TMZ

About TMZ

TMZ.com is a celebrity gossip and news website, the result of a collaboration between AOL and Telepictures Productions, a division of Warner Bros. Both AOL and Warner Bros. are units of Time Warner. TMZ's managing editor is Harvey Levin, and the site is powered by Blogsmith.

While positioning itself as an independent celebrity news site, the site is more widely regarded as a tabloid journal, though unique for its major corporate backing. The site does not pay for stories or interviews, but Harvey admitted that they do. It also pays for video clips and photos. Levin states that "Everything is researched and vetted for accuracy."

'TMZ' stands for "Thirty Mile Zeke," a term which originated in the 1960s. Due to the growth of "on location" shoots, studios and various talent guilds established a "thirty mile zone" -- outside of which shooting is considered to be a location shoot -- requiring per diems and other travel and living expenses to be paid. The zone remains centered in Los Angeles around the old offices of The Association of Motion Pictures and Television Producers at Beverly and La Cienega Boulevards in California. It was often said that "Everything entertainment happens in the 'Thirty Mile Zone.'" So essentially, the "Thirty Mile Zone" represents the center of Hollywood.

TMZ garnered some notice for publishing a handwritten police report the night of Mel Gibson's DUI arrest in July 2006. It also garnered attention for posting a video of Brandon Davis insulting Lindsay Lohan for the amusement of Paris Hilton that was then picked up by major newspapers, and for posting 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.

TMZ also presented the cell-phone camera video footage of Michael Richards' racially-charged outburst in a comedy club aimed at a couple of African-American audience members who had heckled him.

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2008-08-07