The celebrity news website TMZ.com says it will end its relationship with Starline Tours Thursday.
The two entities teamed up nearly six years ago, but now TMZ accuses Starline of failing to pay its share of revenues on time, the Los Angeles Times reported.
TMZ says it will officially end the relationship Thursday, when it will stop using Starline buses and drivers for the TMZ tours of Hollywood, Beverly Hills and the Sunset Strip.
“Starline has repeatedly violated the terms of the agreement for over a year,” Jason Beckerman, an attorney representing TMZ, told The Times.
Starline Tours has fired back, telling The Times that TMZ failed to justify ending the partnership and, under its contract, is forbidden to operate a tour in the area for two years.
“We had hoped we could work it out but it won’t be worked out,” Carlos Villar, the senior marking manager for Starline Tours, told The Times.
With 147 buses and a history that dates to the 1960s, Starline Tours dwarfs all other tour bus operators in Los Angeles, according to The Times. And TMZ, which stands for thirty-mile zone — the radius of the historic Hollywood studio area — is one of the nation’s most popular celebrity news operations, with a website that reaches at least 7.5 million people a month and more than 4 million Twitter followers.
The rift between the two businesses began about two years ago, according to a lawsuit filed in March by TMZ against Starline. The lawsuit contends that Starline failed to split the revenues and pay TMZ its share on time.
