The aggression of Levin’s reporting has made him deeply unpopular with some of the people TMZ covers. “There was a time when my greatest wish was to stab Harvey Levin with a rusty implement and watch his entrails go running down my forearm, in some Macbethian stance,” Alec Baldwin once said. “I wanted him to die in my arms, while looking into my eyes, and I wanted to say to him, ‘Oh, Harvey, you thoughtless little pig.’ He is a festering boil on the anus of American media.”
Despite the scandals, TMZ still maintains its clout and is an attractive business. Fox, the media giant controlled by the family of Rupert Murdoch, bought TMZ from Warner Bros in 2021 for about $50 million. Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s son and designated heir, lavished praise on “unique and powerful brand Harvey has created in TMZ”, which he said has “forever changed the entertainment industry”.
The public appetite for celebrity gossip remains undimmed. “It’s part of the human condition to want to know more about people. It’s a form of social currency, whether it’s about somebody famous or your next door neighbour,” says Popbitch’s Wright. “It’s gone on since time started.”
No matter how poor taste their reporting is, it appears that Levin will be able to torment celebrities for a while yet.
