Los Angeles Times

Queen Elizabeth isn't dead, and neither is Hollywood Unlocked's Jason Lee

LOS ANGELES — Jason Lee would prefer that you didn't call his entertainment news destination, Hollywood Unlocked, a "gossip site." "When I think of a gossip blogger, and then I think of my influence, and all the verticals that I'm touching, I feel like 'gossip' minimizes that," he said. To Lee, gossip is for those on the outside looking in, and for decades, Lee has been fashioning himself as, ...
Jason Lee attends Vanity Fair Hosts Vanities Party: A Night For Young Hollywood at Musso& Frank on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, in Hollywood, California.

LOS ANGELES — Jason Lee would prefer that you didn't call his entertainment news destination, Hollywood Unlocked, a "gossip site."

"When I think of a gossip blogger, and then I think of my influence, and all the verticals that I'm touching, I feel like 'gossip' minimizes that," he said.

To Lee, gossip is for those on the outside looking in, and for decades, Lee has been fashioning himself as, if not yet a peer of the rich and famous, then at least their confidant. Over the past half-decade, the 44-year-old has built Hollywood Unlocked from an Instagram account into a multiplatform urban entertainment brand. A self-made entrepreneur, he's expanded the company through a podcast and a TV deal with Fox Soul, Fox's first streaming service, featuring interviews with bold-faced names like Floyd Mayweather and Tiffany Haddish.

In February, he leveled up again when he teamed with Kanye West for an invite-only media confab called the "Black Future Brunch" in a warehouse near the Arts District. The event featured a performance by Ye's Sunday Service choir and an ambitious conversation among 50 leading Black executives, editors and journalists on the perils facing Black media and what

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