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any means necessary
Ben Affleck Unwittingly Paparazzi'd By Spy Pen
Ben Affleck was nice enough to give a stranger his autograph in some random store, unaware that he was being secretly filmed with a spy pen. Worse still, Affleck complimented the pen! I mean, I don't endorse celebrity stalking in any way, but this seems especially cheap. -
paparazzi
Lindsay Lohan Fights With Girlfriend In First Hour of Valentine's Day
Lindsay Lohan's Valentine's Day got off to an awesome start at 1 AM Saturday: A fight on the streets of Nolita, trailed by paparazzi and a reporter for the New York Post. More » -
wtf
TMZ Fights for Its Right to Give Away Octo-Mom Pics
So, how did those photos of Nadya Suleman's horribly distended, octuplet-carrying belly get out into the world? They were licensed to TMZ (presumably by Octo-mom herself), which wants to drum up publicity and traffic. More » -
brad garrett
Vengeful Brad Garrett Responds as Well as Can Be Expected to Being Called 'Tall Faggot'
After a brief, thrilling lapse into the parallel universe of stars attacked by their own security detail, we're kind of relieved today to see the restoration of celeb-on-paparazzo violence. And few do it like Brad Garrett, a pap-attacker from way back who last night staged a stunning return to form outside Dan Tana's. TMZ's record of the altercation suggests Garrett was provoked, and unless the taunts "He's just a tall faggot, anyway," and "Pussy" were defanged at some recent historical moment we overlooked, we think we'd tend to agree. More » -
paparazzi
Can A Paparazzi Photo Be Art? A Rogues' Gallery, Inside
Brad Elterman, co-founder of Buzz Foto, thinks paparazzi snaps can be art. "My concept was to use brilliant photographers who had a passion for their craft… I wanted more than to build a new photo agency, I wanted to build a brand… with a semblance of class." In an interview with Rachel Hulin on A Photography Blog, he talks about how he got started as a "paparazzi," at age 19, back in 1975: "I wanted to take photos of David Bowie and I was turned down by the publicist. I thought to myself that it would be fun to try and make a photo of him as he left the studio." Elterman waited all night for Bowie. "Around 6am he emerged with [his producer]. He left in a unwashed Mercedes." [Jezebel] -
adnan ghalib
Britney's 'Sex Tape' Ex Offended By Rumors That He Wants a Piece of Her
Like Bigfoot, the legend surrounding Britney Spears's sex tape is one that refuses to go away, no matter how terrifying it might be to eventually lay eyes on the real thing. Also, much like Bigfoot, recent news that appeared to finally confirm its existence may have been dashed, as the sex tape's supposed peddler, paparazzo ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib, is claiming that no such thing exists. First Anne Hathaway, now Britney — is any celebrity sex rumor safe? Said an angry Ghalib to Star: More » -
heather locklear
Heather Locklear's 911 Call Placed by Concerned, Paparazzi-Friendly Former 'Us Weekly' Staffer
When we first heard about Heather Locklear's weekend arrest for driving under the influence of a controlled substance, we were most interested in the curious detail of the sunglasses she repeatedly ran over. Turns out, the entire case is full of curious details, and here's the biggest one: the witness who placed the call to 911 is a former Us Weekly staffer who's under investigation by the FBI for hacking into the magazine's computer system to locate celebrities. Oh, and she called the paparazzi immediately after her 911 call. Oh, and she also just happens to have a lucrative partnership with Locklear rival Denise Richards! Details and her kooky 911 call, after the jump: More » -
lindsay lohan
Celeb-Crazy LAPD Chief Just Happy That Lindsay Lohan Has Found A Nice Girl to Settle Down With
Good news for the beleaguered Hollywood paparazzi: LAPD Chief William Bratton opposes a new proposal to place restrictions on particularly aggressive photographers. In fact, he took time out of his daily workout to tell KNBC that the problem lies not with the paparazzi but with the bad girls they photograph — a salient point made amusing by Bratton's brusque verbiage and up-to-the-minute starlet savvy (preserved on video after the jump): More » -
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rachael ray
Even Rachael Ray's Audience Can't Get Excited About Awful, Faux Paparazzi Service
Perhaps inspired by the Britney-prompted downturn in paparazzi profits, former commercial photographer Tania Cowher has come up with a novel (yet terrible) solution: allowing non-celebrities to hire their own personal paparazzi via her service Celeb 4 a Day. After all, who among us hasn't yearned to be stalked by a loudmouthed photographer screaming, "Over here! Look over here, you bitch!" on the way to Walgreens? The answer is "almost everyone," at least if this clip from Rachael Ray is the judge. After grilling Cowher, Ray asks the audience to raise their hand if they'd use the service themselves, soliciting a feeble response. Next time, Tania, try Oprah: the audience will scream in pleasure when O yells "You get Getty Images! You get an X17 subscription! EVERYONE GETS A BAUER-GRIFFIN LOGIN!" More » -
britney spears
Parapazzi Stymied by Unprofitably Sane Britney Spears
Next time you see a paparazzo camped out on the sidewalk outside of Hyde, won't you toss him a nickel? Times are tough all over, and the recession that swallowed America is now threatening to put Hollywood's most aggressive celebrity photographers out of business — only, the blame for this financial crunch falls squarely on a newly sane (and thus unphotographable) Britney Spears. Says the L.A. Times: More » -
brad pitt
Brad Pitt To Bleeding Paparazzo: 'If You Want War, You Will Get It'
In the latest Pap Said / Celeb Said scandal, the mystical forests of Brangelina's French estate turned into a bloody battleground where one ruthless pap and the Jolie-Pitts’ head of security attacked each other with walkie-talkies and teeth. As the NY Daily News reports, freelance photographer Luc Goursolas was so determined to slip into the compound unnoticed that he spent five hours on foot, decked himself out in camouflaged clothing, only to come face-to-unhappy-face with the soccer team’s unamused top guard. As Goursolas claims: More » -
clips
Eight Things Every Aspiring Paparazzo Should Be Aware Of
On the surface, the life of the average paparazzo seems almost impossibly glamorous and adventuresome—spent loitering outside one of L.A.'s many ultra-exclusive social establishments, or ducking sniper fire on the branch of an electrified fig tree trying to capture a Chosen Twins double-breast-feeding session. But there are several things we felt you should know before dropping your lucrative dermatology practice to follow your dreams of running away with the pap circus; Defamer videorobics instructor Molly McAleer has generously compiled them all here for you here, along with A/V supporting evidence. Just watch it. That's all we're saying. And keep one eye on that Cash Warren character. Getting Jessica Alba pregnant isn't his only trick shot. More » -
defamer
When You're A Pap, You're A Pap All The Way
100 years from now, history buffs will return to the Paradise Cove beachhead decked in period-appropriate costume, thrilled to recreate that region's legendary battle between the Paps and the Serfs. It was a war that began, like so many others, over the honor of an object of astonishing beauty: In this case, that would be Matthew McConaughey—their flip-flop-misplacing Helen of Troy. The surfing battle wages, having migrated online: More » -
defamer
Top Five Classic Celebrity Paparazzi Attacks (As Inspired By Sienna Miller's LAX Handbag Assault)
Casual nudity enthusiast Sienna Miller became an official card-carrying member of that elite group of celebrities who unleash their hate of paparazzi by way of physical assault. As the Daily Mail reports, Miller swung her pricey purse at one pap's face yesterday at LAX, possibly because he was a resident of Pittsburgh, or maybe she simply mistook him for Jude Law (as the pictures show, there is a resemblance to the nanny-loving baldie). But Sienna's moment of outrage prompted us to recall our all-time favorite When Celebrities Attack moments in time, from Woody Harrelson's caught-on-tape choke-hold to Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz's romantically executed freakout years ago. Our five top picks after the jump: More » -
celebrities
Is George Clooney The Nemesis Of The Tabloid Economy?
George Clooney has jokes. His latest celebrity-based antics: a swarm of paparazzi descended upon his house in Italy after a (false) rumor spread that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were going to be getting married there. Clooney, who was away working, heard about this, and ordered 15 large wedding tables to be set up on the house's lawn. The paps went crazy [Hollyscoop]! Clooney laughed. He's a funny guy. But there's more to this than just a friendly joke. Because George Clooney, one of the biggest celebrities in the world, doesn't just want to make himself chuckle; he wants to undermine the entire celebrity economy that gives him his lofty position in the first place.
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faces of death
Foreign Imports Will Be The End Of Britney Spears
By yesterday afternoon, some five days after the new issue of the Atlantic Monthly had arrived in my mailbox, a fair number of media types had weighed in on the magazine's controversial April cover story on Britney Spears. For those who aren't dedicated media observers, here's the backstory: The Atlantic, a 150-year old, high-minded journal of left-leaning, East Coast intellectualism and Serious Issues had, in a supposed attempt to increase its flagging fortunes, headed westward (and more importantly, downmarket) with "The Britney Show", a densely-packed, 12-page cover story by journalist David Samuels about America's most famous celebrity trainwreck. What became clear, however, is that not many of those media people had actually read it. [Jezebel] -
defamer
Matt Dillon Thinks A Dirty Pap's A Dirty Pap, Regardless Of Age
Austin Visschedyk, Kid Pap: Name ring any bells? We devoted several electronic column inches to the juvenile paparazzi after he was profiled by the NY Times, one of a growing member of a new tween underclass toiling in the Hollywood trenches. Like Gary Busey's child-interviewer attack victim and the Chinese Theater Ewok drop-kicked by a very territorial Chewbacca, Vosschedyk knows from child-labor perils. Still, there's something deeply affecting about hearing his first-person account to TMZ's cameras of the time Matt Dillon not only refused his polite request for a picture, but told the flash-happy youngster to "get a life" after Vosschedyk innocently got a gang of his closest pap-buddies to trail the camera-shy Crash star. More » -
clips
Martin Short Makes Fake TMZ Video Of Faux Paparazzi Rage
Martin Short sat down with David Letterman last night, and got all worked up over the "constant attention" he receives from the paparazzi. He complained of being "attacked," said he'd finally lost it on one photographer, and that a clip of the incident had made it to TMZ. He was kidding, of course, but his fake rage is hilarious. [Jezebel] -
britney spears
The noble profession of documenting Britney Spears' every Starbucks run is, apparently, facing a crisis, as accusations are flying that some photo agencies are so desperate to get the best shot of Spears launching a frappucino at her camera-wielding tormentors that they're allowed themselves to be "infiltrated" by the Crips and Bloods. In response to reports about the ganging-up of his trade, X17's owner says that no real banger worth his colors can be bothered to chase the frequently hospitalized pop star around, and that the mainstream media ruffians protecting their red carpet turf are far more dangerous than any pap: "'They may dress like gang members with large pants and tattoos, but to say they're gang members right now, well, real gang members are not into Britney Spears,' said Frank Navarre, a Frenchman who owns the X17 agency. 'I think red carpet is worse. I used to do red carpet myself, and one guy broke my camera.'" [Rush & Molloy] -
paparazzi
Adnan Ghalib's Double Game
Adnan Ghalib, the paparazzo who sleeps with Britney Spears while snagging footage to sell to the tabloids, may be one of the sleaziest characters to emerge in the celebrity industry in recent years. But one has to admire the former Afghan refugee's desperate skill in walking the tightrope between his troubled popstar lover and the media that feeds on her. According to Showbiz Spy, the mercenary pap wants a $2m payoff for video of Spears at her most vulnerable, weeping, and speaking in the third person. “When Britney was a child, she had to work really hard. When she was 13 years old, she won all the beauty pageants," she mumbles to the camera. "Britney has an angel looking out for her, don’t you, angel?” Of course, Ghalib's paparazzi rivals are delighted to expose his double-game, in the hope of breaking his access to the tabloid-selling popstar. Meanwhile, lawyers for Spears' former husband have been investigating a deal between pap agency X17 and another Britney confidante. (Tough game, celebrity journalism: these people make the warlords in Ghalib's native Afghanistan look like saints.) After the jump, a bonus, a scene from Sweet Smell of Success, the best ever cinematic treatment of the vicious world of celebrity gossip, in which Sidney Falco, the press agent played by Tony Curtis, is turned against his own client. More » -
paparazzi
How bad have things gotten for Aspen-based paparazzi? The town, long Hollywood's preferred mountain refuge from the bustle of L.A., is apparently been so drained of celebrity quarry that its once-proud guerrilla-photographer population has been forced to eke out a meager existence by stalking the likes of Goldie Hawn, who gripes, "They've come into our little town and they really have done their job: They've shooed us out." [Breitbart.com] -
defamer
Britney Spears and Photographer Suspected Of Making Quick F-Stop At Beverly Hills Hotel
Britney Spears took the love/hate relationship between a star and the paparazzi to its logical extreme this weekend when she allegedly bedded a photographer who, according to Us Weekly, "regularly covers" the pop star—which means that he either photographs her a lot or that this isn't their first tryst: More » -
defamer
Paparazzi Helping Lindsay Lohan Feed Herself In Between Acting Gigs
The newly sober (keep hitting "refresh" for updates) former actress Lindsay Lohan is in collusion with the paps, alleges the NY Daily News' Gatecrasher column. Pics of the starlet (should that word be amended to simply "let"?) en route to a recording studio are being flogged to the tabs for 30 Gs. The problem? The one other than Lindsay Lohan being back in a recording studio? It's a set-up: More » -
defamer
Pierce Brosnan's Fists Of Paparazzi-Breaking Steel Could Cost Him In Court
The Great Paparazzi Wars continue with news that a freelance photographer, who alleges he was sucker-punched by Pierce Brosnan after snapping the actor and his son outside a Malibu restaurant in October (see before-and-after pap-pummeling photos here!), is going forward with his lawsuit against the hairy-chestiest Bond since Connery: More » -
defamer
This morning in unflattering paparazzi photographs of your favorite TV stars: Jennifer Love Hewitt's bikini bottom, Steve Carell picking his nose while jogging. Enjoy! [Egotastic, Splash News Online] -
paparazzi
Keanu Reeves Sued For Gently Nudging Photographer Out Of The Way With Porsche
A Hollywood tribal feud no less contentious than writers vs. producers is the one brewing for well over a century now between celebrities and paparazzi, the first documented incident of which involved Mary Pickford launching a half-eaten pomegranate at the head of a Movieland Tattler illustrator caught sketching the actress's unflattering likeness in her garden. The war rages on, as Keanu Reeves finds himself the defendant in a lawsuit filed by a paparazzo claiming the actor struck her with his Porsche last March: More » -
defamer
Breaking! Britney Spears Runs Over Paparazzo's Foot, Murdering Innocent Tube Sock
While trying to capture an image of Britney Spears following an apparent lip-collagen injection so over-the-top that it could make an aging Beverly Hills trophy wife faint dead away in horror, one of TMZ's fearless photographers bravely sacrificed a pristine tube sock in the commission of his noble duty. More » -
defamer
Pint Size Paparazzi Chase Their Celebrity-Stalking Dreams
Taking this morning's post about the macchiato-wielding vigilante who attempted to disperse the swarm of photographers surrounding Britney Spears' car with a scalding hot coffee-shower together with yesterday's NY Times story on the teenage founders of the Pint Size Paparazzi agency, one of our readers asked us, "Don't you ever feel like sometimes we live in the most horrific place on earth?" More » -
defamer
Spears-Stalking Cameramen Caught In Coffee-Tossing Crossfire
While the day-to-day lives of the paparazzi may seem impossibly glamorous to outsiders, the job of capturing the tears of Britney Spears' terrified children for posterity is not without its drawbacks. More » -
defamer
When Freelance Bodyguards And Paparazzi Clash, TMZ Is There
Not long after dodging D-lister-piercing ordinance in the hot zone outside of the Roosevelt Hotel, TMZ.com's utterly fearless Starcatcher mobile video team once again found themselves knee-deep in the shit last night, documenting a vicious brawl that erupted outside an ESPYs afterparty at Skybar when a pair of gentlemen decided to audition for Rumer Willis bodyguard duty by engaging some paparazzi in hand-to-hand combat. More » -
paparazzi
Lohan Sued By Recent Paparazzi Hood Ornament
Lindsay Lohan, so often a helpless victim of her enormous, completely talent-derived worldwide fame, once again finds herself locked in battle with a member of the paparazzi underclass that's so hellbent on destroying her charmed life. Fans of the critically adored actress ("Ann-Margret, Meryl Streep, and Sophia Loren rolled into one," says cinephile journal Maxim) no doubt remember the harrowing March incident in which an innocent photographer somehow wound up splayed upon the hood of Lohan's BMW, a moment of ugliness that has now resulted in a lawsuit alleging that she was "negligent, careless and reckless" in operating the Bavarian death machine in the crowd of swarming shutterbugs and seeking monetary damages "for his pain and suffering and his lost wages." Should the pap succeed in extracting some cash from the embattled defendant, we fear that camera-clutching local grifters will exploit the situation by throwing themselves beneath the wheels of her vehicle each time she attempts to leave Hyde, hoping that TMZ's omnipresent cameras will capture lucrative footage of the lead-footed Lohan's callous disregard for their safety as they just try to make an honest living. More » -
keanu reeves
Keanu Reeves Narrowly Avoids Facing Vehicular Paparazzoslaughter Charges
An investigation is currently underway to get to the bottom of precisely what occurred last night in Palos Verdes, when "whoa"-intoning matinee idol Keanu Reeves peeled away from a curb in his Porsche and allegedly sideswiped a paparazzo lurking nearby:
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paparazzi
Paparazzi King Assaulted By Lone 'Princes Of Malibu' Fan
TMZ's assiduous monitoring of the egresses of Hollywood's hottest, most celebrity-clotted nightclubs has once again paid off, as their sidewalk videographers were on the scene to capture the aftermath of a face-bloodying attack on self-labeled paparazzi king E.L. Woody by a man inexplicably upset about photographers invading the privacy of Brody Jenner. While the report seems to indicate that the "random clubgoer" was trying to defend the local personality from the marauding photographers, his actions demonstrate an egregious overestimation of Jenner's fame level, as someone who's best known for having briefly enjoyed sexual relations with Nicole Richie (and by "enjoyed," we of course mean "traded for the opportunity to appear in a couple of blurbs in Life & Style and InTouch") doesn't want the three people interested in taking his picture scared off by the threat of physical violence. More » -
denise richards
Denise Richards' Paparazzi Rampage Leaves Two Laptops, One Senior Injured
In a Vancouver suburb shooting Blonde and Blonder (a movie co-starring Pamela Anderson, and described, for those of you too blonde and/or dumb to figure it out, as "Legally Blonde meets Dumb and Dumber"), former Charlie Sheen trampoline partner Denise Richards went on a computer-hurling rampage when she discovered two paparazzi had managed to infiltrate the movie's closed set:
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lindsay lohan
Lindsay Lohan's Paparazzi Demolition Derby III: The Rear-Ending
It seemed as if a curiously long interval had passed since the last time an overzealous, lead-footed celebrity photographer had induced Lindsay Lohan into a fender bender, temporarily leading us to believe that the paparazzi had collectively lost the edge that has made them the scourge of any star unlucky enough to drive their own luxury automobiles. But today's Rush & Molloy item about the actress's latest vehicular run-in has restored our faith in local guerilla photographers' willingness to dent the occasional bumper in pursuit of the perfect shot of their Benz-bound quarry: More » -
george clooney
George Clooney Unveils Surprisingly Compassionate Plan To Foil Paparazzi And The Magazines That Abet Them
Having recently survived a life-threatening case of in-flight food poisoning on the trip back from a humanitarian mission in Darfur, noted actorvist George Clooney has been doing some soul-searching about how to best employ the considerable influence afforded by his worldwide notoriety. But after a brief effort trying to raise awareness of the ongoing genocide in the Sudan proved insufficiently fulfilling, Clooney's deeper appreciation of his own mortality has led him to rededicate his remaining, precious days to the cause he finds most ennobling: celebrity privacy rights. The AP reports on the actor's latest campaign to foil those who would document the comings and goings of the famous, born out of this newfound commitment to an issue he holds dear: More » -
cameron diaz
Cameron Diaz Test Subject For New Hit-and-Run Category of Paparazzi Photography
While some will see Cameron Diaz's accusation that a renegade photographer tried to mow down the actress and boyfriend Justin Timberlake as evidence that the paparazzi have added attempted vehicular manslaughter to their celebrity-menacing repertoire, we prefer to think of the incident as an unexpected opportunity for freelance photographers to add a new category of candid shot to their famous-people-hiding-under-jackets-while-flipping-the-bird standards: The Hit and Run. Tabloids and glossies alike are sure to pay unprecedented sums for images of celebrities scattering from the path of a black SUV traveling at high speed, or for true money-shots of less-agile actors splayed on the hood of the photographer's vehicle, their faces uncomfortably pressed against the windshield glass and captured from the driver's POV. It's an idea hinted at by last year's paparazzi-induced Lindsay Lohan fender-bender, but ready to be taken to the next level with celebrities careless enough to leave the safety of their German-engineered cocoons. More »











































