TMZ’s Harvey Levin
Back in the good old days of celebrity news coverage, publicists ran Hollywood. Celebrity news shows such as Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood and E were beholden to celebrities and treated stars with white gloves, fearing that any negative stories on a star would lead to no more access.
That’s why I always thought it was funny that Pat O’Brien left what I considered a successful sportscasting job, covering the legendary Celtics / Lakers rivalry back in the showtime 80s, to kiss celebrity ass. Who would choose celebrity ass kissing over Celtics / Lakers?!?
Back in the day, and even today (hello Billy Bush & Mark McGrath), there was a kinder, gentler celebrity relationship because if the shows didn’t play nice, they wouldn’t enjoy proximity to the stars.
If a publicist was pissed off at a television show about a story, the publicist would threaten to never send their celebrity client to that show for another sit-down interview.
Then along came TMZ, changing the rules by not playing by the rules. TMZ’s philosophy was simple. “If we don’t really expect to get sit down interviews with celebrities, we can change the balance of power”, said Harvey Levin, Managing Editor of TMZ, in a sit down interview with Charlie Koones, former Publisher of Variety.
“We’re going to be really honest and tell real stories. We’re not looking for sit-down interviews with celebrities”, said Levin. TMZ’s secret recipe is that they’re also not looking to be adversorial. Honesty is the name of the game.
Ass kissing isn’t honest. Neither is constant confrontation. The public can see through both, which is why TMZ enjoys the trust of their audience, and the respect, albeit sometimes begrudgingly, of the people they cover. No celebrity can look in the mirror and say that TMZ hasn’t been fair to them. The story may not be great, but if it’s going to be told, at least TMZ does it fairly.
Peter Cervieri is co-founder of and Director of Business Development for ScribeMedia.Org. He has many fetishes. Among them is collecting business cards.
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