Paparazzi and Celebrity Obsession

Paparazzi and celebrity obsession.

On Sunday May 14, 2006 “CNN Presents” aired an action-packed day with 26 year old paparazzi as he pursued Angelina Jolie. The show in some aspects showed how the paparazzi on some levels invade the privacy of celebrities, and also on other levels how they can sometimes be out of control, obsessed and even dangerous. E! Entertainment Gossip Columnist Ted Casablemea commented that “the personal lives of celebrities are the best reality show on television.” CNN went behind the scenes in an attempt to find out, who is to blame for celebrity obsession? How far is too far to go for news of the stars’ lives? Frank Griffin, a co-owner of the paparazzi agency Bauer-Griffin allowed CNN producer Budd Bultman to drive alongside one of his photographers that is in hot pursuit to get photos of Angelina Jolie after they got a tip. CNN showed how the paparazzi goal is to get the information or the photo before other competing paparazzi, by using any one or any means necessary. The showed how this industry is highly competitive and the tactics paparazzo’s use to get their photos without regards to people’s right of privacy.

The term Paparazzi was derived from “Paparazzo”, the name of a freelance news photographer character in the film La Dolce Vita. In the film, Paparazzo discovers he can earn sixty times his usual fee for the photographs where he provoked confrontation with celebrities. In the media today Paparazzi are photographers who earn their living by taking candid, unflattering and at times compromising photographs of celebrities, usually by relentlessly shadowing them in their public and private activities. The term paparazzi is often used in a derogatory manner, and due to the reputation of paparazzi as an annoyance, some states and countries restrict their activities by passing laws and curfews.

What began as simple “street photography” is now a high-stakes game of cat and mouse that plays out in the everyday lives of the paparazzo’s celebrity prey. Some observers blamed the paparazzi for the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed who were killed in 1997 in a high-speed automobile accident in Paris, France while being pursued by the paparazzi. Although several paparazzi were briefly taken into custody, no one was ever convicted, and the official French investigation of the crash concluded that they had not caused the accident.

Most paparazzi argue that they are not in the business of taking intrusive photographs for their own perverse pleasure; instead, they sell their work to dozens of magazines and newspapers that publish such photos for their readers and subscribers. The worldwide obsession with celebrities is what drives editors to pay up to $50,000 or more for a single ‘scoop’ photograph. As our cultures’ greedy hunger for celebrity snapshots grows, so do the prices of these photos and the risks paparazzi take to get them. The paparazzi continue to argue that they feel they are actually helping celebrities and public figures in general by increasing their publicity. They feel that, what they do is a rewarding business for both sides; not only can photographers earn large sums of money for a high-demand picture, but celebrities may also make money because the media attention often creates fan support.

Many ethical, legal and privacy issues arise out of this questionable business. The laws on the right of privacy vary from country to country. In the Black’s Law Dictionary the right of privacy is defined as the right to personal autonomy. The U.S. Constitution does not explicitly provide for a right of privacy or for a general autonomy, but the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that a right of personal autonomy is implied in the “zones of privacy” created by specific constitutional guarantees. Another definition is the right of a person and the person’s