Harvey Levin: TMZ reported Nancy Reagan's death before her own daughter knew
TMZ has developed a nearly unparalleled reputation for breaking the news of the deaths of celebrities and luminaries before other outlets -- and, to hear founder Harvey Levin tell it, sometimes even before family members.
That's exactly what happened, according to Levin, earlier this year with the passing of Nancy Reagan. TMZ was able to break the story before even the late former first lady's own daughter knew of the passing.
"I was at the gym on Sunday, and Patti Davis, [Reagan's] daughter came up to me and asked 'How did you get this before I found out?'" Levin said Wednesday at the Code Conference, according to Recode.
As a means to mollify the grieving Davis, Levin told her, "We got a tip, and it happens to be someone I know, and we started making calls," he explained. But apparently that wasn't good enough. "She said, 'What did you do?'"
Levin was a bit mystified. "It's like, 'Patti, do you think I paid Betsy Bloomingdale?' We just made a bunch of phone calls and eventually found confirmation."
Davis was in the news immediately following her mother's passing for a post on her website that some wasn't appropriate. "To the people who called my short piece on my website 'terse,' perhaps you haven't experienced how overwhelming it is to lose a parent," she wrote on Facebook in response. "It's also overwhelming to go through that in the public eye."