TMZ's Levin a smart, sexy interview

Star Jones, pat yourself on your lawyerly back for inspiring the "TMZ" close.

I learned this while doing a phoner Tuesday with Harvey Levin as he drove to work in LA at 5:35 a.m. Our interview was set up a couple weeks ago, before we could have imaged life without Michael Jackson. I was anxious to get Levin's take on a funny FOX 9 promo, imitating him in the TMZ newsroom (more about that later), and he wanted to talk about his new TV show "Beyond Twisted" debuting on FOX 9 next week at 6 p.m.

Instead of being celebrity-driven, like TMZ, "Beyond Twisted" will be completely different, as a showcase for outrageous videos from around the world, presented in TMZ's cheeky style.

As TMZ viewers know, every show ends with a caricature of Levin's photo, augmented with a ventriloquist dummy's mouth, stating "I'm a lawyer."

I asked Levin if this bit had anything to do with Star Jones, the reformed egomaniac, who invariably interjected passing the bar into every possible conversation when she was on ABC's "The View."

"It kinda did, but it was supposed to be a one-day joke," said Levin. "You're smart, you're the first person to figure that out. I was going to take it off and then we got all these e-mails [saying], 'It's funny.'"

Most everything about TMZ is a droll, especially the cast of characters (they probably prefer the word: staffers) sitting around the newsroom pitching video clips. It's totally off the cuff, too, according to Levin.

Levin told me those co-stars work very hard. "It's 18-hour days, it's developing sources and it's not an accident that we win all the big entertainment stories," he said. "We broke Mel Gibson, we broke Britney Spears' divorce, we broke Heath Ledger's death, we dominated Anna Nicole, we broke the story about John Travolta's son's death. On and on. It's just not accident. We are a vibrant news organization; whether it's online news organization or traditional, this staff practices old-fashion reporting skills and we beat the bushes."

Asked if those young TMZ staffers are the ones confirming information, Levin said, "A lot of them, yeah. They were trained to dig. This is a true six-degrees-of-separation city. If you have a newsroom where somebody knows somebody and then can pass off information that will help somebody else, it becomes a very egalitarian newsroom. It works better than a traditional institution."

Given the hours put into this pressure cooker, I was curious whether Levin's co-stars were well-compensated. "I'm not going to get into how we pay them," Levin said sternly after a few seconds of silence. Are they compensated well enough to live in LA? "Well, they live in LA," he said.

Levin was slightly more eager to talk about the 10-second FOX 9 promo, which could loosely be called my commercial, promoting my weekly appearances. Emmy-winning FOX 9 creative staffer Kevin Myers came up with the concept. "FOX 9 Morning Show" anchor Tom Butler plays Levin; I don't know which woman anchor Alix Kendall is supposed to be, filing her nails and chewing gum; and meteorologist Keith Marler, the quickest wit on the show, plays the blonde dude who needs a haircut.

"It's very funny. I'm completely flattered," Levin said.

Since a particular editor threatened to find a way to disclose my exceptional fondness for Levin, I decided to own those feelings while talking to the man. I broached the subject by telling Levin that Harvey wasn't a cool enough name for someone of his mien. Why did his parents do that to him? "The story goes, they were drinking one night and it was between Harvey and Pierponzile [this is my spelling]. So I'm actually really grateful," said Levin.

I told Levin I had a little crush on him. But don't worry I'm harmless: I look, I don't touch. Levin just lauggggheed, sounded a little embarrassed and moved on: "Harvey was a tough name growing up, especially if you are not 6-2."

Of course, when you're a Hollywood-based legal analyst, who's really funny on your edgy TV show that's not afraid to show celebrities behaving like asses, everybody starts to think you're sexy.