Paparazzi harassment, where is the limit?
Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner demand a law that protects their privacy. Is this possible in the celebrity world?
"I don't want a bunch of screaming photographers with no manners or respect camped out every day outside my house and traumatizing my children." Actress Jennifer Garner spoke with this force before the California judicial assembly on August 14 to demand a law that hardens the harassment suffered by famous people by the paparazzi. Beside her, another great victim, Halle Berry, listened with a serious gesture to her colleague and corroborated her statements. The case of the latter is especially striking since she has spent years fighting against what she considers "an attack on her dignity and privacy". And she so she told the court: "They are allowed to be so close that they can yell all kinds of obscenities at me and ask my five-year-old daughter inappropriate things for her age."
Halle Berry's situation is so tense that she even considered moving to Paris with her husband, Olivier Martinez, but a court stopped him as they argued that her daughter would lose contact with her father, Gabriel Aubry . Berry also claimed that in Europe the paparazzi respect celebrities more, something that is not entirely true. In fact, next week marks the sixteenth anniversary of the death of Diana of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed when they tried to flee from the paparazzi at the Pont d'Alma in Paris. The princess had been complaining for years about the impunity that these photographers had, who followed her everywhere without any shame.
The anti-paparazzi law in California was passed in 2009 by then-state governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with the purpose of defending the private lives of celebrities. Something that he himself admitted suffering when he worked as an actor and had to take his children to school. In this way, if a paparazzi is found guilty, he could face criminal charges, even jail time. Despite them, the situation has not changed, and a few months ago a photographer who was chasing Justin Bieber died when he crashed his car on a Los Angeles street.
Neither Garner nor Berry speak for themselves. Proposition 606 requests that the legal meaning of what is harassment and the consequences of recording or photographing a minor without the consent of her parents be expanded. "What you pay for a photo of the son of a famous person is incredible, it is as if they had put a price on his heads," said Ben Affleck's wife. However, paparazzi harassment extends to any Hollywood star, regardless of age, race or gender. Let them tell Kristen Stewart, whose patience is exhausted at times by the daily persecution she suffers. With her friends, with her ex, with her mother, it does not matter, any photo of the Twilight star is highly valued and that is why there is no day that it does not appear in the press of the heart. Of course, Stewart, which is not very nice, does not shut up and a few weeks ago a video came to light where she was facing a photographer who followed her through the streets of Los Angeles. "You don't deserve to breathe the same air as me," she scolded him.
There are also the celebrities who take advantage of the harassment of the paparazzi to send a message. This is the case of the couple formed by Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield, who when they saw that some photographers were waiting for them, came out carrying a sign that said: "We just discovered that there are paparazzi outside the restaurant where we were eating, so why not take this opportunity to draw attention to organizations that need it and deserve it? "
Another actor who has taken advantage of his fame to denounce the harassment is the protagonist of Star Trek, Benedict Cumberbatch. During the London filming of his series, Sherlock, he covered his face with a piece of paper that read: "Gone to photograph Egypt and show the world what is happening there."
But what do the paparazzi think of all this? Obviously they defend their right to photograph celebrities and add that many times they are the ones who call them before leaving home. It is enough for an actress to be in promotion for her to appear on the cover of a magazine, having a quiet coffee with her friends. There are also the celebrities who take it with a sense of humor, such as Miranda Kerr, one of the most persecuted models in the world, and whom we continually see with her little Flynn on the streets of New York or Los Angeles. She doesn't get upset, she smiles and keeps walking. We do not know if she is to avoid a confrontation in front of her son or because she knows how high the price of fame is often paid.
