Prince of sleaze to king of Hollywood

Harvey Levin's day in Los Angeles usually begins at about 3am. He is going to work just as the celebrities on whom his website and TV show, TMZ, reports are leaving the nightclubs, falling into bed with each other or drinking one final round of shots.

The world of celebrity never seems to sleep and neither, it appears, does Levin. The 58-year-old rises early and heads to the office, usually breaking off for a gym session. He regularly puts in 12-hour days, ringing sources, viewing videos and hosting news meetings.

Such a regime perhaps explains why he has become one of the most influential names in Hollywood and, increasingly, the world beyond it.

TMZ has become a huge force, breaking stories that create headlines around the globe and pioneering new forms of journalism. It has pushed the boundaries of what journalism means, not only breaking old-fashioned scoops, but also relying on video content sent in by a vast network of staff, contacts and ordinary people.

To his critics, Levin and TMZ represent the public face of modern media obsessed with celebrities and their meaningless antics. The methods TMZ employs illustrate an era where nothing is private any more and anything can be caught on video by someone with a cellphone.

To his defenders, he is a wildly successful journalist - responsible for scores of scoops - who is following in a long tradition of gossip journalism that harks back to the 1920s and 1930s.

The one thing everyone agrees on is Levin's power. TMZ has earned him the sobriquet the King of Hollywood; a title bestowed on many but earned by few. But Levin certainly seems to fit the bill and now TMZ's growing influence has run up against an unexpected opponent: the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Two weeks ago news broke that the police had obtained Levin's phone records with a secret warrant as part of an investigation into who leaked details of the drink-driving arrest of actor Mel Gibson to TMZ in 2006.

The astonishing story has turned Levin into an unlikely champion of press freedom. "It is a fight about the first amendment, a fight about democracy. It is a fight about the freedom of the press," he told a Los Angeles news conference.

Levin, who is backed by press freedom groups, has a point. But the story has also revealed that - in a state where the governor is a former movie star - reporting on celebrity can upset the powerful. It also serves as a warning for TMZ's ambitions.

TMZ reporters are already crawling the corridors of power outside LA, heading to Congress to catch politicians unawares. As TMZ grows and spreads its tentacles to Washington and beyond, Levin's biggest battles may just be about to begin.

Harvey Robert Levin is a creature of southern California. He was born in Los Angeles on September 2, 1951, attended the University of California in nearby Santa Barbara and then became a legal professor at Whittier College in Orange County.

But there was little sign that Levin would be anything but a dedicated legal academic until the political campaign over "Proposition 13" rolled through California's political life.

Though obscure to outsiders, Prop 13 was a huge event in California.

Essentially it was a public ballot held in 1978 to limit property taxation, and Levin became involved in public debates about the issue at the request of Whittier's dean. In so doing, he acquired a media profile and landed a weekly radio slot.

A column in the Los Angeles Times and television appearances followed. Soon teaching law took a back seat and Levin landed at a local TV station as a legal reporter.

"In LA he's been a recognisable face for years. We've known him from television," said Gayl Murphy, a celebrity interviewer who coaches the famous on how to deal with the media.

Levin's TV career also coincided with the O.J. Simpson trial. This was a landmark in American journalism, heralding the modern era where celebrity, justice and reality all seemed to collide live on TV.

Levin covered the trial for his local station and his fame grew. The trial left him with a fascination with celebrities and justice and how the two mix in the public imagination.

"Levin had his roots in the Simpson trial. He has been very skilful in tapping into the things that the Simpson trial brought out," said Professor Dann Pierce, a popular culture expert at the University of Portland.

Levin went on to be a legal analyst for a show called The People's Court and then developed his own ideas into another programme, Celebrity Justice. So when Time Warner was seeking to develop TMZ in 2005, Levin was a natural pick to head the website.

TMZ matched Levin's personality perfectly. It comes out 24 hours a day in real time, matching Levin's own ferocious work ethic. He also hosts the TV show, which features TMZ's daily news meeting, discussing stories and videos as they come in.

During the show Levin appears as an ideal boss, hardworking and funny.

That is the image his friends and employees talk about. But it also masks the naked hostility that Levin inspires in others. One Hollywood insider called him a "slimeball" and refused to discuss him further.

Yet that he has enemies should not be a surprise. Levin has never shied away from running a hard-hitting story, especially one that catches a celebrity in a bad light. But despite criticism of TMZ's content, he has a set of principles and rules that are familiar to any other newsroom.

Stories run by TMZ may not be pleasant, or even in the public interest, but they always seem to be true.

No wonder that TMZ has risen and risen on the back of its scoops. The site broke Gibson's anti-Semitic rant during his drink-driving arrest, the death of Heath Ledger, the numerous travails of Britney Spears, the beating of singer Rihanna by her boyfriend and - most famously of all - the death of Michael Jackson.

This last one was perhaps the biggest exclusive in TMZ's history as the website was cited as a source by news organisations around the world.

That success prompted one commentator to marvel at Levin's success. "Harvey Levin is Oz. There's something happening behind the curtain there," said MSNBC's celebrity reporter Courtney Hazlett.

THAT "something", though, does not so much happen behind a curtain as out on the streets and over the ether of the world's internet servers.

For Levin's TMZ is a creation of the internet and the spread of video functions on mobile phones. While Levin and TMZ work in a framework of old news journalism for their sources, they put out and get information in an entirely new way.

The site is updated constantly, feeding its readers tips and stories almost as quickly as they come in. One story last week on an American reality TV star boasted it had been posted just 30 minutes after TMZ staff learned about it.

The site is full of videos, taking advantage of its staff, freelancers, tourists and just about anyone with a camera phone who happens to spot a famous face.

TMZ is the main beneficiary of a technological culture which makes doing anything private almost impossible, especially if you are an A-list star or a Z-list wannabe.

But TMZ is not just the end point of that profound technological change.

It is also the beneficiary of a cultural shift. The definition of celebrity has changed. No longer are celebrities confined to the wealthy and talented stars of film and television.

The explosion of reality TV has made countless people fodder for TMZ's relentless gossip machine. So has YouTube. Now a homemade video can make stars out of virtually anyone if it goes viral and is seen by millions of people on the internet.

Such fame may be fleeting but that does not matter. Celebrity moves as fast as TMZ's website is updated.

"They strip mine the culture to feed an appetite for celebrity that appears to be insatiable," said Pierce.

Celebrity has also spread into other areas of life, especially politics.

Barack Obama's campaign for president showed how a politician could become a rock star. Numerous scandals revealed how a video on YouTube could destroy a career. The economic crisis has put many obscure officials and bankers on to the front pages and made them potential targets.

"The definition of a celebrity now is simply someone that people want to know about," said Murphy. TMZ cameras now prowl the streets around Congress and lurk in Washington's Ronald Reagan Airport, hoping to catch unwary politicians. Even figures such as Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, have been subjected to such paparazzi-style ambushes.

That phenomenon gives the lie to TMZ's name. The initials stand for "Thirty Mile Zone", a slang coined by Hollywood executives for the area of Los Angeles where most film studios were based. But TMZ and Levin's reach is far longer than 30 miles (48km) now. Some might say it reaches around the world.

TMZ'S BIGGEST SCOOPS

MEL GIBSON'S ARREST

The actor was arrested in 2006 for driving under the influence of alcohol. The arrest report was then leaked to TMZ, which published it on its website. That would have been embarrassing enough, but it also contained details of Gibson's behaviour during the arrest when he launched into a rant against Jews, saying they started all the wars in the world. The furore almost destroyed his career and he was lambasted by many senior Hollywood figures.

RIHANNA'S BEATING

After reports emerged that the singer's boyfriend, Chris Brown, had beaten her during an argument, Brown was arrested on assault charges. TMZ obtained a photograph that showed Rihanna had suffered physical injuries, pushing the story into the mainstream and making it a scandal.

MICHAEL JACKSON'S DEATH

After Michael Jackson collapsed at his home in Los Angeles after being injected with painkillers, TMZ led the news frenzy on almost every development in the story. It posted details of his drug use, custody issues, recording of the 911 call and - most crucially - his actual death.

Many more prominent news organisations relied extensively on TMZ for their reporting, citing the website as the source of their own stories.

- OBSERVER