TMZ Rewrites the Rules of Hollywood Journalism
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is now the hottest TMZ reportedly paid US$62,000. Keith TMZ.com Hollywood celeb- Kelly, the Media Ink columnist at the rity gossip Web site on the planet. So New York Post, is stumped to think hot, in fact, that when it broke the news of a major story the site has blown. of Michael Jackson’s death at the end of “It’s not a massive profit-maker,” last month, its world exclusive popped says Kelly. “They focus on one thing: up online six minutes before the singer breaking news, that’s it — and seem actually died. to do it fairly accurately. They have For its many critics this was definitely had an impact. I don’t think confirmation that the Web site, which, that Hollywood agents and the power amid endless surveillance videos of structure particularly care for them. In minor celebs parking their cars and some ways, it’s a blessing, you don’t walking to their front doors, brought have to go and suck up to agents and you exclusives on Mel Gibson’s swap favors for access.” anti-semitic ravings at a traffic cop, When TMZ broke the news of Alec Baldwin’s brutal mobile phone Jackson’s heart attack, but before it rant at his 11-year-old daughter and reported his death, UK news networks the contents of Anna Nicole Smith’s had no problem going big on the story, bedside table the night she died (Slim even though TMZ was virtually the only Fast and chewing gum), plays fast and source. But US network CNN refused loose with the truth. to report TMZ’s claim that Jackson was But for TMZ, the explanation was dead, even though both news outlets simple. By the time Jackson was are part of the same company. officially declared dead, at 2:26pm Los Levin is certainly hardworking. He Angeles time on June 25, one of the works Web site hours, arriving at the site’s sources within the corridors of office sometimes as early as 6am, and the UCLA Medical Center (it has a vast has often hit the gym before that. He network that blankets the city) had wears several hats, cofounder and already tipped it off. editor-in-chief of TMZ.com, executive Michael Jackson dead was the producer and host of TMZ on TV, the scoop of a lifetime for any media successful TV show spawned by the outlet, and the apogee of the four-year- site. The offices of TMZ off Sunset old celebrity-obsessed site that boasts Boulevard double as the set of TMZ on its snippets are “even more fascinating TV. “If you went in there you wouldn’t than the hype.” In that time, TMZ (the find it run by journalists, it is run by name stands for thirty-mile zone, the young guys who know how to put area of central Los Angeles thickly stuff on the Internet. But they have populated with stars), which is as broken some very important stories,” voyeuristic as it is speedy, has become says Smith, whose company is a major one of the world’s most quoted sources supplier to the site. of entertainment news, with rival sites, TMZ on TV is just like the site. In TV channels and traditional gossip fact, it is like putting Heat magazine on columns, such as the New York Post’s Michael Jackson and sisters LaToya, left, and Janet greet fans during a lunch break at a pretrial hearing in Santa Maria, California in 2004. TMZ broke news of Michael Jackson’s death six minutes before he actually died. television. The format is part squawk infamous Page Six, quoting it regularly. PHOTO: REUTERS box, part bull ring. Levin stands in And for all that, we have Harvey front of his staff, slurps from a drink Levin to thank. The well-built, 57- bottle, wields a large marker pen and year-old former lawyer turned TV asks his troops in turn, “What have you journalist is now something of a got?’ Just like a real news conference celebrity himself, popping up on in any news outlet anywhere. But here Larry King Live, and a bunch of other the stories are different. Staff report news magazine shows that dip into TMZ rewrites the rules on the latest celebrity sitings, often celebrity content. When actor Natasha with video. “We caught Twilight star Richardson hit her head while skiing Robert Pattinson’s butt cleavage!!” and suffered fatal brain swelling, Levin, “Sam Ronson denies Lindsay Lohan who founded TMZ, was all over the of Hollywood journalism pregnancy rumors, ‘if she is, it ain’t news channels and appeared to have mine.’” It is a lot of shooting the breeze, been in touch with paramedics that interspersed with about eight minutes tended to her. The guy is that good. It had the celebrity scoop of the decade when it broke the news of Michael Jackson’s death. of content. It is also popular. So much A polite way to put it is that Levin so that the Fox TV network, where it is a man who polarizes opinion. It may be crude, but it’s fast; and now TMZ.com has more power than ever airs every weeknight, is now planning I’m a Celebrity contestant Janice a second TV show. TMZ on TV will Dickinson called him the lowest form BY STEPHEN BROOK expand with a trial run of a new series of pond scum, Radar magazine’s THE GUARDIAN, LONDON called Beyond Twisted that starts profile on him was titled Sultan of tomorrow. It is billed as an “irreverent Sleeze, while blogging site Gawker and funny take on jaw-dropping said he was a “schlocky managing member and Jackson’s father, Joe. venture between AOL and Telepictures to the middle?’ but to their credit they It is clear that even before the moments from around the world.” editor of a thieving celebrity news Kevin Smith, co-founder of Productions, a division of Warner Bros, never shut us down.” events of last week, TMZ had changed It is possible to see the legacy conglomerate” and accused him of independent news and picture agency which produces the Ellen DeGeneres There are two opposing schools of Hollywood and is starting to change of Walter Winchell, the newspaper filching stories from the Web site Splash News, says that while many Show and the Tyra Banks Show. thought about its success. One, that the way the world’s media works. gossipmonger who dominated radio Courthouse News Service and passing newspapers and magazines rely on Both companies are divisions of Time TMZ is founded on good old-fashioned In times past other outlets would and TV from the 1930s to the 1950s, them off as their own. celebrity content to get sales, but Warner. The site is said to cost about reporting, wearing out shoe leather in attempt to confirm a story themselves in what TMZ does. Winchell’s quick- For his part, Baldwin said that fill their pages with everything from US$8 million a year to run, but some the finest tradition of Hollywood tip before running big on it. But with fire radio and TV shows, where Levin “seemed to be that breed of crosswords to horoscopes, TMZ has have estimated that it could be worth sheets. Two, it gets scoops because it TMZ’s scoop last week, Sky News he delivered news and gossip, tabloid creature that realized an almost just cut down to the bone — celebrity up to US$400 million. pays people. in the UK gave it blanket coverage accompanied by clattering telexes, sexual level of pleasure from ruining is all it supplies. “It is very raw, it is The site was profitable after the “If you have a story and you want very quickly, even though for nearly gave him enormous power, and he other people’s lives.” very crude, it’s not polished, but it first year, according to Alan Citron, to get paid then you call TMZ,” says one hour TMZ was the only media perfected the use of slang to avoid Some rival media outlets so dislike works. A lot of people look at them general manager of TMZ.com from Kevin Smith, whose agency is a major organization claiming the superstar legal disputes, promising his listeners and distrust TMZ that they didn’t with envy and think, ‘Why didn’t we just after it launched until late last supplier to TMZ. was dead. News companies that each week the lowdown on celebrity report Jackson was dead until it had do that?’” year. “TMZ was one of the first While this is a practice many waited for confirmation, such as CNN and politics, “the very very low low been confirmed by the Los Angeles Levin, who gossip sites love to point sites to redefine celebrity coverage. newspapers would not bat an eyelid and BBC, were roundly criticized. The down down.” But Winchell wasn’t Times and Associated Press. “That’s out is happily partnered to his body- When people were setting their web over, most traditional US media old rules of double sourcing stories really into camera-up-skirt content. typical,” Levin told the Los Angeles builder-turned-chiropractor boyfriend, bookmarks, TMZ was there. I am a big newspapers find this deeply troubling appeared to be being rewritten before In some ways, TMZ is the National Times. “No matter what they say, trained as a lawyer, but found the lure believer in first mover advantage.” and refuse to pay for stories. Levin our eyes.