@ EconCeleb: Harvey Levin: 'What Stars Want More Than Anything Is To Be Relevant'
This story was written by Staci D. Kramer.
Work in progress. As managing editor of TMZ.com, Harvey Levin can be a celeb's best friend or worst nightmarenot that he's trying to be either. That's coming though loud and clear in our second keynote Q&A of the afternoon here at EcobCeleb. Interviewer Charlie Koones, former president and publisher of Variety and former board member of our parent company ContentNext Media, put it bluntly from the start when he asked: "It seems like you one day said, 'Screw it. I'm not playing that game. Is that an accurate portrayal?" Levin was just as blunt: "Yes."
He explained the thinking about behind the WB-AOL (NYSE: TWX) joint venture that borrows some of its psychology from his previous show Celebrity Justice: "If a publicist was pissed at a celebrity show, they could get the story pulled by by saying you're never going to get on again if you run this story. ... (I decided) we can do an honest show and not be beholden to anybody. We're going to be really honest and tell real stories. ... It's not as if we don't work with publicists. We do. We tell them 'work with us once and if we screw with you never work with us again. Try us once and if we're fair with you, try us again."
More to come.
By Staci D. Kramer