When Katie Holmes stepped out in Manhattan on August 6, 2008 with her daughter Suri, a picture was taken. That picture showed a frightened and frustrated little girl with both of her small hands over her ears. With flash bulbs going off and the click, click, click of shutters all around, nobody can blame her. Many celebrities have spoken out about how the paparazzi are invading their privacy on pretty much a daily basis.
The First Paparazzo
In Federico Fellini's film La Dolce Vita, one of the characters, a photographer, is named Signore Paparazzo. In the book Word and Phrase Origins, author Robert Hendrickson wrote that Fellini actually used a word that in an Italian dialect means "buzzing mosquito". And while the snap of a shutter may not sound exactly like a mosquito, the word is fitting for these people who are considered pests.
Following Versus Stalking
In August of 1997, Lady Diana was killed in a car accident while being chased by the paparazzi in Paris. In a 2005 interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Scarlett Johansson verbalized her frustration. "I don't know what the difference is between stalking and following you with a giant camera and following you home and to a supermarket. Certainly, if I were to stalk somebody, that's what I'd do."
What the Law Says
There are laws in place to protect people from stalkers, but according to Johansson, they're just not strict enough. "I think they have these crazy laws where if you wait outside someone's house for two days it's not stalking, but if you wait outside for three days it is, so they switch shifts. All these crazy things."
According to the National Center for Victims of Crime website, in the state of California (where many celebrities reside) the first point pursuant to the stalking law defines a stalker as "any person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows or willfully and maliciously harasses another person..."
Willfully? Definitely. Maliciously? Most paparazzi aren't following celebrities with the intent to harm them. They're simply trying to make a living. But it says a lot about our culture when people think it's okay to make money at the expense of others' safety. And in the case of celebrities being followed with their children, like Katie Holmes, it seems all the worse. Celebrities these days know the price of fame, but their children are just innocent bystanders.
Celebrities Literally Fight Back
In an airport in 1996 Icelandic singer Bjork attacked a photographer. Bubble-gum singer Lily Allen was arrested last year in SoHo after punching a photographer outside a club. In 2007, former Agent 007 Pierce Brosnan punched a paparazzo in the ribs after he and his son were trailed all the way to a Mexican Restaurant. While filming in China in 1986, Sean Penn found a paparazzo waiting in his hotel room. Sean fought back by hanging the paparazzo off the balcony by his ankles. And Actor Hugh Grant was arrested in 2007 for throwing a can of baked beans at a photographer. The paparazzo was not only left bruised, but he was soiled in baked beans.
Fighting With Words
Just a week ago on August 1st 2008, singer John Mayer along with Eric Roberts (brother of Julia) and Milo Ventimiglia met Los Angeles government officials to tell them just how dangerous the paparazzi can be. Mayer reported that he was consistently chased home by the paparazzi who are in cars without license plates and who will run red lights to keep up.
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