In 2009, for example, he took the call that led to TMZs breaking the news that Chris Brown had physically assaulted Rihanna. A month later, Kennedy came to Los Angeles for an event at the Ambassador Hotel. In Memoriam: Dr. Harvey Levin Press Releases Contact Phone 713-798-7246 Fax 713-798-4688 Patient Appointments 713-798-7246 H. Ben Taub Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 7200 Cambridge Street Houston, TX 77030 Connect with us In Memoriam: Dr. Harvey Levin Harvey Steven Levin, Ph.D. passed away peacefully on April 1, 2022. He went to the hotel, drank several Martinis at the bar, and eventually snapped a cell-phone photo of Stiviano in the lobby, while paparazziwho were prohibited from entering the hotelwaited outside. In May, 2012, the judge overseeing the case of a man who allegedly extorted Stevie Wonder caught a TMZ cameraman illicitly taping the courtroom proceedings. Leo Braudy, in his 1986 book, The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and its History, defines fame as the interplay between the common and the unique in human nature. For Levin, nothing captured this dynamic quite like stars posing for mug shots or appearing in court. It often aired late at night, and it struggled to find viewers. Photographing celebrities going in and coming out was like fishing an overstocked pond. It showed Shakur receiving oral sex. He was a teacher, a father, and an icon and words arent sufficient to describe the art, the joy and the wonder he showed the world," New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said also. Harvey is ruthless, Simon Cardoza, the former cameraman, said. By the end of the day, the Smoking Gun revealed that the photo had been lifted from the November, 1967, issue of Playboy, and showed a male model, not J.F.K.). TMZ founder Harvey Levin told . Levin confided that hed been unable to sleep. He was 78. John Prine, one of the most influential and revered folk and country songwriters of the last 50 years, died on April 6 at the age of 73 after being infected with the COVID-19 virus. Did such posts, Kurtz asked, signal an intent to change TMZs reputation as a raunchy tabloid operation? Harvey thought it was so unfair that these clubs would get away with it, just because they were selling to celebrities, Gillian Sheldon, the former TMZ publicist, told me. Listen to our #podcast that explores how security and connected medical devices are embedded into the hospital experience. The next day, they were taping the entire shows from home., There is more material since weve all been at home than I have seen in years, he explained. Last April, Levin gave a lecture at the University of California, Santa Barbara, titled The New Journalistic Environment. A few minutes after 7 p.m., he came onstage wearing a blue V-neck sweater, slip-on sneakers, and baggy stonewashed jeans. She was 86. The medium arrived in America in the late nineteenth century, when a weekly named Town Topics began publishing blind items, in a section called Saunterings. (In 1905, the sections editor attempted to blackmail Emily Posts husband after learning of his infidelity.) It felt like he was set up, he told an audience at the National Press Club. He was selective about whom he brought on, prizing loyalty, energy, and connections over experience. ), The attention that Levin receives is not always so adulatory. (She declined repeated requests for comment.) ), The host led us to a leather banquette near the bar. (In a message to a TMZ staff member, the source asked to be paid five thousand dollars.) Literally, that video made Kim.. During this period, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, and Selena Gomez were all victims of swatting. While the L.A.P.D. As Bloomberg points out, Levin, an openly gay man based in Southern California, supports LGBT rights, animal cruelty prevention, and "various liberal causes" which doesn't fit with Trump MAGA. Valour! These are the people who call me with stuff, he said. Kim has hired disso-queen Laura Wasser, who has repped the likes of Britney Spears, Maria Shriver, Angelina Jolie, Ryan Reynolds, and Robyn Gibson, the accompanying story read. It was single-handedly creating the news cycle, Stone said. Though the proposition ultimately passed, Levin made a positive impression, and the Los Angeles Times hired him to contribute an advice column, titled The Law and You. Levin wrote about, among other things, a passengers rights when he or she is bumped off a flight, and whether blood tests can conclusively establish paternity. Mar 19, 2016, 09:30 AM EDT In a new essay, TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin revealed shame caused him to keep his sexuality secret for many years. Phil Valentine, Right-wing radio host, died after more than a month-long battle with COVID. TMZ confirmed the death through one of Jacksons security guards and Jacksons father, Joe, and broke the news eighteen minutes after Jackson stopped breathing. Levin dedicated a segment to the clip on TMZ on TV. Mike Walters, the head of the news desk, said, So theres a video of Justin Bieber, when he was fourteen, singing a parody of his own song, One Less Lonely Girl, where the girl is replaced by the n-word. Levin feigned shock. Two L.A.P.D. When she sent him a gift basket, Levin refused that, too. According to the Los Angeles Times, the sheriffs department examined his cell-phone records and discovered two calls from the home of James Mee, the deputy who arrested Gibson, to Levin in the hours after Gibsons arrest, and an additional eight calls from Levin to Mees home in the following days. ), And in 2006, after Levin broke the story about Mel Gibsons anti-Semitic tirade, the Los Angeles County sheriffs department launched an investigation to identify Levins source. Fox Corp. 's entertainment division has closed its acquisition of TMZ from WarnerMedia, confirming that founder and managing editor Harvey Levin will continue with the newly situated company.. Though Levin did not post explicit videos on TMZ, he was adept at translating the existence of a tape into news, Blatt said. Harvey, whatever those four seconds werewhatever that place isthats the place that I want you to go back to, Braun said. TMZ resembles an intelligence agency as much as a news organization. The Roskop stories boosted Blatts status at TMZ. Blatt relayed the tip to TMZ, which confirmed the story and broke the news of Weintraubs death. While many have recovered, some have died from complications of the illness. Levin replied, If you wont tell anyone I lost, I wont tell anyone you were watching High Rollers., In the mid-seventies, Levin accepted a teaching job with the law faculty at the University of Miami, a period that he recently described as the single greatest year of my life. He loved combining the seriousness of academia with the wild fun of South Beach. Ryan Linkof, an associate curator at the Academy Museum of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has noted that, in 1911, the Daily Mirror published a photo spread of Prime Minister H. H. Asquiths wife, Margot, which showed her looking pinched, pale, almost skeletal, and her dress crumpled. But TMZs crude look also emphasized that it prioritized speed over polish. You have no idea how many stories cross our desks that we dont do, he said in 2013. In February, 2012, after Whitney Houston was found dead in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton, Blatt drove there and checked into a room. I use my law degree every five minutes, Levin has said. Other terms of the deal were not disclosed. I agree with TheWrap's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and provide my consent to receive marketing communications from them. Harvey Levin, television producer, lawyer, legal analyst, and founder of TMZ, joined Bob Sirott to talk about the latest news in Hollywood. Just on a slightly different level, he added. Sex tapes were Blatts specialty. But the reality star and entrepreneur put it on hold in October 2015. The fierce advocate for the AAPI community was 89. did not seem especially determined to find out. (The National Enquirer also seeks photographic and video evidence, but when it is not available the Enquirer will subject sources to polygraph examinations. He was 41. A representative for the company told TheWrap, Harvey Levin was injured yesterday in a bicycling accident. In February, 2009, a private bank, Northern Trust, which had just received $1.6 billion in federal bailout funds, hosted a golf tournament and party in the Los Angeles area. Locations. If you see a dollar on the road, you pick it up, he said. The pair starred in a spinoff of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" from 2011 to 2012. He was 79. You call the record label, you call the N.A.A.C.P.what do they have to say about it? Such posts draw more readers to the original story, helping it to go viral. And celebrity blog TMZ had broken the news exclusively. Harvey Levin, the managing editor of TMZ who co-founded the company in 2005, will stay on board and report up to Fox's management. A first responder, upon arriving at Jacksons house, called TMZ to tip off the site. Radar Online also owned a copy of the footage.). After the Democratic House Impeachment managers unveiled never before seen security footage, we spoke with TMZ's Harvey Levin & election law expert Jason Har. TMZ never really did that. TMZ did not create its aesthetic. (The site subsequently published a police photograph of Rihannas battered face.) Yes, Dr. Harvey Levin, MD holds board certifications in Obstetrics & Gynecology. Its part of the machineyou own every angle related to the original story, another former production assistant told me. At the start, Levin had only a dozen or so employees. "Ellis Marsalis was a legend. Assistants and couriers would bring them in stacks, the former news reporter said. Sex was discussed casually, as a commodity, another former producer said. . In place of the usual lyrics, Bieber had substituted nigger for girl. He giggled as he sang, Therell be one less lonely nigger and If I kill you, Ill be part of the K.K.K., Levin faced a tough decision. Andrew Jack, a dialect coach who most recently was hired to work with Robert Pattinson on the new Batman movie, died March 31 of complications from coronavirus, TMZ reports. They had me do that all the time. Levine recalled pursuing Britney Spearss black Lexus through Beverly Hills. In 2014, Adweek named Levin the digital editor of the year, noting, Whatever topic your co-workers are talking about around the water-cooler, they probably read it first at TMZ. The television journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell, who is a friend of Levins, told me, Harveys a truth-tellerhe has exposed things that people want to keep secret. Sports Business Daily wrote, Like it or not, the effect that TMZs coverage had with its Ray Rice and Donald Sterling stories was Watergate-esque. And after Ben Bradlee, the former editor of the Washington Post, died, in late 2014, Deadline Hollywood praised TMZs game-changing work, and asked of Levin, Is he the next gen Ben Bradlee, or just the face of the new incarnation of the National Enquirer?. ), Blatt surveyed the room. We look forward to his return soon., Also Read: Harvey Levin Thinks His 'TMZ' Shows Look Better Now Than in Studio. It was a coup for Levin, even though, he conceded, Blackmuns appearance turned out to be terrible television., In 1990, Superior Court was cancelled, and Levin took a reporting job with NBCs Los Angeles affiliate. Kathy Griffin on Saturday blasted TMZ's Harvey Levin and released his personal number in retaliation against his gossip site and TV show. His office accepts new patients. The Devastating New History of the January 6th Insurrection. Dr. Levin has over 62 years of healthcare experience. . The next week, Stone confronted his student. Harvey Levin created the tabloid news site under the Telepictures Productions umbrella, which is owned by Warner Bros, in 2005 along with Jim Paratore, who died in 2012. Gillian Sheldon called Levin to ask him for permission to speak to methough she left TMZ in 2008. TMZ also bought a screen shot of a text in which she informed Sheen that she was pregnant. The Corrupt World Behind the Murdaugh Murders. That video just went everywhere, Levin said. In a phone conversation, Braun pleaded with Levin not to post the video, saying, Youre going to ruin this kids life. Levin hesitated for four seconds, then said that he was moving ahead, and that he would need a statement from Braun by the morning. Currently, TMZ has three reporters stationed full-time at the courthouse; the Los Angeles Times has one court reporter. Many of them received free publicity on TMZ, and were referred to by cheeky nicknames. She was 67. The judge announced, The courts just been made aware that, unbeknownst to counsel and the court, a microphone was placed at counsel table. (The tape was turned over to the judge for review. Another woman asked Levin what he thought went into making a successful journalist. Blatt leaned over and introduced himself to Jim Bellino, who was wearing a gray sports coat over a white T-shirt picturing Ringo Starr. When Carol Burnett sued the National Enquirer for defamation, in 1981, he observed that her lawsuit faced significant challenges: she must prove that the Enquirer published the article about her with either an intentional or reckless disregard for the truth., Levin began consulting on The Peoples Court, and in 1986 he joined the staff of a rival program, Superior Court, where he was eventually promoted to managing editor. YOU'VE REACHED YOUR MONTHLY ARTICLE LIMIT. (TMZ said that its employees are expected to obey the law. A middle-aged woman at the talk encouraged Levin to dedicate more coverage to national politics. Hilary Heath, an actress and producer who starred opposite Vincent Price in horror movies in the late 1960s and early '70s, died in April of COVID-19 complications. Objectified: With Harvey Levin, Pamela Anderson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Judy Sheindlin. On a Thursday evening not long ago, I met Blatt at Craigs, a popular steakhouse in West Hollywood. I dont live by hard-and-fast rules in this job, he said. Harold Budd, ambient musician and composer for several Hollywood films, died from complications of the coronavirus, his manager said Dec. 8. At around 4:30 a.m., one of the surveillance officers, sitting at a monitoring-room computer, reviewed footage from a camera that faced the elevator and, using a cell phone, surreptitiously recorded the screen. Levin made some inquiries, and learned that Gibson had been pulled over for driving under the influence, and that he had called the arresting officer a motherfucker. Gibson also had launched into an anti-Semitic tirade, saying, Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world., Levin went to the Los Angeles County sheriffs department for confirmation. Cause theyre smart.), Levin once tried to set up a bureau in Washington, D.C. On January 20, 2015, at 8:32 a.m., a senior producer sent an internal e-mail that noted, Got a tip from a friend I know from high school. The Bellinos slid into the banquette beside ours. Harvey would yell if we didnt get the shot. Other photographers offered similar accounts. Harvey believed that every celebrity was fake,and that it was his job to expose that., Alan Citron, TMZs first general manager, recalls fielding concerns from both AOL and Telepictures over the tabloid direction of the stories. He told me that executives urged him to move the coverage into the middle. He hired a reporter from Variety to write more traditional features about the industrythe comings and goings of agentsand experimented with real-estate coverage. These shows, in which legal disputes were resolved in fake courtrooms, represented a fresh formreality TVthat blended the everyday and the outlandish. Weve been around for nine years, and if you look at the stories that weve broken they are stories that literally every newscast in America has put on the air, he said. He was 86. Its almost like an African jungle safaritheyll come up to the bus, Levin said recently. He was 34. A former writer for TMZ told me that, for Levin, there was more to gain by sitting on the clip, and earning Biebers good will, than by running it and ruining his career. On the website, we are posting more stories than we have in years. Investigators at the Revel, trying to discover who had taken the video, ascertained its timing by scrutinizing the clips audio track; while the phone was recording the footage, a general request for chips to be refilled could be heard on the casino intercom. It was a pretty terrible show. Levin lost. So who cares whether you pay money for it?. It was widely circulated. Most valuable was a shot of the bathtub, still filled with water, where paramedics discovered Houstons body. Then, on September 8th, TMZ published a second surveillance video from the Revel. You didnt. He was hospitalized in Atlanta just days after attending a campaign rally for Donald Trump in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was seen without a mask. These are the names of some notable figures from Hollywood and the media that we have lost. But when Citron reviewed the traffic data one thing became undeniably clear: The tabloid material was what people wanted. On May 7, 1968, Levin, then a senior at Cleveland High School, in Reseda, California, stepped up to a microphone, faced a football stadium filled with his classmates, and did his best impression of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was running for President. In this conversation. Action Crime Drama A car hits Harm; Mac takes him to a hospital, where an Israeli official undergoes a heart transplant. On a recent episode of TMZ Live, he said, There are a group of renegade photogs out there that are dangerous and act like criminalswhere they run people off the road, where they chase people, where they go after peoples kids, where they incite people. He has pointed out that he frequently passes up the juiciest stuff. In 2008, he received photographs of Michael Phelps, the Olympic swimmer, smoking a bong, but elected not to publish them. Ben Presnell, who worked at Celebrity Justice and, later, at TMZ, told me he spent most of his days at the Los Angeles County Municipal Courthouse, searching for new filings and trying to charm clerks into giving him information. They were throwing around a lot of money, Perel claims. So then, for months, Harvey was, like, Blueberries! all the time.. The comic posted a 17 . After guards responded to the incident in the lobby, several surveillance officers gathered and wondered aloud if a tape of Rice and Palmer could be sold to TMZthe Web site that, since its inception, in 2005, has taken a merciless approach to celebrity news. Levin called a Telepictures executive and said, of DeGeneres, Shes ruining the brand! DeGeneres phoned Levin to apologize, according to three former TMZ employees, but he refused to take her call. TMZ published exclusive images of the divorce papers moments after Wasser filed them in court. .. February 28, 2020. . Ive sold cell phones. Bieber later called Levin and thanked him. 2023 Cond Nast. We get it, a colleague retorted. The officer then called TMZ. Art director Matteo De Cosmo, who worked on films including "Emergence," "The Punisher" and "Luke Cage," died of coronavirus complications. In opening remarks, Sheila Sullivan, the acting executive director of the U.C.S.B. TMZ has paid at least one mole inside B.L.S., a limousine service, to provide lists of celebrity customers, their planned routes, and the license-plate numbers of their vehicles. Harvey is a TV producer, legal analyst and a former lawyer, best known for founding the TMZ celebrity news website. Celebrity Justice continued to do poorly in the ratings, and after three years it was cancelled. Blatt drove with her to her bank, photographed the check, and brokered a deal, in which, according to Blatt and Roskop, Roskop sold TMZ the licensing rights to the image for roughly eight thousand dollars. Early life and education [ edit] Soon afterward, he offered TMZ a lead on a tape involving Tupac Shakur. One of Sheens escorts wanted to talk: Courtney Roskop, a twenty-two-year-old who had just been with Sheen. When people have choices, you cant sell that gray coat anymore., From the start, Levins crusader mentality at TMZ caused some consternation, Lewis DVorkin, a former senior vice-president of AOL, told me. Allen Daviau, a 5-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer, died April 15 at age 77. But Levin was not interested in managing a site that functioned as another thing to puff up Hollywood, Bankoff recalled. Harvey Levin's Post. Rice expressed regret, saying, Me and Janay wish we could take back thirty seconds of our life. What happened during those thirty seconds? Its so funny to me that people ask that question, Levin replied. Another was the son of the assistant sheriff in Orange CountyMike Walters, now the head of TMZs news desk. They started tipping us off, Levine said. Thirty-five hundred years ago, Mesopotamian scribes used cuneiform to record the impeachment hearings of a mayor who had been accused of corruption, kidnapping, adultery, and the theft of manure. He remembered filming Paris Hilton and her boyfriend at a movie theatre in Los Angeles in 2007; Hilton appeared surprised by Levines presence, even though, according to Levine, he was acting on a tip from Hiltons own publicist, Elliot Mintz. In an e-mail dated January 29, 2014, a TMZ manager informed her colleagues that the star of an ABC drama had been spotted sitting in first class, in seat 2A, on Delta Flight 1061, from Orlando to Los Angeles, when his plane was rerouted to Dallasthe result of a bomb threat issued on Twitter. The resulting piece left Richardss career in ruins. I dont have the words to tell you how awesome our technical team is but I think theyre about the best technical team in television, Levin gushed, noting the TMZ team made the decision to work from home before any official orders came down to do so. In the 2010 lecture at the University of Chicago Law School, Levin hinted at his calculations in such moments. How TMZ gets the videos and photos that celebrities want to hide. He shared insight on Britney Spears' conservatorship case, the all-new one-hour TMZ special: "TMZ Investigates UFOs The Pentagon Proof," and his love for Chicago. On TV, Levin always appears congenial, but, according to numerous accounts, when the cameras switch off he often turns abrasive and domineering. (In July, an employee at a hotel in Santa Barbara notified Blatt that Jerry Weintraub, the Oceans Eleven producer, had just been taken away in an ambulance. The tapes owner had called Blatt anonymously. After TMZ published images of the four pages, the story made national headlines. Gillian Sheldon, TMZs first publicist, who later became a supervising producer, said, Once, Sumner Redstonethe former executive chairman of Viacom, who is ninety-twotold him that one of the secrets of his longevity was that he ate blueberries every day. People had choices. Sportswriters declared that TMZ had shaken the league to its foundation., Six days later, Harvey Levin, the founder of TMZ, appeared on the Fox News program Media Buzz to discuss the Rice story. Im not putting the video up. Braun broke down in tears. He was 74. In the early aughts, he successfully pitched an idea to Telepictures, a division of Warner Bros.: a weekday newscast dedicated to celebrity court cases. The league suspended Rice for two games, but by early September he was preparing to return to play. We were getting our asses kicked, Brittain Stone, who was Us Weeklys photography director from 2001 to 2011, said. The site needed a name, and Feed the Beast, Frenzie, and Buzz Feed were all considered, according to Rowes notes. Ive sold aluminum siding. Theyve never done anything slanty on you? Blatt asked. The time stamp depicted the moment that the footage had been filedat 10:28 p.m.instead of the moment it had been shot, hours after the warrant was issued. !), The waitress at Craigs placed a dish of jalapeo creamed corn on the table. He disappeared from the limelight in 2014, fueling social media users to speculate about his whereabouts. Last year, Page Six reported that TMZ paid two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for surveillance footage of Beyoncs sister, Solange, attacking Jay Z in an elevator at the Standard, in New York. Harvey Weinstein remains hospitalized at New York's Bellevue Hospital after being convicted of rape in the third degree and committing a criminal sexual act in the first . Charles Gregory, an Emmy-nominated hairstylist who frequently collaborated with Tyler Perry on his films and TV shows, died of complications from COVID-19 on April 8. Schroeder said, Its not like you could pay a staffer twenty bucks to get a schedulethey are government employees who can be prosecuted for leaks., In L.A., numerous officials have lost their jobs for allegedly giving information to TMZ. Rapper Fred the Godson died after contracting coronavirus, a representative confirmed to Complex. Apart from running the Web site, Levin hosts two syndicated television shows: a one-hour newscast, TMZ Live, and a thirty-minute program, TMZ on TV, which is taped each morning, between seven and nine, on the floor of the TMZ newsroom, and features Levin clutching a mug of iced green tea and bantering about the latest celebrity news with his colleagues. A lot of people call me and tell me Im an assholethey say, Fuck you, Levin said. When Levin appeared on The Howard Stern Show, in 2011, Stern said hed heard that TMZ was worth as much as four hundred million dollars. He subscribed to a new magazine, People, and read it in his office. According to a former security supervisor at the Revel, nearly eighteen hundred cameras streamed video to a pair of monitoring rooms on the mezzanine floor. TMZ resembles an intelligence agency as much as a news organization. If there were gaps in your stories, if you didnt have enough detail, if he wanted another question answered, he would fly off the handle, a former news-desk reporter told me. In October, 2014, TMZ received an e-mail that, under the subject heading Drake at Stadium Club in D.C., announced, I have the original footage. **An earlier version of this article misspelled Tim Weiners name. The estranged husband of a former sitcom star recently made threats against him, persuading him to take on a twenty-four-hour security detail. producer Joel Rogosin died of coronavirus at the MPTF nursing home. ), Many people declined to discuss TMZ on the record, citing nondisclosure agreements and a fear of antagonizing Levin. ), In the months before TMZ obtained the video, its coverage of Bieber had often been antagonistic; it ran a post suggesting that he had hit a twelve-year-old boy during a game of laser tag. The process had been so well honed, Kaplan told me, that we barely said a word to each other.. Senator, why do you think you are bringing out so many people? (We are touching a nerve, Sanders replied.) At 8:41 a.m., Hope Solos Husband Busted for D.U.I. appeared on the TMZ home page. In 2012, the site published a video showing four marines in Afghanistan urinating on dead insurgents, which prompted a criminal investigation and disciplinary action against the marines. Thats what Ive been doing since I was born. Levin also disapproved of the way that publicists leveraged access to celebrities in order to control the media coverage of their clients. He discussed his plan to create another news show, and said he was in the midst of developing a game show. She was 74. (The News of the World published the photos.) This nickname has appeared on TMZ hundreds of times. His works included "Master Class," "Love! There is so much material. He was 69. Such information helps TMZs crew of a dozen or so paparazzi know when and where to drop in on a celebrity who is transiting through an airport. . and I know him to be someone that values children and family relationships.) Levin is sensitive to any insinuation otherwise. Henry Grimes, celebrated jazz bassist, died on April 15 at age 84, according to WGBO. In October, 2011, Kim Kardashian, a Wasser client, filed to divorce Kris Humphries, the basketball player, after seventy-two days of marriage. Steve Honig, a public-relations adviser who, for a time, represented Lindsay Lohan, told me, When my phone rings and its TMZ, I pretty much stop what Im doing and pick it up. Five months after the Northern Trust story, Michael Jackson died. At the same time, celebrity-friendly clubs in Hollywood touted their lenient policies with respect to minors. In November, 2014, according to a leaked e-mail, Jonathan Stinson, a publicist from Relevant Relations PR, submitted gossip about a former child star, backed up with legal/hospital documents left in a backpack of her former roommate. Mike Walters, TMZs news director, told his colleagues, We dont want to be involved with hospital records. (When reached by phone, Stinson claimed that he had been trying to sell the records on behalf of an acquaintance.). How does TMZ get this stuff? Kurtz asked. Levin has compared the launch to the opening of the Gap in Russia, after the fall of the Soviet Union: Everybody wore gray coats, and then the Gap came in and suddenly you saw blue coats and red coats and green coats. (Time Warner, the corporate parent of Warner Bros., had recently merged with AOL.)