TMZ.com
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TMZ.com is a celebrity gossip and news website that garnered much attention for breaking transcripts of drunken remarks to police by actor Mel Gibson in July 2006.[1]
TMZ refers to the "Thirty Mile Zone" around Hollywood, a show business jokey allusion to the observation that anything important to the industry occurs there. The site is a collaboration between AOL and Telepictures Productions, a division of Warner Brothers, and is headed by Harvey Levin.[2] While positioning itself as an independent celebrity news site, the site is more widely regarded as a tabloid journal [3] but is unusual for its major corporate backing. According to Ken Sunshine, publicist for Ben Affleck and Leonardo Dicaprio, "I hate that they have anything to do with trying to put celebrities into the worst light possible and that they play the 'gotcha' game".[4] The site does not pay for stories or interviews, but it does pay for video clips. Levin states that "Everything is researched and vetted for accuracy."[4]
In the past, TMZ has also garnered some notice for posting a video of Brandon Davis insulting Lindsay Lohan for the amusement of Paris Hilton, which was then picked up by major newspapers, and a copy of the alleged birth certificate of the daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, which was also picked up by Associated Press and USA Today.[4] TMZ also presented the cell-phone camera video footage of Michael Richards' racist outburst in a comedy club against a couple of African-American audience members who had heckled him.
- Stories "broken" by TMZ.com
- Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic tirade after a drunk driving incident.
- The divorce of Ryan Phillipe and Reese Witherspoon.
- The divorce of Britney Spears and Kevin Federline.
- Exclusive video footage of Michael Richards' racist tirade against a couple of African-American audience members who had heckled him.
[edit] References
- ^ The scoop on the scoop. Retrieved on August 2, 2006.
- ^ Celebrity News Site Breaks Gibson Story. Retrieved on August 2, 2006.
- ^ harvey-levin-gets-woody-then-exposes
- ^ a b c Handed a 'smoking gun', TMZ's Levin ran with it; Donna Freydkin; USA Today, August 1, 2006, page 3D.
