Picking up where we left off yesterday is LAPD chief William Bratton: "If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving; Paris is out of town not bothering anybody anymore, thank God, and evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don't seem to have much of an issue." Maybe we won't need councilman Dennis Zine celebrity "personal safety zone" law after all. [AP]
Know who's not happy about Britney Spears trying to clean up her act, get her custody situation in order, and perhaps record some new music? The paparazzi. It's sort of been their job, and their windfall, to chronicle all of Ms. Spears antics (attacking a SUV with an umbrella, anyone?). Agencies would have entire crews stalking her around Hollywood, hoping she'd run someone over (perhaps a photog) trying to escape from a parking lot, stop by a public bathroom without shoes, or lay by the pool in her backyard as helicopters hovered above. Now? Now she might as well be Jessica Frickin' Biel: Girl is a waste. CONTINUED »
Joe Dolce, the former Star editor-in-chief who was ushered out with Bonnie Fuller, is trying to generate an income from DolceGoldin, the media strategy firm he formed with former MSNBC editorial director Davidson Goldin. His new agency's biggest client is none other than Oprah foe James Frey — and Frey's ability to get the media to come around to him, even writing positive book reviews about his latest effort, whether their doing or not, is great marketing for their little firm. It's also a chance for Dolce to shed his bad boy tabloid past, where he was all too complicit in the paparazzi-celebrity-magazine exchange, where cash changed hands for stalkerazzi pics, and everybody excused their behavior with "this is what the public wants" excuses. The same line drug dealers use! CONTINUED »
Angelina Jolie. Christina Aguilera. Jessica Alba. Jamie Lynn Spears. Matthew McConaughey. These are all boobs who have sold their baby photos to the highest bidder, making the action of Reproducing While A Celebrity a very profitable business venture. And while money (from $1-15 million) may be the motivating factor in all these cases human trafficking, surely there must be some way to distinguish the types of celebrities who turn their children in revenue generating commodities, yes? Well, somebody is trying to make the case.
Halle Berry is suing the paparazzo who snapped pictures of her four-month-old daughter recently. The photo captions said that mother and daughter were “out and about,” but they were actually in Berry’s garden. Berry is accusing the photog of trespassing on her property in order to get the shots; in California, that’s a criminal offense.
Rather than tuck her boobies inside a bikini top, bitter actress Sienna Miller is suing Big Pictures, the photo agency responsible for exposing her bits, and News International's News of the World and Sun, which printed the pics.
Though, Miller might be less upset about having her breasts printed in the tabloids than she is about the exposure of her her relationship with married Brothers & Sisters actor Balthazar Getty, who was forced into acknowledging a separation from his wife when the photos surfaced.
In December, Miller successfully scored a $75k judgment against those same two papers when they printed pictures of her filming a nude scene for a movie. And if she secures a similar award this time around, she'll have the budget to support her lifestyle and continue making art house films, steering clear of any cineplex we'd ever visit.
Brad Pitt's loudmouthed attorneys at Lavely & Singer are, preemptively, trying to clamp down on a series of photos that "were surreptitiously taken of Mr. Pitt and his family as they engaged in familial activities on private property, namely, in the privacy of the estate in which they are presently residing in France and where they had a reasonable expectation of privacy." Not content with issuing a cease and desist letter after the pictures' publication, L&S want to make sure these photos never make it into the public eye. (Too late, as you'll see.)
Supposedly, the publication of these photos — showing Pitt and wife Angelina Jolie with the kids — infringe not just on Pitt's privacy rights in the State of California, but also in France!
Except, according to one understanding of the law, this is wrong. Oh, and also? In Touch already published the pics. CONTINUED »
To the dismay of tabloid editors everywhere, Halle Berry chose not to sell her baby pics to the weeklies and is, instead, giving her four-month old daughter away.
She was spotted showing off wallet pics of Nahla to shoppers in L.A. — photogs snapped pictures of the pictures — and TMZ says they're "hearing some paparazzi are pissed, because they wanted the first shot of the kid — a shot that could have gone for millions."
Except, uh, the paps did get the first shots — as recently as Thursday.
Look, it's Brad and Angelina! And their kids! Just not the new ones! [B-G]
Stalking celebrities is perfectly legal. So long as you do it from a helicopter, use a long-range lense, and never land on their property. [WSJ]
As Madonna fields another wave of negative press with her brother Christopher Ciccone hawking his new book — and handing Good Morning America the get with a two-parter on July 14 and 15 — she also has to deal with shenanigans from the likes of Vanity Fair, which today publishes an Ed Coaster-esque email exchange between Madge and A-Rod. (Madonna addresses Rodriguez as "Slugger" and signs off as "Esther." Authentic!)
This is, of course, just the latest round in the saga that is Madonna and Alex Rodriguez. And the tabloid press is on her ass more than ever.
So we got to thinking: Just what would the tabloids pay for the ultimate get — the first photos of Madonna and Alex Rodriguez together — if such a photo were ever taken?
We asked some high-level industry types to find out what the asking price would be for visual proof this duo has spent personal time together. Hint: Angelina's babies still cost more. CONTINUED »
Mel Gibson isn’t the only person interested in Britney Spears‘ love life as of late: TMZ has been keeping tabs on the pop star and her secret rendezvous with a mystery man. Sadly, that mystery man is all too recognizable — it’s Adnan Ghalib, former paparazzo and Spears hanger-on.
TMZ’s “sources” have reported that over the last few months Adnan has been entering the gated community where Brit and father Jamie live, but no one can say exactly what’s going on. But we can! Adnan missed the spotlight, Britney missed her enabler, and it was time for a special reunion. And yes, there are text messages involved.
When news broke of "The Matthew McConaughey Paparazzi Surfing Scandal," heretofore referred to as the "incident," the story was shaped in a very particular way: It was the band of surfers on the beach, out to protect their sand and their celebrity leader, that taunted the paparazzi, leading to the skirmish that was caught on video. But what if it was the other way around — the paparazzi actually started the fight that caused a broken nose and $10k in damaged camera equipment? And because the photogs were the ones recording everything, they got to edit the video in such a way that made the beer-drinking surfer fellas look like the culprits? And that everybody who would report on this sort of thing, from mainstream entertainment press to blogs like this one, reported the "paparazzi as victims" version because we're so reliant on these agencies' photos for content?
To the conspiracy theories! CONTINUED »
Beach blanket belligerence!
A group of paparazzi and the Malibu surfers who attacked them last weekend – to protect the privacy of Matthew McConaughey, say the surfers – have taken to Web site comment boards to taunt and threaten one another with promises of future attacks. What began as just standard American race-bating has become promises of a photographer vs surfer beach rumble, set to go down this Saturday. Unfortunately, we don’t think there’s enough time between then and now to come up with a way to knock Southern California into the briny depths, so, if you’re in the area, go and watch these idiots smash each other’s hollow heads like so many tan jack-o’-lanterns. And take pictures!
After the jump, some of the really witty verbal jabs.
To escape the paparazzi after giving birth, Jamie Lynn Spears supposedly hired a body double to exit the Mississippi hospital from one door while making a sneaky dash from another.
This report comes from OK! magazine, which, you might recall, has a $1 million exclusive deal with the 17-year-old celebrity sister for the first pics of her baby and all the soundbites that go along with something like that. So perhaps it wasn't Spears who hired the body double, but OK! magazine, which is very keen on protecting its investment.
While paparazzo Josh Levine levies a $2.5 million lawsuit against Woody Harrelson for allegedly assaulting him and breaking his video camera two years ago, some other photogs might be heading to court over this weekend beach battle with a group of surfers, who were either intent on protecting their hidden beach enclave from overcrowding, or view Matthew McConaughey as their leader who must be protected at all costs. CONTINUED »
Two eyebrow-raising Hollywood scandals popped up this week, one including an actual eyebrow! Must we make Tinseltown worry about anything other than budgets and insuring Lindsay Lohan?
First up, the battle between Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment and paparazzo Ronnie Adams, who snapped a photo of Robert Downey Jr. on the set of big-budet action flick Iron Man while the movie was still filming.
As producers for the big and small screen continually battle back against potential spoilers, the studio demanded Adams remove the photo from his website, where he had posted it. He refused, but they eventually got to his web host, who yanked his account.
And then … his photo resurfaced. In Iron Man.
That's according to Adams' lawsuit, which claims that after all its complaining, Marvel used the copyrighted photo – after removing Adams' watermark – in a scene in the movie, showing a newspaper article headlined "Who is this Ironman." Fiscally savvy Adams, filing suit against the studios, now wants to get remunerated for his unsolicited efforts in contributing to this "pivotal scene."
So that's one photo scandal. This next one features Tom Cruise and Nazis! And an eyebrow! CONTINUED »
That photographer whose foot was supposedly run over by Britney Spears in the middle of a paparazzi scrum? Yeah … so he purposefully had his foot crushed by her car as she tried backing away from the camera madness, it's been decided. Why would a photog do such a thing? Because lawsuits are easy to follow, and fame is easy to come by. But the district attorneys office wasn't buying it: After reviewing footage of the incident, they concluded, "There was much commotion and noise at the time and there is no proof that the suspect was aware of what had happened." So Britney is off the hook, and, for once, she has the paparazzi's footage to thank for it. Or blame for it. Or both!
That harshly criticized issue of The Atlantic, featuring Britney Spears on the cover and a paparazzi expose inside, that had the magazine's loyalists aghast at how owner David Bradley could bring his well-respected title to such a low, was a newsstand disaster. It moved just 24,000 copies at the newsstand, or less than half what it moved in previous months. Lesson learned? Leave the celebrity shlock to the tabloids. Thankfully editor Justin Smith denied that the story had anything to do with an attempt to boost circulation, make the magazine profitable, and increase newsstand sales, because that defense is going to come in handy right about now.
To fight back at the paparazzi, Lily Allen, who has long attracted their lens, but especially so after gaining weight, and most especially when she decided to lunch with Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson, snapped pictures of the crazed photographers, then posted them on her MySpace blog. That'll show 'em!
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