Law Aims To Curb 'Stalkerazzi'

Aggressive Celeb Photographers, Beware: Arnold's New Law Sets Limits

(AP)  Longtime celebrity photographer Frank Griffin, co-owner of the Bauer-Griffin photo agency — which bills itself as "The Hollywood Hunt Club" — said existing laws already cover attempted assaults and that the new legislation unfairly targets celebrity photographers.

"Why should there be different standards for a hard-news photographer and a celebrity photographer?" he asked.

With the proliferation of photo-filled, celebrity-centered magazines, more paparazzi have emerged to fill the pages with images of the rich and famous. The more exclusive the photo, the bigger the paycheck, said former celebrity photographer Brad Elterman.

Shots of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner with their new baby, for example, could be worth $500,000, he said. Even less-exclusive pics of hot stars can sell for $10,000 or more.

"The business is driven by money," Elterman said. "The guys who take the pictures don't care how they get the photo because they have nothing to lose."

Jim Ruymen, a Los Angeles photographer for 30 years who worked as "a photojournalist by day and a paparazzo at night," said paparazzi photography has always been intrusive, but increasing competition has led to more in-your-face tactics. There might be "15 to 20 cars outside someone's house, waiting for them to leave so you can chase them down," he said.

"Part of the paparazzi act is you really have to have no conscience. You've got to rein these guys in, so we don't have a Diana here in Southern California," he said, referring to Princess Diana, who was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997 as paparazzi pursued her vehicle. Investigators later found that the driver of Diana's car was intoxicated and speeding.

Celebrities are likely to appreciate the new legislation, though none of their publicists returned calls for comment here.

George Clooney, an outspoken defender of the First Amendment yet a critic of overzealous photographers, has said that being photographed is the price one pays for celebrity, but some tabloids take things too far.

"If you say to someone, 'I'll give you $400,000 for the first picture of Madonna's baby,' there are lots of people who are willing to break the law to do that," Clooney told CNN in 2003.

The new legislation amends a bill passed in 1998 that established the concept of "constructive trespass" for photojournalists. It said that using a long lens to capture an image of a person who had "a reasonable expectation of privacy" was tantamount to trespassing.

Ewert, counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Assn., questioned the constitutionality of that law, but it has not been challenged in court, he said. Laws are presumed valid until challenged.

The new legislation, which expands what constitutes invasion of privacy, "is probably even more unconstitutional, if that's possible," Ewert said.

"We don't apologize for the behavior of the paparazzi," he said. "But this law attempts to stop that conduct with a very broad brush."