WAS COURT SPOKESMAN FIRED FOR LEAKING TO TMZ?

Allan Parachini, the spokesman for the Los Angeles County Superior Court, has been fired amid rumors that he hired a former reporter for the gossip website and TV show TMZ as his deputy, who leaked information about important celebrity cases to her former employer. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Parachini denied the rumors, insisting that the real reason was he fired was that he cooperated with newspaper reporters looking for information about spending by the court system. “The court as an institution doesn’t see itself as having an obligation to be an open institution of government as pertains to its fiscal and business operations,” Parachini told the Los Angeles Times. Court officials declined to discuss Parachini’s allegations. He said that he was troubled by rumors that he had been fired for taking bribes from TMZ and offered to turn over his financial records to investigators. He told the Times that the court’s executive officer, John A. Clarke, had accused him of talking too frequently to TMZ boss Harvey Levin. “I responded, ‘Guilty as charged. I talk to a lot of reporters on the phone. That’s my job.'” Meanwhile, the deputy, Vania Stuelp, has returned to TMZ as a reporter, the newspaper said.