As head honcho of TMZ, Harvey Levin has made millions by gleefully exposing the foibles of celebrities in their unguarded moments.
However, The Hollywood Reporter claims that Levin and execs at Warner Bros., parent company of the celebrity-gossip empire, are “not happy”; that the shoe is about to be on the other foot as The New Yorker prepares to publish a warts-and-all exposé of TMZ that threatens to reveal the unorthodox (and reportedly unsavoury) tactics TMZ uses to get its stories.
THR reports that Levin has been “warning”; TMZ employees “not to speak to writer Nicholas Schmidle,”; known for hard-hitting investigative pieces.
It has long been speculated that TMZ “[pays] sources handsomely”; for its scoops, and THR notes: “It’s unclear whether Schmidle’s reporting has turned up unsavory (or illegal) tactics used by Levin or TMZ, but sources say Warner Bros. is anxiously awaiting a call from the magazine’s fact-checkers.”;
A rep for TMZ and Levin did not respond to THR’s request for comment; a rep for The New Yorker says: “We don’t comment on pieces we haven’t published.”;
