the channels, and there was Harvey on ‘High Rollers’ ”—a game show hosted by Alex Trebek. “It was a pretty terrible show.” Lev lost. The next week, Stone nonted his stunt. Lev replied, “If you won’t tell anyone I lost, <em>I</em> won’t tell anyone you were watchg ‘High Rollers.’ ”</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embedasset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoonimage-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoonimage rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="Insi Harvey Levs TMZ" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178637)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M16.3488 10.5017C16.2107 10.7357 16.2926 11.035 16.5318 11.17C16.7709 11.3052 17.0767 11.225 17.2148 10.991L18.4648 8.87225C19.5694 7.00002 18.9139 4.60601 17.0007 3.52508C15.0875 2.44415 12.6412 3.08562 11.5366 4.95785L9.53657 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18.8167 5.57417 17.0212 6.4026 15.6171L7.6526 13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn kdMXRM shoppg-alert" role="dialog"><div aria-hidn="te" role="prentatn" class="AlertArrow-daOgye AlLda alert-arrow"></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc cxFROy alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">In the mid-seventi, Lev accepted a teachg job wh the law faculty at the Universy of Miami, a perd that he recently scribed as “the sgle greatt year of my life.” He loved bg the serns of amia wh the wild fun of South Beach. He subscribed to a new magaze, <em>People</em>, and read his office. After hours of porg over sework, was, he says, “jt like crack.”</p><p class="paywall">Lev returned to California, to teach at the Whtier College law school. At the time, a nservative named Howard Jarvis was mpaigng to pass a ballot iative California limg real-tate tax. Lev, who opposed the measure, faced off agast Jarvis several public bat. Though the proposn ultimately passed, Lev ma a posive imprsn, and the Los Angel <em>Tim</em> hired him to ntribute an advice lumn, tled “The Law and You.” Lev wrote about, among other thgs, a passenger’s rights when he or she is bumped off a flight, and whether blood tts n nclively tablish paterny. When Carol Burt sued the <em>Natnal Enquirer</em> for famatn, 1981, he observed that her lawsu faced signifint challeng: she “mt prove that the <em>Enquirer</em> published the article about her wh eher an tentnal or reckls disregard for the tth.”</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layoutasi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-boxprimary"></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="adslot adslot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="5tv3cs"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layoutntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body bodyntaer articlebody" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="bodyner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">Lev began nsultg on “The People’s Court,” and 1986 he joed the staff of a rival program, “Superr Court,” where he was eventually promoted to managg edor. The shows, which legal disput were rolved fake urtrooms, reprented a h form—realy TV—that blend the everyday and the outlandish. Lev attempted to give “Superr Court” more credibily. In Febary, 1987, to memorate the bicentennial of the U.S. Constutn, he set out to book a Supreme Court Jtice. He ially ntacted Warren Burger, who had jt stepped down as Chief Jtice. Burger’s assistant, acrdg to Lev, told him to “qu tryg.” Then, Lev has said, he reached out to Harry Blackmun, who had wrten the majory opn Roe v. Wa, and who had a ntent relatnship wh Burger. “I played Burger agast Blackmun,” Lev relled, an terview wh a lol newspaper. Blackmun agreed to go on the show. It was a up for Lev, even though, he nced, Blackmun’s appearance turned out to be “terrible televisn.”</p><p class="paywall">In 1990, “Superr Court” was ncelled, and Lev took a reportg job wh NBC’s Los Angel affiliate. He shared sk space wh another general-assignment reporter, Kent Shocknek, who later beme the anchor of the morng newsst. At the time, Shocknek told me, the statn had more reporters than meramen; Lev, he relled, perfected “a great trick” to secure a crew, “regardls of the mer of his story.” Shocknek explaed, “He would be on the phone, settg up an appotment, and then he would slam the phone down, and yell, ‘I got ! This is the guy! We have to get him before he leav!’ I n’t tell you how many tim I had to wa for a crew bee Harvey nvced the dispatcher that he had the story of the year, <em>every sgle day</em>.”</p><p class="paywall">After a few years, Lev qu and joed the CBS affiliate. On June 13, 1994, O. J. Simpson’s ex-wife Nile Brown Simpson and her iend Ronald Goldman were found ad outsi her Brentwood ndomium. The se bed Lev’s re profsnal terts—law, celebry, sndal—and he worked tirelsly on . A month after the murr, he was reviewg footage taken outsi Simpson’s home and noticed that the prosecutor Marcia Clark had been on the premis before a search warrant was issued: the time stamp read “10:28,” though Clark did not receive the warrant until 10:45 <em class="small">a.m</em>. KCBS promoted Lev’s disvery as “a bombshell,” and Lev referred to himself on the rad as “a nstutnal police officer.”</p><p class="paywall">But Lev had ma an error. The time stamp picted the moment that the footage had been filed—at 10:28 <em class="small">p.m</em>.—stead of the moment had been shot, hours after the warrant was issued. The statn issued what the Los Angel <em>Tim</em> lled “an extraordary public apology.”</p><p class="paywall">Lev went on the air and said, “We ma a mistake, we know how was ma, we’ve rrected , and is somethg that will not happen aga.” He add, “I stand on my rerd and the stori that I’ve broken. I don’t apologize for beg an aggrsive reporter.”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropplead-standard-headg paywall">Leo Brdy, his 1986 book, “The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and s History,” f fame as “the terplay between the mon and the unique human nature.” For Lev, nothg ptured this dynamic que like stars posg for mug shots or appearg urt. In the early ghts, he succsfully pched an ia to Telepictur, a divisn of Warner Bros.: a weekday newsst dited to celebry urt s. His “missn,” he once said, was “not to make celebri look bad but to make them real.” To Lev, the O. J. Simpson se offered a glarg example of how differently the law was applied to celebri and to ordary cizens.</p><p class="paywall">Lev had wnsed this double standard himself. His father had n a liquor store Reda, and Harvey’s youth was subjected repeatedly to stg operatns by police officers who spected that mors were beg allowed to buy alhol. At the same time, celebry-iendly clubs Hollywood touted their lenient polici wh rpect to mors. “Harvey thought was so unfair that the clubs would get away wh , jt bee they were sellg to celebri,” Gillian Sheldon, the former TMZ publicist, told me.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embedasset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoonimage rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“The ambient nature sounds are makg me too sleepy to hunt.”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoonptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptntext">“The ambient nature sounds are makg me too sleepy to hunt.”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in 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aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">Lev also disapproved of the way that publicists leveraged accs to celebri orr to ntrol the media verage of their clients. “The stori that were beg told weren’t real,” he said, a 2009 terview. “Producers knew that they weren’t real, but they played ball to get terviews wh the stars.” Most journalism about stars, he said, was “built on a lie.” He set out to fe celebry verage wh an vtigative ethos by trackg legal filgs and urt s. A Web se lled the Smokg Gun was already publishg such documents onle. But Lev “tght what else to look for,” Angela Lghl, one of the early hir at TMZ, said. “How to reach out to all those named the plat, how to stay on top of the s, how to fd statements and posns buried the file.”</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-4 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">In September, 2002, Lev’s new TV show, “Celebry Jtice,” premièred. It often aired late at night, and stggled to fd viewers. Sheldon, who was the publicist at “Celebry Jtice,” rells, “We were breakg news all the time, but we weren’t dog on the show.” Rather than unveilg sops the middle of the night, to meagre dienc, Lev and his reporters often took the bt material to more tablished shows like “Accs Hollywood,” or to CNN and Fox News. “Celebry Jtice” ntued to do poorly the ratgs, and after three years was ncelled.</p><p class="paywall">Neverthels, Jim Paratore, the print of Telepictur, wanted to fd Lev another project. Paratore had been ntemplatg a new Web se that uld feature uned footage amassed by “Extra,” also a Telepictur productn. Paratore discsed the ia wh Jim Bankoff, an executive at Ameri Onle. (Time Warner, the rporate parent of Warner Bros., had recently merged wh AOL.) Bankoff, who is now the chairman of Vox Media, liked the ncept: Telepictur would supply the ntent, and AOL would handle the technil and mercial si. Telepictur offered Lev the opportuny to n the se.</p><p class="paywall">But Lev was not terted managg a se that functned as “another thg to puff up Hollywood,” Bankoff relled. Instead, Lev proposed adaptg the bative spir of “Celebry Jtice” to the pace of the Web. “ ‘Urgency’—Harvey ed that word all the time,” Jeff Rowe, another former AOL executive, told me. “He wanted a se that created a sense of urgency.”</p><p class="paywall">The se need a name, and “Feed the Beast,” “Frenzie,” and “Buzz Feed” were all nsired, acrdg to Rowe’s not. Then, one day, a Telepictur executive suggted “Thirty Mile Zone.” It was an old movie-dtry phrase, datg back to the mid-twentieth century, which signated the dtry’s boundari Los Angel. Lev suggted an abbreviated versn: TMZ.</p><p class="paywall">The doma name , however, was owned by a man who built robots—the se’s ials stood for “Team M Zero”—and he showed ltle tert sellg. “We had the guy’s name, and we knew that he worked at a puter-parts pany,” Rowe said. One day, Lev cid to go see the man, and he asked to borrow Rowe’s most rental r, so that he wouldn’t appear to be wealthy. (Lev drove a Merces.) “Harvey lled him up, went over, wrote him a check for five grand, and bought the URL,” Rowe said.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layoutasi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-boxprimary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="adslot adslot--rail" data-no-id="qo3xms"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-unslot nsumer-marketg-unslot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="adslot adslot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="duvq48"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layoutntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body bodyntaer articlebody" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="bodyner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">In November, 2005, TMZ began operatns, on the send floor of an agg stud plex Glendale. On one of the first nights, s lone meraman ught Paris Hilton and her boyiend leavg a club her Bentley, crashg to a parked tck, and fleeg the scene. It was an spic start, and Web traffic soon soared to more than ten ln unique visors a month. (Last month, acrdg to Quantst, rerd more than seventeen ln.) Lev has pared the lnch to the openg of the Gap Rsia, after the fall of the Soviet Unn: “Everybody wore gray ats, and then the Gap me and sudnly you saw blue ats and red ats and green ats. People had choic. When people have choic, you n’t sell that gray at anymore.”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropplead-standard-headg paywall">From the start, Lev’s “csar mentaly” at TMZ ed some nsternatn, Lewis D’Vork, a former senr vice-print of AOL, told me. “Harvey believed that every celebry was fake, and that was his job to expose that.”</p><p class="paywall">Alan Cron, TMZ’s first general manager, rells fieldg ncerns om both AOL and Telepictur over “the tabloid directn of the stori.” He told me that executiv urged him to “move the verage to the middle.” He hired a reporter om <em>Variety</em> to wre more tradnal featur about the dtry—the gs and gogs of agents—and experimented wh real-tate verage. But when Cron reviewed the traffic data one thg beme “unniably clear”: “The tabloid material was what people wanted. The rt was like an rejectn— jt didn’t work.”</p><p class="paywall">At the start, Lev had only a dozen or so employe. He was selective about whom he brought on, prizg loyalty, energy, and nnectns over experience. “We’ll hire kids, and we’ll tra them,” he has said. One early hire was the dghter of Paris Hilton’s attorney. Another was the son of the assistant sheriff Orange County—Mike Walters, now the head of TMZ’s news sk. “He ran a forklift at one pot,” Lev once said of Walters. Los Angel was, as he put , a “very Kev Ban-like cy,” and he wanted reporters who eher had celebry nnectns or showed an eagerns to build them.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-5 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">In July, 2006, a tipster lled a TMZ employee to say that he had jt seen Mel Gibson on the si of the Pacific Coast Highway. Lev ma some quiri, and learned that Gibson had been pulled over for drivg unr the fluence, and that he had lled the arrtg officer a “motherfucker.” Gibson also had lnched to an anti-Semic tira, sayg, “Jews are rponsible for all the wars the world.”</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embedasset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoonimage rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="Insi Harvey Levs TMZ" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178637)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M16.3488 10.5017C16.2107 10.7357 16.2926 11.035 16.5318 11.17C16.7709 11.3052 17.0767 11.225 17.2148 10.991L18.4648 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11.9632 14.4272 13.7587 13.5988 15.1628L11.5988 18.5529C10.7704 19.957 8.93555 20.4382 7.50068 19.6274C6.0658 18.8167 5.57417 17.0212 6.4026 15.6171L7.6526 13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn kdMXRM shoppg-alert" role="dialog"><div aria-hidn="te" role="prentatn" class="AlertArrow-daOgye AlLda alert-arrow"></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc cxFROy alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">Lev went to the Los Angel County sheriff’s partment for nfirmatn. He was told that his acunt was “absolutely unte.” But later that day he secured a py of the origal police report, which ntaed four pag, excised om the versn on file, tailg Gibson’s anti-Semic rant. The document supplied both evince of Gibson’s bigotry and proof that the sheriff’s partment had attempted to ver up. After TMZ published imag of the four pag, the story ma natnal headl. Cron said, “That was the moment the rt of the world disvered TMZ.”</p><p class="paywall">Four months later, Michael Richards, the former “Sefeld” star, was performg at a edy club L.A. when he sgled out an Ain-Amerin the crowd: “Fifty years ago, we’d have you upsi down wh a fuckg fork up your ass.” One of Lev’s puti, Evan Rosenblum, got a ll om a llege iend the middle of the night. The iend had a sister, and one of her boyiend’s buddi had been at the club and had rerd Richards’s outburst on a digal mera. “We started workg on at 4 <em class="small">a.m</em>.,” Rosenblum said, a Los Angel <em>Daily News</em> article. The rultg piece left Richards’s reer s. Rosenblum later said that the Gibson story “put on the map,” but the Richards vio “ma what we are.”</p><p class="paywall">In ls than a year, TMZ had bee a domant venue for celebry news. “We were gettg our ass kicked,” Brta Stone, who was <em>Us Weekly’s</em> photography director om 2001 to 2011, said. “They were at police preccts, dog real beat reportg, and gettg thgs like surveillance vio.” In terms of photography, he said, “they were g up wh thgs that we would never touch: cell-phone pictur, vio grabs, thgs that wouldn’t hold up prt. Our missn was to be aspiratnal—somethg that was pretty, shot a certa kd of light, people lookg good. TMZ never really did that.” TMZ did not create s athetic. Ryan Lkof, an associate curator at the Amy Mm of Motn Picture Arts and Scienc, has noted that, 1911, the <em>Daily Mirror</em> published a photo spread of Prime Mister H. H. Asquh’s wife, Margot, which showed her lookg “pched, pale, almost skeletal,” and “her drs cmpled.” But TMZ’s c look also emphasized that prrized speed over polish. “It was sgle-handly creatg the news cycle,” Stone said. By Febary, 2007, TMZ was drawg more Web traffic than the s of <em>People</em> and “Entertament Tonight” bed.</p><p class="paywall">Steve Honig, a public-relatns adviser who, for a time, reprented Ldsay Lohan, told me, “When my phone rgs and ’s TMZ, I pretty much stop what I’m dog and pick up. Not bee I’m bowg to the gods at TMZ but bee, when somethg om TMZ ns, spreads so quickly that, if there is any accurate rmatn, wh five or ten mut ’s been picked up by a hundred other outlets.” (In 2009, TMZ published a black-and-whe photograph supposedly showg John F. Kennedy sunbathg on the ck of a yacht, the pany of four topls women. It was wily circulated. By the end of the day, the Smokg Gun revealed that the photo had been lifted om the November, 1967, issue of <em>Playboy</em>, and showed a male mol, not J.F.K.)</p><p class="paywall">At TMZ, tips often turn to stori wh mut. On January 20, 2015, at 8:32 <em class="small">a.m</em>., a senr producer sent an ternal e-mail that noted, “Got a tip om a iend I know om high school. She didn’t wanna say how she knew, but told me Hope Solo’s hband Jerramy Stevens was arrted Manhattan beach 2 nights ago for DUI.” (Solo is a top soccer player.) Two mut later, a senr news producer nfirmed the arrt om an onle database. At 8:41 <em class="small">a.m</em>., “Hope Solo’s Hband Bted for D.U.I.” appeared on the TMZ home page.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropplead-standard-headg paywall">“I e my law gree every five mut,” Lev has said. Over the years, he has traed many employe the art of urt reportg. Ben Prnell, who worked at “Celebry Jtice” and, later, at TMZ, told me he spent most of his days at the Los Angel County Municipal Courthoe, searchg for new filgs and tryg to charm clerks to givg him rmatn. Currently, TMZ has three reporters statned full-time at the urthoe; the Los Angel <em>Tim</em> has one urt reporter.</p><p class="paywall">In May, 2012, the judge overseeg the se of a man who allegedly extorted Stevie Wonr ught a TMZ meraman illicly tapg the urtroom proceedgs. The judge announced, “The urt’s jt been ma aware that, unbeknownst to unsel and the urt, a microphone was placed at unsel table.” (The tape was turned over to the judge for review.)</p><p class="paywall">David Perel, the former edor--chief of the <em>Natnal Enquirer,</em> and a founr of Radar Onle, rells, “Everythg that was htg the wdow the urthoe, they were gettg stantly.” To Perel’s tratn, Lev nsistently secured documents before others had accs to them. “They were throwg around a lot of money,” Perel claims. Acrdg to a former TMZ news reporter, documents nstantly flowed to the office om the urthoe. “Assistants and uriers would brg them stacks,” the former news reporter said. “We had urt documents g out of our ass.”</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layoutasi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-boxprimary"></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="adslot adslot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="2j70bl"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layoutntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body bodyntaer articlebody" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="bodyner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">Lev also mataed close relatnships wh fense attorneys. Many of them received ee publicy on TMZ, and were referred to by cheeky nicknam. Lra Wasser, a divorce attorney, was the Disso-Queen. This nickname has appeared on TMZ hundreds of tim. In October, 2011, Kim Kardashian, a Wasser client, filed to divorce Kris Humphri, the basketball player, after seventy-two days of marriage. “Kim has hired disso-queen Lra Wasser, who has repped the lik of Brney Spears, Maria Shriver, Angela Jolie, Ryan Reynolds, and Robyn Gibson,” the acpanyg story read. TMZ published exclive imag of the divorce papers moments after Wasser filed them urt. (Wasser said, “This firm has a strong policy of not speakg wh media about our s.”)</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embedasset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoonimage rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“Its an exact repli of the kd of zoo they would ually live .”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoonptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptntext">“It’s an exact repli of the kd of zoo they would ually live .”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178637)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M16.3488 10.5017C16.2107 10.7357 16.2926 11.035 16.5318 11.17C16.7709 11.3052 17.0767 11.225 17.2148 10.991L18.4648 8.87225C19.5694 7.00002 18.9139 4.60601 17.0007 3.52508C15.0875 2.44415 12.6412 3.08562 11.5366 4.95785L9.53657 8.34782C8.432 10.22 9.08751 12.6141 11.0007 13.6949C11.1888 13.8012 11.382 13.8908 11.5785 13.9642C11.7819 14.0403 12.0058 13.9485 12.1147 13.764C12.2794 13.4849 12.1103 13.1276 11.8083 12.9992C11.7041 12.9549 11.6014 12.9044 11.5007 12.8475C10.0658 12.0368 9.57417 10.2413 10.4026 8.83712L12.4026 5.44715C13.2311 4.04298 15.0658 3.56187 16.5007 4.37257C17.9356 5.18327 18.4272 6.97878 17.5988 8.38295L16.3488 10.5017ZM7.6526 13.4983C7.79067 13.2643 7.70873 12.965 7.46959 12.8299C7.23044 12.6948 6.92464 12.775 6.78657 13.009L5.53657 15.1278C4.432 17 5.0875 19.394 7.00068 20.475C8.91385 21.5558 11.3602 20.9144 12.4648 19.0422L14.4648 15.6521C15.5694 13.78 14.9139 11.3859 13.0007 10.305C12.8127 10.1988 12.6195 10.1091 12.4229 10.0357C12.2195 9.95975 11.9956 10.0515 11.8867 10.236C11.7221 10.5151 11.8911 10.8724 12.1932 11.0008C12.2973 11.0451 12.4 11.0956 12.5007 11.1525C13.9356 11.9632 14.4272 13.7587 13.5988 15.1628L11.5988 18.5529C10.7704 19.957 8.93555 20.4382 7.50068 19.6274C6.0658 18.8167 5.57417 17.0212 6.4026 15.6171L7.6526 13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn kdMXRM shoppg-alert" role="dialog"><div aria-hidn="te" role="prentatn" class="AlertArrow-daOgye AlLda alert-arrow"></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc cxFROy alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">Multiple sourc told me that Lev is close to Shawn Holley, a lawyer who has reprented Ldsay Lohan and other celebri. In 2011, when Lohan went on trial for theft, TMZ repeatedly posted nfintial rmatn. The pridg judge pared the se to the C.I.A., and exprsed bewilrment at “how the thgs leak out.” He add, “Thankfully, this se don’t volve ary secrets where people’s liv are at stake.” (Holley ni givg rmatn to TMZ.)</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-6 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Dpe s belligerent reputatn, TMZ’s verage uld be as fawng as other celebry news: the day the Michael Richards vio appeared, the se featured a picture of Brney Spears fish stockgs at a Las Vegas club, and one of Evangele Lilly surfg Hawaii. Josh Leve, TMZ’s first meraman, told me that, once the se beme succsful, many publicists changed their strategy. “They started tippg off,” Leve said. He remembered filmg Paris Hilton and her boyiend at a movie theatre Los Angel 2007; Hilton appeared surprised by Leve’s prence, even though, acrdg to Leve, he was actg on a tip om Hilton’s own publicist, Ellt Mtz. Gillian Sheldon told me, “I n’t tell you how many tim we got lls om Brney Spears, or her people, who lled to say, ‘She’s gog to get a tan.’ ”</p><p class="paywall">In 2006, Lev told the <em>Tim</em>, “What I love is the bs of creatg and prervg celebry.” His “proust moment,” he said, durg a talk 2010, at the Universy of Chigo Law School, was when Leve ptured footage of the actrs Tara Reid standg behd the velvet rope outsi of Hy, a Los Angel night club, while Paris Hilton—Reid’s former bt iend—walked right wh a new iend, a prevly unknown woman named Kim Kardashian. “That vio jt went everywhere,” Lev said. “Lerally, that vio ma Kim.”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropplead-standard-headg paywall">The succs of the Web se spired Lev to branch out. In 2007, he created “TMZ on TV,” and the “TMZ Live” newsst followed, 2012. He started celebry-spottg b tours L.A. and New York. (The tours are managed by Andy Mer, Lev’s chiropractor partner.) Some stars ll ahead wh their lotn, and then act surprised when the b driv by. “It’s almost like an Ain jungle safari—they’ll e up to the b,” Lev said recently.</p><p class="paywall">In July, 2007, Lev moved TMZ to a space Wt Hollywood. Instead of takg a rner office, he placed his sk on a riser the center of the newsroom, creatg an edorial panoptin. “Anytime you went to talk to him, you felt like a supplint,” a former senr producer told me.</p><p class="paywall">On TV, Lev always appears ngenial, but, acrdg to numero acunts, when the meras swch off he often turns abrasive and domeerg. “If there were gaps your stori, if you didn’t have enough tail, if he wanted another qutn answered, he would fly off the handle,” a former news-sk reporter told me. The former senr producer remembered Lev impetuoly firg people. “We roll through a lot of people,” Lev nced, a speech last year.</p><p class="paywall">“Harvey has no problem publicly shamg you,” a former assignment-sk producer told me. “He ed to say, to all of , ‘My fuckg dogs are smarter than you!’ You bee like a battered child. He beats you down, but the send you’re about to say, ‘Screw this place,’ he giv you a pliment, and you live for that.” The former TMZ photographer reunted that Lev once screamed, “I uld get a monkey to do your job!” and, on another ocsn, “Do you want me to draw this out crayons for you fuckg idts?” The former news reporter said that, on one ocsn, Lev pared his staff to “a roomful of handipped people.” Rory Waltzer, another former meraman, told me, “Harvey Lev would have been a great dictator: he is charmg enough so that you want to follow him, but terrifyg enough so that you don’t want to fail.”</p><p class="paywall">Some of Lev’s subordat, such as Evan Rosenblum, the TMZ puty, mimic his style. “There was fely a misogynistic culture the office that was perpetuated by Evan,” a former producer said. In 2014, Taryn Hill, a former TMZ wrer, took legal actn, allegg sexual discrimatn and unlawful termatn. Acrdg to the lawsu, Rosenblum “routely beltled, berated and huiated” her, “screamg at her ont of -workers,” and tellg her, “I fuckg hate this sh you hand .” She lled the workplace environment at TMZ “hostile or offensive.” (Lev isn’t named the su, although TMZ Productns is.)</p><p class="paywall">Dozens of current and former employe characterized the TMZ offic as an unfortable workplace. “Sex was discsed sually, as a mody,” another former producer said. He scribed employe regularly gatherg around puter monors to watch footage of celebri havg sex. (Stills om the clips appeared on TMZ.)</p><p class="paywall">Many people cled to discs TMZ on the rerd, cg nondisclosure agreements and a fear of antagonizg Lev. Gillian Sheldon lled Lev to ask him for permissn to speak to me—though she left TMZ 2008. One former employee me to lunch a disguise, worried that she might be regnized speakg to a reporter. Another stood me up; she later apologized, sayg, “I was sred.” Numero former employe nfsed to gog on meditn to manage workplace anxiety. “Harvey is thls,” Simon Cardoza, the former meraman, said. “He is able to treat people like sh bee everybody wants to be near the limelight.”</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embedasset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoonimage rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“Coarsely ground pepper thats way too arse for a nventnal pepper l.”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoonptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptntext">“Coarsely ground pepper that’s way too arse for a nventnal pepper l.”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div 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13.009L5.53657 15.1278C4.432 17 5.0875 19.394 7.00068 20.475C8.91385 21.5558 11.3602 20.9144 12.4648 19.0422L14.4648 15.6521C15.5694 13.78 14.9139 11.3859 13.0007 10.305C12.8127 10.1988 12.6195 10.1091 12.4229 10.0357C12.2195 9.95975 11.9956 10.0515 11.8867 10.236C11.7221 10.5151 11.8911 10.8724 12.1932 11.0008C12.2973 11.0451 12.4 11.0956 12.5007 11.1525C13.9356 11.9632 14.4272 13.7587 13.5988 15.1628L11.5988 18.5529C10.7704 19.957 8.93555 20.4382 7.50068 19.6274C6.0658 18.8167 5.57417 17.0212 6.4026 15.6171L7.6526 13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn kdMXRM shoppg-alert" role="dialog"><div aria-hidn="te" role="prentatn" class="AlertArrow-daOgye AlLda alert-arrow"></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc cxFROy alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">Lev ntued to break big stori. In Febary, 2009, a private bank, Northern Tst, which had jt received $1.6 billn feral bailout funds, hosted a golf tournament and party the Los Angel area. TMZ reporters sneaked to the tournament and rerd sponsored performanc by Chigo and Sheryl Crow, and took photographs of Tiffany gift bags that were beg distributed to guts. The piece, which was tled “Bailout Bank Blows Millns Partyg L.A.,” sparked immediate nmnatn of Northern Tst. John Kerry, then a senator, clared that he was “sick and tired” of “readg about another idtic abe of taxpayer money while our untry is on the brk.” (The bank sisted that did not e any bailout funds for the tournament.)</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layoutasi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-boxprimary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="adslot adslot--rail" data-no-id="0rc3"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-unslot nsumer-marketg-unslot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="adslot adslot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="n3c7c7"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layoutntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body bodyntaer articlebody" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="bodyner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">Lev lled the Northern Tst story “the most important thg we’ve ever done,” and mend his team for alg wh the fancial crisis terms that ordary Amerins uld appreciate. “It’s hard for people to wrap their heads around $800 billn bailout money,” he told the <em>Tim</em>. “It’s much easier to unrstand payg for a Sheryl Crow ncert.” The <em>Tim</em> piece quoted Waltzer, the former meraman, sayg, “Brney is fluff, but the stori about Northern Tst and Madoff and policians D.C. really have an impact on the untry.” (TMZ reported that Kev Ban and Larry Kg had vted Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.) Waltzer told me that Lev prepared the quote for him. “All Harvey wants is rpect,” he said.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-7 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Five months after the Northern Tst story, Michael Jackson died. A first rponr, upon arrivg at Jackson’s hoe, lled TMZ to tip off the se. (Ed Wter, the L.A. assistant chief roner, is also a regular source, acrdg to numero former employe; Wter says that is part of his job to speak to reporters.) TMZ nfirmed the ath through one of Jackson’s secury guards and Jackson’s father, Joe, and broke the news eighteen mut after Jackson stopped breathg.</p><p class="paywall">In a 2013 rad terview, Lev said that his kd of journalism was as rigoro as any other: “You uld take me, put me Afghanistan, and I’ll e the same prcipl I’d e wh Brney Spears.”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropplead-standard-headg paywall">In January, 2011, an anonymo tipster, g a voice modulator to disguise her inty, lled TMZ, offerg to sell a promisg vio of Jt Bieber. At the time, Bieber was sixteen<a href="#edorsnote"></a> years old and about to star a b-pic, “Never Say Never.”</p><p class="paywall">The ller e-mailed a teaser om the vio that reached Diana Dasrath, who until recently was TMZ’s “clips-clearance manager.” The teaser showed Bieber, stg alone a room, sgg his h “One Ls Lonely Girl” a ppella. In place of the ual lyrics, Bieber had substuted “nigger” for “girl.” He giggled as he sang, “There’ll be one ls lonely nigger” and “If I kill you, I’ll be part of the K.K.K.”</p><p class="paywall">Lev faced a tough cisn. “You have no ia how many stori cross our sks that we don’t do,” he said 2013. He has poted out that he equently pass up “the juicit stuff.” In 2008, he received photographs of Michael Phelps, the Olympic swimmer, smokg a bong, but elected not to publish them. “It felt like he was set up,” he told an dience at the Natnal Prs Club. (The <em>News of the World</em> published the photos.) Two years later, Lev cled to post voice mails and lewd text msag that purportedly had been sent by the quarterback Brett Favre to a New York Jets gameday host.<a href="#edorsnote2"></a> “It felt like bedroom police to me,” he said at the time. (Deadsp published the msag.) In November, 2014, acrdg to a leaked e-mail, Jonathan Stson, a publicist om Relevant Relatns PR, submted gossip about a former child star, backed up wh “legal/hospal documents left a backpack of her former roommate.” Mike Walters, TMZ’s news director, told his lleagu, “We don’t want to be volved wh hospal rerds.” (When reached by phone, Stson claimed that he had been tryg to sell the rerds on behalf of an acquatance.)</p><p class="paywall">Lev claims to live by a that preclus him om crossg certa l, such as targetg mors or policg bedroom affairs. (Dr. Phil, on a 2014 episo of his program, said, “I know Harvey Lev . . . and I know him to be someone that valu children and fay relatnships.”) Lev is sensive to any suatn otherwise. In 2012, Ellen DeGener, whose show is produced by Telepictur, implied on the air that TMZ outed gay people. Lev lled a Telepictur executive and said, of DeGener, “She’s g the brand!” DeGener phoned Lev to apologize, acrdg to three former TMZ employe, but he refed to take her ll. When she sent him a gift basket, Lev refed that, too.</p><p class="paywall">Dpe Bieber’s age, the clip was too pellg for TMZ to pass up, and Dasrath was volved efforts to procure . (She cled repeated requts for ment.) Dasrath managed several of TMZ’s cril sourc, cludg those si Delta and the limo pany. She also fostered relatnships wh hackers. In 2013, TMZ broke a seri of stori about hackers “swattg” celebri: llg 911, falsely claimg to be the celebry victim of a home vasn, and then watchg as a <em class="small">swat</em> team scend on the celebry’s hoe. Durg this perd, Rihanna, Jt Timberlake, and Selena Gomez were all victims of “swattg.” While the L.A.P.D. searched for the culprs, TMZ ntued publishg sops about the cints.</p><p class="paywall">After a al was ma for the Bieber clip, Jt Kaplan—the former productn associate who had received the limo lists at the gas statn—was sent to Lev’s hoe.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embedasset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoonimage rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“Lets work on openg up that fourth chakra.”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoonptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptntext">“Let’s work on openg up that fourth chakra.”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Copy lk to 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12.775 6.78657 13.009L5.53657 15.1278C4.432 17 5.0875 19.394 7.00068 20.475C8.91385 21.5558 11.3602 20.9144 12.4648 19.0422L14.4648 15.6521C15.5694 13.78 14.9139 11.3859 13.0007 10.305C12.8127 10.1988 12.6195 10.1091 12.4229 10.0357C12.2195 9.95975 11.9956 10.0515 11.8867 10.236C11.7221 10.5151 11.8911 10.8724 12.1932 11.0008C12.2973 11.0451 12.4 11.0956 12.5007 11.1525C13.9356 11.9632 14.4272 13.7587 13.5988 15.1628L11.5988 18.5529C10.7704 19.957 8.93555 20.4382 7.50068 19.6274C6.0658 18.8167 5.57417 17.0212 6.4026 15.6171L7.6526 13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn kdMXRM shoppg-alert" role="dialog"><div aria-hidn="te" role="prentatn" class="AlertArrow-daOgye AlLda alert-arrow"></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc cxFROy alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">“They liked the way I handled thgs, and they ed to pick me to go on the ol trips,” Kaplan told me. At the hoe, Andy Mer gave Kaplan an envelope ntag a check for about eighty thoand dollars. Kaplan drove to the Burbank airport and ught the next flight to Las Vegas. He rented a r and head to an apartment buildg on the outskirts of the cy. On the send floor, a middle-aged Ain-Amerin woman an oversized T-shirt answered the door. Kaplan tried to ascerta the woman’s inty: did she have a son who was iends wh Bieber? But she didn’t want to chat. “She hand me a laptop, and a disk, and I gave her the check. I got on the next flight back to Burbank.”</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-8 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">In the newsroom, staffers ma preparatns to publish. “It’s part of the mache—you own every angle related to the origal story,” another former productn assistant told me. “You fd fay. You fd neighbors. You fd associat and iends. You fd affected groups. You ll the rerd label, you ll the N.A.A.C.P.—what do they have to say about ?” Such posts draw more rears to the origal story, helpg to go viral. “That’s the way Harvey ntrols the game.”</p><p class="paywall">That afternoon, TMZ ntacted Bieber’s manager, Soter Brn, for ment. A source close to the suatn told me that when Bieber was rmed of the leak he broke down, nfsg that he had ma the vio a while back, as a joke, and that he thought he had leted om his laptop, which was later stolen.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layoutasi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-boxprimary"></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="adslot adslot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="ok5tub"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layoutntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body bodyntaer articlebody" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="bodyner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">In a phone nversatn, Brn plead wh Lev not to post the vio, sayg, “You’re gog to this kid’s life.” Lev hated for four sends, then said that he was movg ahead, and that he would need a statement om Brn by the morng. “Harvey, whatever those four sends were—whatever that place is—that’s the place that I want you to go back to,” Brn said. He and other members of Bieber’s team stayed up all night craftg a statement. In the morng, Brn and Lev spoke aga. Lev nfid that he’d been unable to sleep. “A lot of people ll me and tell me I’m an asshole—they say, ‘Fuck you,’ ” Lev said. “You didn’t. I’m not puttg the vio up.” Brn broke down tears. Bieber later lled Lev and thanked him.</p><p class="paywall">In the 2010 lecture at the Universy of Chigo Law School, Lev hted at his lculatns such moments. “I don’t live by hard-and-fast l this job,” he said. “I n’t give you a rigid prciple on where the le of privacy is.” He claimed that he stggled wh this dilemma “all the time.”</p><p class="paywall">Twenty-four hours after the Bieber vio me , the newsroom learned that Lev had cid not to n the story. He did not stroy his py of the vio, however, and Bieber’s mp was aware that Lev uld reverse his posn and post . Celebry secrets are treated like modi at TMZ, not unlike the way they were treated by J. Edgar Hoover’s F.B.I. “The power of secret rmatn was a gun that Hoover always kept load,” Tim Weer<a href="#edorsnote1"></a> wr, “Enemi,” a 2012 book about the bure. A former wrer for TMZ told me that, for Lev, there was more to ga by stg on the clip, and earng Bieber’s good will, than by nng and g his reer. (Olr gossip publitns followed this strategy as well. Acrdg to the <em>Columbia Journalism Review</em>, the “dark geni” of William d’Alton Mann, the publisher of <em>Town Topics</em>, was his realizatn that “stori that me to his posssn were perhaps worth more untold than told.” In the neteen-fifti, <em>Confintial</em> gaed accs to the head of Columbia Studs by leveragg tap of Rock Hudson that referred to his homosexualy.)</p><p class="paywall">In the months before TMZ obtaed the vio, s verage of Bieber had often been antagonistic; ran a post suggtg that he had h a twelve-year-old boy durg a game of laser tag. After Brn and Lev had their phone nversatn, numero flatterg Bieber-related excliv appeared on the se: a photograph of Bieber backstage durg a mercial shoot; pictur of him gettg a haircut; a vio of him and his girliend Selena Gomez performg karaoke; a story about how he bought “every sgle flower” at a florist’s and sent the flowers to Gomez’s hoe; vio om a trip that Bieber took to Liverpool; and others, cludg a report of him watchg “Tanic” one night, wh Gomez, si an otherwise vant Stapl Center. (“Sourc nnected to the Biebs tell . . . Jt hatched the ia after seeg the movie ‘Mr. Deeds’—where Adam Sandler surpris Wona Ryr wh a date at Madison Square Garn.”) Bieber also ma some appearanc on “TMZ Live.”</p><p class="paywall">In June, 2014, the <em>Sun</em> published a py of the sndalo “One Ls Lonely” vio. (Unbeknownst to Lev, the seller had ntued to shop around pi of the footage. Radar Onle also owned a py of the footage.)</p><p class="paywall">Lev dited a segment to the clip on “TMZ on TV.” Mike Walters, the head of the news sk, said, “So there’s a vio of Jt Bieber, when he was fourteen, sgg a parody of his own song, ‘One Ls Lonely Girl,’ where the ‘girl’ is replaced by the n-word.” Lev feigned shock.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropplead-standard-headg paywall">A few weeks after TMZ acquired the Bieber vio, Charlie Sheen was shed to the hospal followg a party at his hoe volvg we, e, and sex workers. Kev Blatt, a source for TMZ who also worked the pornography dtry, got a ll a few hours later om an adult-film director. One of Sheen’s rts wanted to talk: Courtney Roskop, a twenty-two-year-old who had jt been wh Sheen. Blatt drove across town to see her.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embedasset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoonimage rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="Insi Harvey Levs TMZ" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div 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13.9642C11.7819 14.0403 12.0058 13.9485 12.1147 13.764C12.2794 13.4849 12.1103 13.1276 11.8083 12.9992C11.7041 12.9549 11.6014 12.9044 11.5007 12.8475C10.0658 12.0368 9.57417 10.2413 10.4026 8.83712L12.4026 5.44715C13.2311 4.04298 15.0658 3.56187 16.5007 4.37257C17.9356 5.18327 18.4272 6.97878 17.5988 8.38295L16.3488 10.5017ZM7.6526 13.4983C7.79067 13.2643 7.70873 12.965 7.46959 12.8299C7.23044 12.6948 6.92464 12.775 6.78657 13.009L5.53657 15.1278C4.432 17 5.0875 19.394 7.00068 20.475C8.91385 21.5558 11.3602 20.9144 12.4648 19.0422L14.4648 15.6521C15.5694 13.78 14.9139 11.3859 13.0007 10.305C12.8127 10.1988 12.6195 10.1091 12.4229 10.0357C12.2195 9.95975 11.9956 10.0515 11.8867 10.236C11.7221 10.5151 11.8911 10.8724 12.1932 11.0008C12.2973 11.0451 12.4 11.0956 12.5007 11.1525C13.9356 11.9632 14.4272 13.7587 13.5988 15.1628L11.5988 18.5529C10.7704 19.957 8.93555 20.4382 7.50068 19.6274C6.0658 18.8167 5.57417 17.0212 6.4026 15.6171L7.6526 13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn kdMXRM shoppg-alert" role="dialog"><div aria-hidn="te" role="prentatn" class="AlertArrow-daOgye AlLda alert-arrow"></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc cxFROy alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">Roskop reunted her eveng wh Sheen, which clud “tennis-ball-size” hunks of e and attemptg to have sex. Blatt feared that Roskop’s statement alone would not be enough for TMZ to n a story; he knew that Lev expected documentary proof. (The <em>Natnal Enquirer</em> also seeks photographic and vio evince, but when is not available the <em>Enquirer</em> will subject sourc to polygraph examatns. Lev, the absence of vio, generally tells his reporters to keep diggg.) Roskop said that Sheen had wrten her a thirty-thoand-dollar check, which she had already posed. Blatt drove wh her to her bank, photographed the check, and brokered a al, which, acrdg to Blatt and Roskop, Roskop sold TMZ the licensg rights to the image for roughly eight thoand dollars. Blatt took fifteen per cent, as his missn. Blatt, cg a clse his TMZ ntracts that prohibs publicizg the terms wh anyone other than an acuntant, an attorney, or a judge, reaed om disclosg precise amounts that he has received, addg, “Even if I uld tell, I would probably unrshoot.”</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-9 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Blatt arranged other als for Roskop, cludg an appearance on “Good Morng Ameri.” He helped make a vio of her discsg Sheen’s “bge,” which she sold to TMZ for twenty-five hundred dollars. TMZ also bought a screen shot of a text which she rmed Sheen that she was pregnant. Roskop told me that she received “a small sum” for .</p><p class="paywall">The Roskop stori boosted Blatt’s stat at TMZ. Soon afterward, he offered TMZ a lead on a tape volvg Tupac Shakur. The tape’s owner had lled Blatt anonymoly. Sex tap were Blatt’s specialty. He had obtaed and marketed a vio of Paris Hilton, and one of Verne Troyer, the actor who played Mi-Me the “At Powers” anchise. “There’s nothg like a good sex-tape story to really drive clicks and search,” Blatt told me. Though Lev did not post explic vios on TMZ, he was apt at translatg the <em>existence</em> of a tape to news, Blatt said. “If I know who got offered the tape, that’s a story,” he said. “And if there’s a cease-and-sist that after that, that’s another story.”</p><p class="paywall">Blatt gave the Shakur tip to Mike Walters. Walters wanted to see the vio, so Blatt lled his source, who lived Oakland, and, a few hours later, the three of them met at a Kko’s the Bay Area. “We went wh an envelope full of money and said, ‘Let’s see the vio,’ ” Blatt relled. It showed Shakur receivg oral sex. “Mike took a picture wh his phone, we threw down the sh, and we left.” They had paid eight thoand dollars, acrdg to Blatt, who, apart om his missn on the al, also received a tip fee.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layoutasi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-boxprimary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="adslot adslot--rail" data-no-id="jyr2e"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-unslot nsumer-marketg-unslot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="adslot adslot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="tqi5zs"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layoutntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body bodyntaer articlebody" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="bodyner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">Three days later, Lev promoted the story on Twter, sayg, “It’s the real al.” Over the g days, TMZ published eight stori pertag to the tape: “Sex Tape Surfac,” “6-Figure Biddg War Epts,” “2Pac’s Fay: We’ll Sue <em class="small">anyone</em> Who Tri to Sell the Sex Tape,” and so on. Stills featurg Shakur were posted as “evince” for “non-believers.” The tape self was never ma public.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropplead-standard-headg paywall">On a Thursday eveng not long ago, I met Blatt at Craig’s, a popular steakhoe Wt Hollywood. Several paparazzi stood outsi, fiddlg wh their meras. Photographg celebri gog and g out was like fishg an overstocked pond.</p><p class="paywall">Lev sists that his photographers are not paparazzi. On a recent episo of “TMZ Live,” he said, “There are a group of renega photogs out there that are dangero and act like crimals—where they n people off the road, where they chase people, where they go after people’s kids, where they ce people. And ’s terrible, and I’m the first one to say those guys should be alt wh very strongly, thrown jail, when they do .” Josh Leve, TMZ’s origal photographer, qutns this statement: “ ‘We don’t follow people or do r chas’? They had me do that all the time.” Leve relled pursug Brney Spears’s black Lex through Beverly Hills. “She’d do U-turns on Beverly Boulevard to ms wh . I was on my motorcycle and there were, like, twenty-five other rs, all paps, weavg and out of traffic, nng red lights. It was a sh show. Harvey would yell if we didn’t get the shot.” Other photographers offered siar acunts. (TMZ said that s employe are expected to obey the law.)</p><p class="paywall">Insi Craig’s, the bar area was crowd wh women stiletto heels and sleevels furs. One woman held a Pomeranian unr her arm. Blatt, who has thng hair and a goatee, ma small talk wh the bartenr and the cktail wars. “The are the people who ll me wh stuff,” he said. (In July, an employee at a hotel Santa Barbara notified Blatt that Jerry Wetrb, the “Ocean’s Eleven” producer, had jt been taken away an ambulance. Blatt relayed the tip to TMZ, which nfirmed the story and broke the news of Wetrb’s ath.)</p><p class="paywall">The host led to a leather banquette near the bar. Snng the menu, Blatt relled g to Craig’s one night wh his fiancée, a mol the adult-entertament bs, and spottg Elton John and his hband, David Furnish, dg wh Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. (That night, a TMZ meraman ptured John at the door. “Why don’t you jt fuck off!” John shouted.)</p><p class="paywall">Blatt surveyed the room. “I’m a htler,” he said. “That’s what I’ve been dog sce I was born. I’ve had over a hundred and fifty jobs my life-time. I’ve sold alumum sidg. I’ve sold cell phon. I’ve sold porn. But there’s nothg like sellg celebry fuckg dirt. It’s recsn-proof.”</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embedasset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoonimage rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“Whosoever pulleth this sword om this stone and n eat jt two or three of the doublecholate Amaretto thgs..." class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoonptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptntext">“Whosoever pulleth this sword om this stone, and n eat jt two or three of the double-cholate Amaretto thgs whout fishg the whole box, shall be kg born of England!”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178637)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M16.3488 10.5017C16.2107 10.7357 16.2926 11.035 16.5318 11.17C16.7709 11.3052 17.0767 11.225 17.2148 10.991L18.4648 8.87225C19.5694 7.00002 18.9139 4.60601 17.0007 3.52508C15.0875 2.44415 12.6412 3.08562 11.5366 4.95785L9.53657 8.34782C8.432 10.22 9.08751 12.6141 11.0007 13.6949C11.1888 13.8012 11.382 13.8908 11.5785 13.9642C11.7819 14.0403 12.0058 13.9485 12.1147 13.764C12.2794 13.4849 12.1103 13.1276 11.8083 12.9992C11.7041 12.9549 11.6014 12.9044 11.5007 12.8475C10.0658 12.0368 9.57417 10.2413 10.4026 8.83712L12.4026 5.44715C13.2311 4.04298 15.0658 3.56187 16.5007 4.37257C17.9356 5.18327 18.4272 6.97878 17.5988 8.38295L16.3488 10.5017ZM7.6526 13.4983C7.79067 13.2643 7.70873 12.965 7.46959 12.8299C7.23044 12.6948 6.92464 12.775 6.78657 13.009L5.53657 15.1278C4.432 17 5.0875 19.394 7.00068 20.475C8.91385 21.5558 11.3602 20.9144 12.4648 19.0422L14.4648 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aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">He timated that he had ma more than a hundred and fifty als wh TMZ over the years, llectg, on average, more than thirty thoand dollars a year. At first, most of his earngs rulted om his nnectns the porn dtry, but he had begun diversifyg. In Febary, 2012, after Whney Hoton was found ad a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton, Blatt drove there and checked to a room. He cultivated sourc among the hotel employe. “I had a whole pocketful of hundreds,” he told me. “That’s what mak the world go round—sh.” He soon obtaed photographs taken Hoton’s room, cludg one of her service rt, which had an open n of Heeken on . Most valuable was a shot of the bathtub, still filled wh water, where paramedics disvered Hoton’s body. Blatt sold this to TMZ for about a thoand dollars. He rells payg a member of the hotel staff about a hundred dollars to take the photo for him.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-10 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Two years later, Blatt learned that V. Stiviano, Donald Sterlg’s mistrs, was tapg an terview wh Barbara Walters at the Four Seasons, Beverly Hills. He went to the hotel, drank several Martis at the bar, and eventually snapped a cell-phone photo of Stiviano the lobby, while paparazzi—who were prohibed om enterg the hotel—waed outsi. TMZ vered Blatt’s expens for the day, and paid him a eelance-producer’s fee of around seven hundred and fifty dollars. “Five hundred here, five hundred there— adds up,” he said.</p><p class="paywall">More recently, a transgenr sex worker om Dennis Hof’s Love Ranch, near Carson Cy, Nevada, ntacted Blatt to rm him that one of her clients, the former basketball player Lamar Odom, had jt llapsed at the brothel. She also sent Blatt text msag she had exchanged wh Odom: “My manager said she would personally pick you up a unmarked r back to a closed off room so no one will see you or know you’re here.” (Odom replied, “I’m ready for that r!!”)</p><p class="paywall">The wars at Craig’s placed a dish of jalapeño creamed rn on the table. Blatt waved his fork and clared, “This is off the hook.” Then, across the rtrant, he spotted Alexis and Jim Bello, the -stars of “The Real Hoewiv of Orange County.” Blatt said that he ntacts TMZ whenever he se someone famo. “If you see a dollar on the road, you pick up,” he said. “If I ll now and say, ‘I’m wh Alexis Bello,’ and they give me fifty bucks, that’s fifty bucks that paid for my dner.”</p><p class="paywall">The Bellos slid to the banquette bi ours. Blatt leaned over and troduced himself to Jim Bello, who was wearg a gray sports at over a whe T-shirt picturg Rgo Starr. After Blatt mend Bello for his performance on the show, he mented that he sometim worked for Harvey Lev.</p><p class="paywall">“We actually really appreciate Harvey,” Bello said.</p><p class="paywall">“They’ve never done anythg slanty on you?” Blatt asked.</p><p class="paywall">“No,” Bello said. “Harvey gets . You don’t burn bridg. We did a newsst wh Harvey, and we even öperated wh the b.” He went on, “It was nvenient. We were gog to be shoppg Beverly Hills, or whatever, so I said, ‘If the b is g by . . .’ ”</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layoutasi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-boxprimary"></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="adslot adslot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="x41zof"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layoutntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa bDyAMU body bodyntaer articlebody" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="bodyner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">After a few more mut of nversatn, Bello turned back to his table. He and Alexis fished their meal, then stepped outsi, to a battery of mera flash.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropplead-standard-headg paywall">Last April, Lev gave a lecture at the Universy of California, Santa Barbara, tled “The New Journalistic Environment.” A few mut after 7 <em class="small">p.m</em>., he me onstage wearg a blue V-neck sweater, slip-on sneakers, and baggy stonewashed jeans.</p><p class="paywall">In openg remarks, Sheila Sullivan, the actg executive director of the U.C.S.B. media center, which served as host for the event, scribed Lev’s reportg as “very powerful and impactful.” When she mentned that Lev graduated om the Universy of Chigo, “one of the top five law schools the natn,” Lev terjected, “Three.”</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-11 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">He spoke for thirty mut, scribg how TMZ had broken down the barriers once mataed by publicists. He discsed his plan to create another news show, and said he was the midst of velopg a game show. (The first episos of the game show, “South of Wilshire,” recently aired.) He predicted the mise of ble televisn (and the Inter) and said that, an age of digal disptn, media pani need to “evolve or we die.” At one pot, he said, “When I first heard rap, I thought, That’s not gonna last. And was really a stupid ment. . . . Ask me anythg about rap now. Almost anythg. Hontly, I go to a black barbershop now. I do. I’m to .”</p><p class="paywall">In a Q.-and-A. ssn after the talk, a stunt asked Lev how he had obtaed the vio of Solange attackg Jay Z the elevator of the Standard. “I’m not gonna say,” Lev replied, emphasizg the importance of protectg sourc.</p><p class="paywall">Other hands went up. “I watch your show so much, read the Web se, like, all the time, so you’re jt, like, my idol,” a young woman said. Lev replied, “Thank you. Wow. That’s sad.”</p><p class="paywall">Another woman asked Lev what he thought went to makg a succsful journalist. “Good stori don’t e easy,” Lev said. “You get shut down all the time, and if somebody shuts the door you’ve got to fd the way around the door.” He said that he told his staff, “Fd twelve ways around the word ‘no.’ ” After Lev fished, stunts crowd around him, askg for tographs and selfi. As they dispersed, I stepped forward to troduce myself. Arms crossed, he exprsed displeasure over the fact that I had ntacted current and former TMZ employe, and referred me to his publicist.</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embedasset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embedrponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoonimage rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“Your chanc of hailg a b are better if you go to the curb.”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoonptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptntext">“Your chanc of hailg a b are better if you go to the curb.”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg buttonlabel">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT buttonin-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g 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TMZ has, fact, done so, though the rults have been awkward. Last year, a TMZ photographer went up to Hillary Clton, at Ronald Reagan Washgton Natnal Airport, and asked her, “Hillary, wh the blunr on the e-mails—was that jt a generalizatnal gap or n that be rrected?” Clton sed and walked past. In July, TMZ ught up wh Bernie Sanrs: “Senator, your mpaign is almost like the ‘Passn of Christ’ movie. Senator, why do you thk you are brgg out so many people?” (“We are touchg a nerve,” Sanrs replied.) Wh Donald Tmp: “Donald, a lot of rappers always e your name their lyrics.” (“That’s right. ’Cse they’re smart.”)</p><p class="paywall">Lev once tried to set up a bure Washgton, D.C. In early 2007, he sent Gillian Sheldon there on a sutg missn. He mapped out a new se, TMZDC, and terviewed several lol gossip reporters, cludg Patrick Gav, who produced a 2015 documentary about the Whe Hoe Corrponnts Dner, tled “Nerd Prom,” and Anne Schroer, who was workg at Poli at the time. Both Gav and Schroer told me that they remaed skeptil that TMZ uld ever reproduce s tipster regime Washgton. Schroer said, “It’s not like you uld pay a staffer twenty bucks to get a schle—they are ernment employe who n be prosecuted for leaks.”</p><p class="paywall">In L.A., numero officials have lost their jobs for allegedly givg rmatn to TMZ. Two L.A.P.D. officers were reprimand 2009 for purportedly sellg TMZ the photograph of Rihanna’s bised face; one was later fired. In 2010, the Los Angel County Superr Court dismissed s chief spokman, Allan Parachi, for supposedly providg nfintial rmatn to TMZ. (Parachi, who now liv Hawaii, ni the allegatn.)</p><p class="paywall">And 2006, after Lev broke the story about Mel Gibson’s anti-Semic tira, the Los Angel County sheriff’s partment lnched an vtigatn to intify Lev’s source. Acrdg to the Los Angel <em>Tim,</em> the sheriff’s partment examed his cell-phone rerds and disvered two lls om the home of Jam Mee, the puty who arrted Gibson, to Lev the hours after Gibson’s arrt, and an addnal eight lls om Lev to Mee’s home the followg days. (Mee cled to ment.)</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-12 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Durg his 2010 talk at the Universy of Chigo, Lev discsed the legaly of the Gibson story. “What we did, we did legally,” he said. “The issue is, did somebody else do somethg that might have gotten them trouble?” Whout namg Mee, he likened him to Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers to the <em>Tim</em> and other publitns. Then Lev seemed to tch himself, and he lghed. “Jt on a <em>slightly</em> different level,” he add. ♦</p><p class="paywall"><a href="#rrectnasterisk"></a>An earlier versn of this article misstated where Lev lobbied the cy uncil.</p><p class="paywall"><a href="#rrectnasterisk1"></a>An earlier versn of this article misspelled Tim Weer’s name.</p><p class="paywall"><a href="#rrectnasterisk2"></a>An earlier versn of this article misstated the job of the person who received Brett Favre’s voice mails and texts.</p><p class="paywall"><a href="#rrectnasterisk3">****</a>An earlier versn of this article misstated Bieber’s age.</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layoutasi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-boxprimary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="adslot adslot--rail" data-no-id="sozz66"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-unslot nsumer-marketg-unslot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 PaywallInleBarrierWhWrapperGrid-fyrGfS kLQIUk grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layoutntent"><div class="body bodyle-barrier articlebody"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"><asi class="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper-iBnuqk lfXXa-D" data-ttid="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper"><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--paywall-le-barrier" role="prentatn" aria-live="pole" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-unslot nsumer-marketg-unslot--paywall-le-barrier"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></asi></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ContentWrapperGrid-fvkmBv brYtrA grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layoutntent"><div class="body bodyntaer"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"></div></div></div></div></div></div></article><div class="ContentFooterWrapper-jVNdRG dTJkpP ArticlePageContentFooterGrid-ccsXYy eMZRHU article-bodyfooter"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layoutntent"><footer class="ContentFooterMagazeDisclaimer-gzKAqo iZIuUU" data-ttid="MagazeDisclaimerWrapper">Published the prt edn of the <a href="/magaze/2016/02/22" data-reactroot="">Febary 22, 2016</a>, issue.</footer></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layoutntent"></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layoutntent"><div class="ContributorsWrapper-eNpWFu GWFsc ntributors" data-ttid="Contributors"><div class="ContributorBWrapper-bnVHbt gMon"><div class="ContributorBAvatar-bIGTqf eMWbvj"><a href="/ntributors/nicholas-schmidle"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa rponsive-image"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src="></picture></span></a></div><div class="ContributorBContent-ubQdr jZTSSi"><div class="ContributorBHear-ledood XOIEx"></div><div class="ContributorBB-fBolsO giFhKz"><a href="/ntributors/nicholas-schmidle">Nicholas Schmidle</a> has wrten for The New Yorker sce 2011. 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class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-emimage rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Search And Dtroy" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-emk">Nick Denton’s blog empire.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-embyle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-embyle"><div class="summary-embylentent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle bylbyle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU bylename"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss bylepreamble">By </span>Ben McGrath</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff ewgXAt summary-em summary-em--article summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm dqlGhv" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-emasset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-emimage-lk summary-em-trackgimage-lk" href="/magaze/2011/08/01/hack-work" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-emimage"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-emimage rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Hack Work" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl bcywvc summary-emntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-embric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Life and Letters</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackghed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href="/magaze/2011/08/01/hack-work" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-emhed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">Hack Work</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-emasset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-emimage-lk summary-em-trackgimage-lk" href="/magaze/2011/08/01/hack-work" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-emimage"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-emimage rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="Hack Work" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-emk">A tabloid culture ns amok.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-embyle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-embyle"><div class="summary-embylentent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle bylbyle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU bylename"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss bylepreamble">By </span>Anthony Lane</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff ewgXAt summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm dqlGhv" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-emasset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-emimage-lk summary-em-trackgimage-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-emimage"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-emimage rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Louis Armstrong Center Celebrat the Heroic Jazz Tmpeter" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl bcywvc summary-emntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-embric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Night Life</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackghed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-emhed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Louis Armstrong Center Celebrat the Heroic Jazz Tmpeter</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-emasset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-emimage-lk summary-em-trackgimage-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-3" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-emimage"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-emimage rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Louis Armstrong Center Celebrat the Heroic Jazz Tmpeter" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-emk">A new venue wh an archive, an exhibn space, and a theatre has opened up across om the Louis Armstrong Hoe Mm, Corona, Queens.</div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff ewgXAt summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below-sktop-only summary-em--layout-posn-image-right summary-em--layout-proportns-33-66 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm dqlGhv" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-emasset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-emimage-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-emimage"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-emimage rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="“Here Li Love” Tackl Broadway; “Uncle Vanya” Tipto Downtown" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl bcywvc summary-emntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN fYiFyD summary-embric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">The Theatre</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM cZPaWG summary-em-trackghed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ iIjKeM summary-emhed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">“Here Li Love” Tackl Broadway; “Uncle Vanya” Tipto Downtown</div></a><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-emasset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb USLvL summary-emimage-lk summary-em-trackgimage-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-4" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-emimage"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz jMoLpX"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg egpoQR summary-emimage rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="“Here Li Love” Tackl Broadway; “Uncle Vanya” Tipto Downtown" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-imageimage" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd jxOIpm cPtisA summary-emk">David Byrne’s electro-pop Imelda Mars is a seri of hard, mirrored surfac.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-embyle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-embyle"><div class="summary-embylentent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle bylbyle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU bylename"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss bylepreamble">By </span>Helen 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josh levin gay

28 Dec 2024

Slate’s new history podst vers 1977: a year when gay rights hung the balance, Roots domated the airwav, and J appeared on a tortilla.

MEET OUR NEW GAY SHIP ON THE CWS ‘LEGACI’

* josh levin gay *

On top of great chemistry, Phillips hop this love story will fight the “fundamental fear” actors have towards gay rol.

Meet Our New Gay Ship on The CWs ‘Legaci’. Frank BniColumnist, The New York Tim@FrankBniFormerly the chief rtrant cric for The New York Tim, Bni ma history 2011 by beg the Grey Lady's first out gay lumnist.

JOSH GAY

The Emerson College assistant profsor is also a producer of the upg film Michael, based on his Tim Magaze piece about his "ex-gay" iend.

Kate FaganWrer, ESPN@KateFagan3ESPN ntributor and lumnist Kate Fagan wr about basketball (and genr and sexism and homophobia) om a place of knowledge and ep, personal appreciatn.

ANA BRYANT’S WAR ON GAY RIGHTS

The overwhelmg support that Colls has received the NBA and elsewhere reveals that homophobia is on the wane the Uned Stat. In this age of ls-overt prejudice, anti-gay bias has taken a peculiar new form. ” WFAN’s Mike Franca agreed, tellg his rad dience, “It means ls than nothg to me that there is a gay player now out the NBA.

BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM JOSH LEVIN GAY

Jason Colls gay: Why do so many people want to know how ltle they re about the NBA player's g-out story? .

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Contents:

MEET OUR NEW GAY SHIP ON THE CWS ‘LEGACI’

JOSH GAY

ANA BRYANT’S WAR ON GAY RIGHTS

BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM JOSH LEVIN GAY

Recent Posts

Tags

Contents:

MEET OUR NEW GAY SHIP ON THE CWS ‘LEGACI’

JOSH GAY

ANA BRYANT’S WAR ON GAY RIGHTS

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* JOSH LEVIN GAY

BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM JOSH LEVIN GAY