On the day last week Time Warner chief Jeffrey Bewkes told investors the company would spin off its cable operation, the company’s gossip Web site TMZ.com was selling out something far more precious.
Rather than merely reveling in the spectacle of celebrity missteps, a take-out-the-trash formula that has made TMZ a success both online and in its syndicated TV iteration, this joint venture of Time Warner’s AOL and Telepictures divisions on Wednesday deemed newsworthy an allegation that the 14-year-old son of someone famous has been the victim of a sex crime and reported it online.
It reported Los Angeles police have an “active” criminal investigation involving a 22-year-old woman and the boy because sex with a minor is illegal.
It did not name the woman being investigated, but it did name the kid, the alleged victim.
And it posted a photo of him, an old photo, from when he was only about 10 years old.
What did he do to deserve that?
It’s not as though he’s a public figure, just related to one.
I won’t identify the victim, and I would hope you aren’t compelled to look him up.
Why TMZ thought any of this was of public interest — or in the public interest — is a complete and utter mystery, though it is telling the Internet report was not mentioned on TMZ’s television show, seen locally on WFLD-Ch. 32.
“Our story speaks for itself,” Harvey Levin, TMZ’s managing editor, said through a spokeswoman, who had no further comment.
Curiously, there hasn’t been much outrage. Maybe what fury there might have been was siphoned off by another sex controversy involving another underage child of another celebrity, the overhyped Vanity Fair pics of 15-year-old Disney Channel and pop music star Miley Cyrus, daughter of singer-turned-actor Billy Ray Cyrus.
It helps, perhaps, to know that en route to fame through the 1990s hit “Achy Breaky Heart” and an accompanying video that showed his fragile cardiac condition had not affected his biceps, Billy Ray Cyrus was a salesman. He sold baby strollers. He sold cars. Many customers left with a tape of his music.
This Vanity Fair fuss has the feel of a manufactured controversy, the sort of thing a young star is cynically advised to do to distance herself from her image as a ‘tween TV star for commercial gain.
The arty pictures Miley Cyrus supposedly regrets are actually fairly mild by today’s sexualized pop culture standards. The New York Times, which helped stoke the fires, had to run a clarification noting that its headline referring to “topless” photos was misleading; she was wrapped in a sheet.
One suspects Disney’s concern is more real. It has lost stars such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, who go on to make millions on their own by tarting up their acts.
Whatever offense there is to be taken from the Vanity Fair/Miley Cyrus incident, however, it’s well short of a crime.
That’s not true of what’s alleged to have happened to the other kid.
TMZ got as big as it is as fast as it has by pushing boundaries. Some lines — like identifying alleged sex crime victims, especially minors — shouldn’t be crossed.
Time Warner is the parent to be singled out, not this boy’s.
You can put him on the board, yes: Mark Shapiro, who grew up in Glenview and has been chief executive of Six Flags Inc. for 21/2 years, is being eyed for Tribune Co.’s board, sources said. An announcement could come later this week.
A spokesman for Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Tribune, declined to comment. Shapiro did not respond to inquiries.
Shapiro earlier rose to prominence in a dozen years at Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, climbing the ranks to become Disney’s No. 2 sports TV exec, in charge of programming. He diversified the multimedia powerhouse’s lineup into entertainment through shows such as “Pardon the Interruption,” original TV movies and events such as the X Games.
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philrosenthal@tribune.com
