While Harvey Levin doesn't personally grace the tour, those taking this two-hour sojourn (three with traffic) still will see plenty of him. Led by a member of the TMZ staff, the tour opens with a video that has the exact feel of an episode.
A former writer for TMZ claims she faced gender discrimination while working under executive producer Evan Rosenblum.
In a gender discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Catherine “Taryn” Hillin refers to TMZ as a “boys club” that favors its male employees. She says she was the only female writer for TMZ’s website when she joined the staff in 2012 and was told by multiple people at work that “TMZ hates women.”
Hillin alleges Rosenblum “routinely yelled at and humiliated” her, saying things such as “you’re f—ing shit,” “I f—ing hate this shit you hand in” and “don’t be a girl.”
The suit claims Rosenblum did not allow her to rewrite her own projects, instead handing off those duties to male writers. He allegedly once killed a story he’d previously approved after discovering Hillin was the one working on it. The suit goes on to allege that Rosenblum favored male writers, giving them better assignments.
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Rosenblum, TMZ Productions, and Warner Bros. Entertainment are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Hillin is seeking compensatory damages, special damages, general damages and attorney’s fees, among other things.
TMZ declined to comment. Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to request for comment.
