Paparazzi

     Living in Orlando with Disney and Universal Studios right down the road, I often hear about appearances by celebrities in the area.  This triggers a wonder about what it might be like to try and get a unique shot of whoever it might be by joining the paparazzi for an evening. So, when I heard about some actors from the Harry Potter franchise making a local appearance to promote the release of the final films DVD/Blu-ray I figured I might give it a shot. As I battled the crowd of teens and their parents I managed to get a few decent shots, and learned a lot about the atmosphere. In this situation it seems that the “spray and pray” method works best. This means to take lots and lots of shots and pray that a few of them might be worthy of the front page.

Actress Katie Leung (Cho Chang) 

     Just to clarify again, this was not the stereotypical paparazzo outing since it was an organized event. I have never really been interested in the type of gig that requires me to chase down my subject or wait for them outside of their favorite restaurant. Which seems a bit creepy and illegal. I do however understand that many people make a decent living off of such work. This idea however, recently got me thinking about the legality of the actions of these people who aggressively pursue their famous subjects and what actions have been taken in return, and how I can protect myself in business ventures that might involve these situations. So I looked up a few relevant cases, and this is what I found.

     In 2008 the website hollyscoop.com reported that actress Sienna Miller had gone to the London’s High Court to claim damages against the paparazzi for “ruining her life.” She stated that after several pleas to get them to stop she was continuously chased while driving, confronted at her home, harassed several times at an airport, and also while walking her dogs in her neighborhood.  As a result, the High Court found that the four month’s of harassment Miller endured was worth nearly $80,000 dollars in damages. This was in addition to $84,000 she made off of the paparazzi in the United Kingdom for a similar case.

Sienna Miller
image by WENN.com

   In the United States, the courts don’t seem to be as lenient on celebrities.  Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan sought a restraining order on paparazzi members after her rehabilitation clinic deemed it unsafe for her to be driving since the paparazzi were creating unsafe conditions for the actress. Her driving privileges were revoked after the clinic mentioned this to the Los Angeles County Probation Department who had earlier agreed to let Lohan back behind the wheel. 

     Although the purpose of a restraining order is to deter someone from a threatening act it was found difficult to place a blanket order over the entire paparazzi. The article from FindLaw.com’s celebrity justice blog also addresses the problem that these photographers are trying to do their job when capturing pictures of Lohan driving, in which case an order would interfere with their ability to make money.  This personally seems a bit reminiscent of the Princess Diana death investigation. Unfortunately it seems that this particular issue of paparazzi car chases will only be settled in retrospect of a future tragic event.

     There are also instances where the paparazzi have come out ahead in court. Though, in this case, not a harassment issue. Just last year MSNBC was sued by paparazzi members for the use of their photos without permission. Mavrix photo alleged copyright infringement against MSNBC for the unauthorized use of photos of actress Penelope Cruz. Find Law writer Laura Stachan wrote that the maximum fine for this infringement is $150,000, but since the images were used across a wide range of media the paparazzi could argue that there were many act of the infringement.     

     So, it seems that the paparazzi as well as celebrities are protected, to an extent as long as they are both following the laws that are already in place.