Thursday, 7 August 2008

Calls to regulate paparazzi

Officials from around Los Angeles, united by celebrities such as singer John Mayer, have met to discuss how to prepare what some see as a growing problem of paparazzi perilously hounding Hollywood stars.



But Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton criticized many of the ideas as unenforceable, and one head of a photograph agency characterized some of the celebrities as whiners.


Bratton told a local news network that with tabloid sensations such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan out of the headlines for at present, there was no indigence for extra control.


Still, the celebrity photographers known as "paps" have become more aggressive in recent years and in some cases, their maneuver have lED to violence.


Earlier this year, Malibu residents fought with paparazzi world Health Organization were nerve-wracking to snap photos of actor Matthew McConaughey swimming in the Pacific Ocean, and last week bodyguards for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt beat up two paps who sneaked onto the grounds of their chateau in the south of France.


In the most ill-famed incident involving paparazzi, Britain's Princess Diana was killed in 1997 along with her fan, Dodi al-Fayed, when the car she was riding in crashed while existence pursued by photographers in a Paris road tunnel.


Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine convened a audience on Thursday attended by officials from West Hollywood, Malibu and other famous person haunts, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and celebrities including Mayer and actor Eric Roberts.


Zine likened paparazzi wHO follow Hollywood stars to "a pack of wolves, stalking their prey," and other officials outlined proposals for creating an exigency telephone line devoted to celebrities and licensing the paparazzi.


But at his possess news conference, Bratton criticized the theme of issuing paparazzi certification, argued it was unnecessary to spend city money on extra protection and scoffed at a design to create personal safety device zones about stars.


"What is this protected space that they are entitled to that the rest of us ar not entitled to?" aforementioned Bratton.


He too believes the paps have cooled their ways. "Paris Hilton's forbidden of township, things ar quiet; Lindsay Lohan's got a new girlfriend, that's keeping things quiet; and evidently Britney (Spears) has gone straight now in terms of cleaning her act up, so basically paparazzi ar losing interest," he said.


He later pink-slipped a reporter's question that his remark about Lohan was out or keeping, saying he supported jocund rights.


Brad Elterman of Buzz Foto aforementioned after the hearing he was happy to be a part of the dialogue, just he called some of the stars "cry-babies" and said dealing with the paps was part of their job.


"I am non ashamed of what I do, everybody benefits from the paparazzi � retail, hotels, tourism," Elterman told Reuters.


"Hey sidekick," he added. "This is the business you've chosen."






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