Harvey Robert Levin (born September 2, 1950)is an American television producer, lawyer, legal analyst and a celebrity reporter. He is the founder of celebrity gossip website TMZ.com.
He worked in various legal roles in the entertainment industry. He was a legal reporter on KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, where he reported on the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
In 1996, Levin moved to New York to work as a legal analyst for the 1997 revival of The People’s Court. He appeared on the show during the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s as a legal consultant and deactivated his California bar license. He became host of the series in 1998, as well as continuing to serve as its legal analyst. Levin served as creator and executive producer for Celebrity Justice from 2002 to 2005.
Levin appeared as a speaker at a fundraising event in West Hollywood, California for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association in April 2010. During the talk, Levin said, “I’m thinking back a long time when I was starting out as a TV reporter at a local station in LA and I remember at the time – I was probably in my late 20s – and I remember this hell-like fear that if anybody in that newsroom found out that I was gay, that it would be over,” he said. “I built it up in my head. I was so terrified that somebody would find out.” He went on to discuss about how he had to compartmentalize the gay and non-gay parts of his life.
********
June 1, 2012
Jim Paratore, a television executive and producer who was instrumental in helping Ellen DeGeneres overcome antigay bias in getting her own talk show and who partnered with Harvey Levin to create the entertainment Web site TMZ and its daily television show, died on Tuesday while bicycling in France. He was 58.
The cause was a heart attack, Warner Brothers said.
He was perhaps best known for his work on the TMZ Web site and show, which broke ground in coverage of the legal and personal battles of entertainment stars, and for his personal backing of Ms. DeGeneres as a daytime talk-show host.
TMZ grew out of Mr. Paratore’s relationship with Mr. Levin. They had tried a syndicated show called “Celebrity Justice,” and when that failed they conceived a 24-hour celebrity news operation. But they faced one challenge: how to cover stories that might damage their parent company, Warner Brothers.