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Kanye's Freak Out and Other Paparazzi Wars
As Kanye West heads to court for his alleged assault of a photographer, The Daily Beast looks at some of the most notorious—and occasionally hysterical—confrontations between celebrities and the paparazzi.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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The papparazzi is out of control. How long will we allow this insanity to go on before laws are in place. They get right in these stars face and wonder why they go nuts on them.I feel it is self protection. We need new laws NOW before someone is killed.
kscr14, you make a salient point, but these people have enriched themselves by marketing themselves as products to the masses. We can't control how often they bombard our lives on the airwaves with their presence -which is how they CHOSE to make their living. Why should they be able to control the access the public has to their life? They shouldn't have it both ways. If I can't have it both ways (being rich and famous, but anonymous), why should they? If they want privacy, they should get a boring job like being an accountant.
chikken
But we CAN control, for the most part, "how often they bombard our lives on the airwaves." Most often, it's a simple as switching a channel, or choosing not to see their respective movies, or listen to their CDs, etc.
When I watched most of these clips, I couldn't help but feel deep sympathy for the celebrities.
Certainly there's a symbiotic relationship between celebrities and fans; the celebs offer up their talent; fans give them strokes by clapping for them (and buying their product which does often enrich them). By it's very nature, "celebrity" involves this give and take between the talent and the onlookers. BUT COME ON NOW PEOPLE...just because someone is talented and receives abundant praise and money for that talent should IN NO WAY excuse the excesses and intrusions of the paparazzi. This sort of full-court-press Nikon stalking could push any normal human to the breaking point. Being super-talented doesn't mean you're superhuman. And it shouldn't have to.
Remember Princess Diana,and her horrible death after being chased by the papparazzi, Ok, we know that celebrities have to understand that their status warrants attention and thats part of the stardom. The problem is a lack of plain ole common sense by the photographers. They have difficulty with the where and when of their jobs, causing the recepients to react, sometimes angrily at the sudden invasion of their space.
I am a chauffeur for a company in L.A., that drives lots of stars. Truth is, most stars know that they need the paparazzi to a degree. I think there should a zone of physical privacy.
Photogs jump on cars, drive like maniacs down narrow streets and actually block cars that celebs are riding in. They should be able to take there pictures, but from maybe 3-5 inches away.
There you have it...
And honest report from someone "in the trenches."
I, for one, agree with the "zone of physical privacy" notion (but I think that "3-5 inches away" is still TOO DAMNED CLOSE!).
If some nosy a**-hole with a camera jumped on my car, or chased me with his, simply to get some snapshots of me (ESPECIALLY if my children or other loved ones were in the car with me at that time)--I'm more likely than not going to reach my breaking point. At which time my capacity to act reasonably will be greatly diminished. I just might go all "Winehouse/Spears/Chris Martin" on ya and break your camera/flashbulb/face.
Thank you.
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