The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES- The celebrity hunters have become the hunted.
Amid complaints about paparazzi’s aggressive tactics and following a traffic accident involving actress Lindsay Lohan and a photographer that the teen star was trying to escape from, police and prosecutors investigate allegations ranging from misdemeanors, such as trespassing, to more serious crimes like false imprisonment and even potential conspiracy.
“It is my sense that the activities of the paparazzi have grown more and more aggressive over the last couple years,” William Hodgman, chief of the target crimes division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, told The New York Times. He said it would be premature to say whether the inquiry will lead to charges.
Boris Nizon, owner of the Fame Pictures agency, was unconcerned by the probe. “We obey the law and we work really professionally,” he said.
The investigation was launched in part because of concerns that paparazzi run-ins with celebrities are getting more dangerous.
“There is great concern that someone is going to get hurt,” Hodgman said. “It’s not just the celebrities themselves, but it’s third parties and often children, who could be within the number of those who are likely to get hurt.”
Last November, “Charlie’s Angels” star Cameron Diaz and her pop star boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, snatched away a photographer’s camera when he and a partner surprised them outside a ritzy hotel.
And last month, Lohan narrowly escaped serious injury when her car collided with one driven by a paparazzi who was allegedly following her. Photographer Galo Ramirez, 24, was booked for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon, his car, and released on $35,000 (euro28,600) bond.
“Watch out for the paparazzi,” Lohan warned at this year’s MTV Movie Awards.
Celebrity outrage over paparazzi antics is nothing new.
After Princess Diana was killed in 1997 in a Paris car crash following a high-speed flight from paparazzi, a chorus of fury came from some of the biggest names in show business at that time - Madonna, Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Elizabeth Taylor. They called for everything from consumer boycotts of supermarket tabloids to new laws on libel and privacy.