What do Pamela Anderson, Jude Law, Lily Allen, Britney Spears, Tommy Lee and now Kanye West have in common? They’ve all been arrested for allegedly assaulting photographers. As of Sept. 11, West can claim membership in the exclusive club of those who have gone on rampages, after he and his bodyguard allegedly smashed a $10,000 camera while at Los Angeles International Airport. While police claim that they have no idea what sparked the incident, it is pretty clear that having a camera shoved in your face without your consent, when you were supposedly past a security point in an airport is probably going to lead to some anger.
Within the past couple of years, a more aggressive form of paparazzi has developed and made international headlines. Dubbed the stalker-azzi by many– after a phrase coined by Heather Mills– these photographers will go to any length to snag the perfect picture. Leonardo DiCaprio has even claimed that he has been “afraid for his life” on several occasions when being pursued by photographers in cars. These are real fears for celebrities– a photographer deliberately hit Lindsay Lohan’s car, injuring both her and her passenger, Nicole Kidman found listening devices on her property in Sydney and Reese Witherspoon almost got run off the road by reckless photographers while returning home from the gym. People have also blamed Princess Diana’s death on this relentless behaviour.
In response to these concerns, California has recently attempted to impose stricter laws on paparazzi in accompaniment to the laws passed in 1999, which made it illegal for photographers to go onto private property to get their celebrity shots. This hasn’t seemed to help though. These laws are useless when they are not enforced, which is the case according to Los Angeles police chief, William Bratton, who dismissed the idea as “a waste of time.”
While it is inappropriate for celebrities to be smashing cameras, they have the right to be safe. And if laws aren’t going to protect them, who is? Photographers need to realize that they are walking a very fine line between making a living and stalking someone.
It’s safe to say that the paparazzi aren’t going to disappear any time soon and the situation facing famous people is a difficult one. With the new, more aggressive tactics that are being used and the lack of legal support, stars need to step up with a new approach to the way that they are being bombarded with the media. Peaceful confrontation is a good idea, assaulting someone and trashing their stuff is not. These photographers also need to learn to tone things down so that nobody else gets hurt and realize that there are limits and personal boundaries that are being crossed. The stalker-azzi claim to just be doing their job, but there’s one thing that the new generation of paparazzi are failing to realize: taking someone’s picture should be okay in the appropriate place, at an appropriate time. Crossing into someone’s personal space when they’re somewhere that they consider safe is not.