TheWrap grilled Rob Silverstein, the executive producer of 'Access Hollywood,' the syndicated entertainment news show, and chief rival of the leading show in the category, 'Entertainment Tonight.' The show's website, AccessHollywood.com, hit its best numbers ever in February, with nearly 3 million unique visitors, according to comScore figures.
Editor's note: TheWrap asked "Entertainment Tonight" to respond to Silverstein's remarks, but as of press time they did not answer calls or an email.
In a world awash in celebrity news, what bugs you about being the executive producer of a show like "Access Hollywood"?
I don’t like the fact that people get away with lying. We get painted with the Octo-Mom brush, and "Entertainment Tonight" gets a pass. They get away with untruths on the air, and nobody calls them out for that. (See accompanying story: How "Access Hollywood" and "ET" Stack Up)
"Entertainment Tonight" is lying?
"ET" will do a story on their show and on their website -- they’ll say an exclusive, when we reported it 20 minutes earlier.
It happened the weekend Charlie Sheen had twins. We had the story first, put it up first -- and on Monday, "ET" had "exclusively learned." If anything, they read our website.
Charlie speaks to "ET" more than us because it’s a CBS show, so they always get on the set first. We have covered Denise more than Charlie, so we get better access to Denise. This time we happened to have the right contacts. It’s an example of how you think you can get away with anything.
Right, like when "ET" announced that Brad and Angelina had their twins when they hadn’t?
We all make mistakes. But to get the birth of the twins wrong -- this was the Super Bowl of errors in our world.
To us, Brad and Angelina having twins is the scope of a presidential press conference. To get that wrong, to announce it, and never ever admit that you got this wrong? They never admitted it, never came back the next day. Mary Hart went on and said, "We’ve never made a mistake like this." This was before they were wrong. And when the babies were actually born a month later, they pretended it never happened, on their website and everything. There was never an after the fact, "We made a mistake." It’s just laughable.
When their one-year birthday arrives, we’re wondering if they’re going to do two birthdays.
Why do you care? 
I’m competitive. What we do is a better show. We follow NBC News guidelines, the same as "The Today Show" and Brian Williams. We’re trying to say to people, ‘If it’s on 'Access Hollywood,' it’s right.’
And they’re bigger than you.
It drives me nuts when people make that comparison.
"ET" has been on the on air for 28 years. "Access Hollywood" has been on the air for 13 years. It’s not like a "Today Show" and "GMA" comparison.
