'Gotcha' Site TMZ Goes to TV

Brit, LiLo followers face jail time for blocking sidewalks

(NEWSER) - Even Britney Spears’ paparazzi can’t stay out of trouble, the Los Angeles Times reports. Late Tuesday and early yesterday, Los Angeles police arrested four shutterbugs for blocking sidewalks in their hunt for tabloid-worthy shots—part of a crackdown, using existing loitering and traffic laws, on increasingly aggressive photographers. All four men face up to a year in prison and $1,000 in fines. More»

Authorities want to protect privacy, but thwarted by a 'river of cash'

(NEWSER) - The behemoth gossip industry relentlessly ferrets out any and all scurrilous details about celebrities, churning out "rivers of cash" that amount to about $3 billion a year, and often tossing privacy laws by the wayside, reports the New York Times in a lengthy look. And thanks in part to the media feeding frenzy that erupted over Arnold Schwarzenegger's love child , there is a growing movement to shut down that explosion of personal information of dubious legality. “They ought to maybe hook up with the CIA,” said the judge presiding over a case involving Michael Lohan, after seeing the volume of private information the major gossip sites dug up. More»

Same anti-Semitism, different day

(NEWSER) - Another day, another shocking claim about Mel Gibson. The latest: He allegedly told Oksana Grigorieva, “I want Jew blood on my hands,” she tells authorities. Apparently Gibson was angry at, as Radar puts it , “a high-profile Hollywood figure who is Jewish” who had “publicly humiliated” Mel. He allegedly had the guy followed, and “Oksana said he wanted the person taken to the desert, stripped naked, knee capped, and left in the heat,” a source says. More»

Tiger Woods joins David Letterman, Mel Gibson, more

(NEWSER) - Tiger Woods’ public apology today joins the ranks of other famous—and extremely public—celebrity mea culpas. E! rounds up the top nine:

• Mel Gibson: After his DUI arrest, he tried to explain his sexist and anti-Semitic tirade to Diane Sawyer.
• Michael Richards: Used the N-word during a standup bit, and later apologized for it during Jerry Seinfeld's Late Show spot.

Invasion 'breaks federal law, breaks state law,' Levin says

(NEWSER) - Not so fun being on the other side: TMZ founder Harvey Levin is promising legal action after learning that Los Angeles cops went through his phone records during a leak investigation related to Mel Gibson’s 2007 DUI. TMZ broke the original story. Though the Sheriff’s Department says it obtained a court order for the search, Levin isn’t backing down, notes the LA Times. “This is not going to go away,” he said in a speech. More»