LA City Council vs. Paparazzi
The LA City Council held hearings yesterday to address potential paparazzi regulations. In case you were not in attendance (it was the place to be, of course), here are the highlights…
- John Mayer urged the City Council to regulate the paparazzi. He proposed the requirement of photographer credentials, marked cars for photographers and a “law governing an acceptable filming distance from an unwilling subject [to keep] everybody safe and misbehavior accountable.”
- LAPD Chief William J. Bratton did not share Mayer’s enthusiasm for regulation, implying that celebrities may be responsible for some of the madness: “If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving; Paris is out of town not bothering anybody, thank God; and, evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don’t seem to have much of an issue….”
- When asked later about the propriety of the “gone gay” comment, Bratton revealed that his sister is a lesbian, that he supports gay rights and told reporters to move on.
- City Councilman Dennis Zine, who called for the hearings months ago, believes Bratton “disrespected elected officials and celebrities that were involved…Celebrities should have the freedom to do as they wish and the paparazzi are infringing upon their right to live.”
Popsquire’s perspective…
The controversy surrounding anti-paparazzi legislation is the question of where to draw the line between legitimate news gathering and invasions of privacy. While Popsquire is mindful and worried about safety and privacy issues, there already are several traffic and other anti-paparazzi laws to address those issues.
If we allow government to say who can take pictures and who can’t, somebody may make that decision based on the content of the photos. To the extent further regulations are proposed, we must be careful of the slippery slope!
