harvey levin
Flotsam & Jetsam
California Declares War On The Media
9:56AM Richard Rushfield | The battle between celebrity media and California has been a winking-frenemy-like affair since ancient times. But suddenly the gloves are off and the US state seems hell bent on taking a sledgehammer to the skull of the Hollywood Press. More »
Big Screen
The Defamer Guide To Saving The Oscars
6:30AM Richard Rushfield | The show may or may not get higher ratings than an Idol finale, but the subject of who will host and produce the 82nd Academy Awards telecast remains Hollywood’s perennial obsession. More »
Flotsam & Jetsam
TMZ Finally Given The Porn Parody Treatment
2:45AM Foster Kamer | All good things come, ha, to an end. In pop culture, canonisations are routinely bestowed by the porn industry. Meet the comedic genius that is TMSleaze, starring Ron Jeremy as Harvey Levin. Featuring Speidi, Jessica Simpson/Tony Romo, and Amy Winehouse. More »Did TMZ Knowingly Infringe On A Gossip Blog’s Brand Without Permission?
9:15AM Mark Graham | While TMZ isn’t exactly known for being on the cutting edge of originality, a segment that aired on last night’s program came uncomfortably close to pushing the boundaries of brand (if not copyright) infringement. As we show in the attached video, TMZ aired a segment featuring American Idol finalists David Cook and David Archuleta being mobbed by a posse of paps while making their way through New York’s JFK Airport. And, as you might expect, Idol winner David Cook drew the lion’s share of the attention, while David Archuleta was left fending off the advances of one particularly enthused paparazzo. TMZ called this moment of potential embarrassment for Cook their “D-Listed Moment Of The Day.” This immediately caught our eye because, naturally, we have been longtime fans of the catty gossip blog D-Listed. We reached out to that site’s proprietor, Michael K, to find out whether or not he had any knowledge of this usage and he had this to say: “No. I have no idea what that shit is. I’m not involved in it.” This news is a tad ironic, considering that D-Listed began its life as The D-List before “Kathy Griffin threatened to kill [their] asses”, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Making matters even more compelling, it’s not exactly like TMZ can claim that they have never heard of the blog, considering it currently occupies a space on their blogroll. As they say, developing… More »
Harvey Levin: Portrait Of A Gossiphound As A Young Man
9:00AM Mark Graham | Back in the early 1970s, when Lindsay Lohan’s firecrotch was but a twinkle in young Harvey Levin’s eye, the gossip kingpin was a politically-active student at the University Of California Santa Barbara. This recently resurfaced newsclip (exact origin date: unknown) shows the future TMZ boss speaking to a local television crew on the campus of UCSB in the wake of the Isla Vista riots. As evidenced in the clip, Levin demonstrated not only an early penchant for dealing with the media, but also, dare we say, a slight case of Napoleon complex (at least when it came to dealing with trash-talking, beanie-wearing beatniks). However, we are sad to report that the clip shows no sign of his now-ubiquitous Starbucks sippy cup. [YouTube] More »
