Longtime “TMZ” personality Van Lathan has been fired, Page Six reports.
Lathan was one of the more visible faces on the immensely popular tabloid-turned-TV show.
Lathan, who rocketed to fame last year following his blistering rebuttal of Kanye West’s statement that slavery was “a choice,” reportedly was terminated after he allegedly threatened a co-worker.
According to Page Six, Lathan confronted fellow on-air personality Michael Babcock in the newsroom after a particular segment and warned him there would be consequences if he “ever embarrassed [Lathan] like that again.”
Lathan and Babcock are polar opposites politically and philosophically. Couple that with the show’s penchant for pitting personalities against one another, and you have the recipe for an inevitable on-air explosion. The network deleted that part of the segment, but TMZ immediately suspended Lathan after the blow-up.
After an internal investigation, Lathan was let go.
Page Six stated that Lathan is a product — and casualty — of the intense pressure that is a part of being on “TMZ.”
“Van’s not mean-spirited. Anything that happened is a product of that environment,” Page Six states an employee told them.
Lathan reportedly did not return media inquiries, but he did let his 408,000 Instagram followers know that he’s all good with the situation.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B35x59mH_kk/
