Why is TMZ getting so aggressive with celebs?

Why is TMZ, the corporate gossip and porn-pushing site, getting so aggressive, antogonistic and ugly with celebrities as it nears its premiere as a syndicated series for Fox?

Last week, the nasty AOL/Time-Warner site directed several obscenity-filled taunts toward CSI actor Gary Dourdan after a scuffle with one of the kids with cameras that TMZ hires to taunt celebrities outside nightspots. Today, its target is Matt Dillon, a veteran actor and paparazzi subject not known for scuffles with the pros:

"Matt Dillon isn't familar with how TMZ treats people who like to hit..." the site threatenes today in a post called "Dillon Pulls a Dourdan." With its usual base language, it accuses the actor of having "walked right up to a TMZ photog in New York this weekend and smacked the s**t out of his camera.

"What's he so pissed about? It was the public that had to endure 'You, Me and Dupree'!"

Whether the site's producers are looking for attention or throwing down the gauntlet to Hollywood isn't clear. What's very clear is its low-paid amateur stalkerazzi are approaching if not crossing a line with performers who are used to the lens but are apparently being egged on to react.

You can bet that the TMZ TV show won't be allowed to look or operate anything like its Internet sister.

Interesting though, how the site played the death of Tammy Faye Bakker over the weekend. While it has mocked the ecent deaths of gay and gay-related figures by posting a photo of the the purse-toting Teletubby, in this case, it played it straight in reporting the death of the gay icon.

Then again, it was the weekend and the TMZ bosses were probably in Palm Springs.