LinkedIn remains a very handy tool. Per a FishbowlLA tipster, it does indeed appear that Alan Citron is newly installed as a business lead with Yahoo Entertainment.

Citron, one of the genuinely nicest guys in town, has had a long, illustrious career, one many journalists today would pine for. After working for more than a decade as a reporter and editor at the LA Times, he segued to Ticketmaster Online and MusicNet.

Most recently with BuzzMedia (a.k.a. SpinMedia), Citron was instrumental as founding GM in helping the late Jim Paratore and Harvey Levin build out TMZ. His fellow TMZ-er at Buzz-Spin, Gillian Sheldon Heckendorf, previously left for Berman Braun.

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Television executive and TMZ founder Jim Paratore died Tuesday of a heart attack during a cycling trip in France.

Paratore, 58, spent most of his professional career working for Warner Bros. He was responsible for not only starting the wildly popular entertainment website and TV show, but was the mastermind behind The Rosie O’Donnell Show, The Bachelor and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

“The Warner Bros. Television family has lost an incredibly talented and creative friend and colleague in Jim,” said Bruce Rosenblum, president, Warner Bros. Television Group.  “He has left an indelible mark not only on our company’s success but on each of us who worked with him during the past 26 years. Jim had a passion for life, both inside and outside the entertainment industry, and he will truly be missed.” Read more

TMZ on TV has already lost one element in the quest for legitimacy–and the show isn’t even on the air yet. Bryn Freedman, last seen as EP of A & E’s highly regarded Intervention, is gone. Some say fired, some say fled.

An insider tells FBLA:

Bryn told them all the way though the interview process, “You don’t want me. I’m about heart and soul and integrity and the real story and you guys don’t do that. That’s not what the website’s about. ” And they kept saying “Yes, yes, we want what you do!” Then they offered her a great package and contract and so she took a leap. She also really liked/admired Jim Paratore and Harvey was difficult but
brilliant – she thought.

Page Six, ever the reliable source, claims she’s been seen at lawyer Marshall Singer’s offices–but her name is mispelled on the site, so who knows?