Fan Fare

Adrian Grenier: celebrity stalker

Adrian Grenier would know better than most — Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and a few others excepted, of course — about what it’s like to be stalked by aggressive photographers and celebrity hounds. On “Entourage”, he plays actor Vincent Chase, who faces flashbulbs and autograph seekers at every turn. As the show has gained popularity, life has begun to imitate art for Grenier, who is  now a celebrity in his own right and faces the same attention that Vince deals with.

In his new documentary “Teenage Paparazzo,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Grenier turns the tables on the paparazzi, following the picture takers with a camera and focusing on 13-year-old snapper Austin Visschedyk. (Read about it here.) But Grenier also succeeded in turning the tables on himself, as he tried to chase down celebrities to get their takes on the paparazzi.  Stars  including Lindsay Lohan, Matt Damon and Hilton herself weigh-in on their own experiences. Still, Grenier said, he had to work hard to get the access to the stars,  despite his own Hollywood credentials.

“I’d go to a party specifically so I could meet a celebrity so I could get an interview, and they’d be elusive or hard to reach,” he said told Reuters at Sundance. “It became very frustrating. I found myself at parties stalking celebrities.” In the video above, he talks in greater depth about his experiences.

It was self-defense, Mike Tyson says

Never one to go down without a fight, Mike Tyson is claiming self-defense in an altercation with a photographer at Los Angeles International Airport that ended with both men being arrested.

The former heavyweight boxing champ said he was attacked by “an overly aggressive paparazzi” and that he “acted in self-defense as a father protecting his child,” Tyson’s rep Tammy Brook said in a statement to celebrity news sites.

Tyson, traveling with his wife Lakiha (pictured at right) and 10-month-old daughter, said the photographer hit him first. Both men are said to have thrown a punch, but photographer Tony Echevarria — not surprisingly — appears to have come off worse and ended up with five stitches on the head .

Echevarria told celebrity web site TMZ.com that Tyson lashed out four times, and called the incident “traumatizing.”

“When you’re being hit by Mike Tyson, it’s really the worst thing in the world that you can imagine,” he said.

No word so far on the extent of any injuries suffered by Tyson.

Tyson isn’t the first celebrity to be unnerved by the paparazzi who hang out at LAX but he may be the first heavyweight champion to have laid one of them low.

Lindsay Lohan makes fashion debut in Paris

Cameramen elbowed photographers out of the way, television presenters crashed into bloggers, PR assistants were drowned in a shouting mass of paparazzi as everyone fought for a glimpse of Lindsay Lohan at Paris fashion week.

As a marketing scoop, her new job as artistic adviser for fashion house Emanuel Ungaro has certainly been a success. She even out-papped R&B singer Rihanna and actor Bruce Willis, who were among the VIPs visiting the Paris shows. Ungaro’s president, Mounir Moufarrige, observed the backstage scrum with a satisfied smile on his face, maybe mentally recalculating his profit outlook.

But whether the hype will translate into better sales for the ageing label remains to be seen.

“It’s the clothes that talk. People are interested, and our business is to sell,” Moufarrige told me after the show, surrounded by exhausted fashionistas sipping champagne. “We want to make beautiful products that people will buy.”

Lohan herself may well decide that ultimately, consuming fashion is more fun than producing it. She looked a little dazed and tired after her debut collection, and when a reporter asked her about her love of scandal, she snapped that it was “an unnecessary question”.

Even if the collaboration turns out to be short-lived, Moufarrige could have the last laugh. The label’s clothes are now guaranteed to appear in tabloids, glossy magazines, blogs and talk shows. And the fact that fashion critics have derided Lohan’s stripper-inspired nipple pasties, bra tops and skimpy pink dresses may not matter to shoppers. After all, Victoria Beckham was long sneered at by the fashion in-crowd, and yet her collection of dresses is now flying off the shelves.

- Reporting by Sophie Hardach

Brad Pitt shows scorn for Paparazzi

(writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

In recent weeks as he has been promoting his new film, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” Brad Pitt has professed nothing but disdain for the paparazzi, and now the actor has told Rolling Stone magazine it was constant hounding by celebrity photographers that forced him and partner Angelina Jolie to move their family to France, where she gave birth to twins earlier this year.

In an interview released on Wednesday, Pitt said he often is trailed by a dozen paparazzi cars and several motorbikes, and he and his family have been “run out of every major city” by the paparazzi.

We found this anecdote particularly surprising: “One guy bought out a hospital room above us, in France, and was trying to poke through the ceiling. That’s illegal, of course, but he paid,” Pitt told the magazine.

When Jolie, 33, gave birth in July at a hospital in southern France, the paparazzi jockeyed to be the first to catch a multi-million dollar picture of the babies. They failed, and in the end, People magazine won North American rights and British gossip magazine Hello! got all other territories.

Pitt told Rolling Stone they sold the pictures – giving the money to charity – to “kill that bounty” which he said was placed on images of the children.

Pitt and others have called for laws protecting celebrities from the paparazzi, but the paps claim any restrictions put on them would take away their U.S. constitutional rights. But c’mon, cutting a hole through the floor in a hospital? That seems extreme to us here on the Fan Fare blog. Others of you may think differently.

No love lost between Kanye West and paparazzi

There’s not much love lost between off-duty celebrities and the paparazzi, but Kanye West really, really doesn’t like them.

The rapper was briefly arrested in northern England on Thursday night after an apparent altercation with a photographer outside a night club in the city of Newcastle.

Photographer Tony Blackburn claimed West lashed out as he was leaving the club with some female company, shoving the camera into the snapper’s face and causing a small cut on his nose.

British police didn’t think the incident merited a charge against West after questioning him about it. But it all sounded reminiscent of a scuffle West had in September at Los Angeles International airport with a photographer and a TV camerman that ended with a broken camera.

West wasn’t charged in that case either.

No exit for Britney Spears from driver’s license trial

 The drama is not over yet for Britney Spears.

 More than a year after being charged for driving without a California license, authorities have set an Oct. 15 trial date for the pop singer on the relatively minor offence.

 It’s always possible that case could be settled before then, but so far that has not happened — prompting speculation on the Internet that Spears is being treated harsher than most in her situation.       Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the L.A. City Attorney’s Office,  said those facing the same charge as Spears typically settle the case by agreeing to probation and a fine.       ”We’re just looking for a fair outcome to this case. If they want to take it to trial then that’s where we’ll go,” Mateljan said, referring to Spears’ legal team. “We’re treating it like any other case.”       The case stems from an Aug. 6, 2007, incident in which Spears scuffed another car in a parking lot as she was being trailed by dozens of paparazzi at a time when she was going through a very public meltdown. 

 She had a driver’s license from her home state of Louisiana and obtained one in October 2007 for California, as well as reaching an out of court settlement with the person whose car she hit.

(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis)

L.A. officials ponder ways to curb paparazzi

Officials from several Los Angeles area communities will consider ways to crack down on paparazzi who hound Hollywood celebrities when they meet on Thursday, and measures they decide upon could serve as a springboard for similar actions in major cities around the world.

LA City Councilman Dennis Zine, who has called for stricter measures against photographers, told Reuters on Wednesday that all options are up for discussion — from taxing the paparazzi to creating special licenses for them.

“The paparazzi have really gone overboard in their quest to get a photograph,” Zine said.

Simmering anger against the paparazzi came to a head in Southern California last month when surfers in the celebrity-filled community of Malibu swarmed photographers who had gathered on a beach to get shots of “Fool’s Gold” actor Matthew McConaughey.  The two sides came to blows, and in the ensuing days police stepped up shoreside patrols to keep the peace.

Representatives from Malibu, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood are also expected at the L.A. City Hall meeting as officials seek a regional solution to the paparazzi problem.

But issues with the “paps” are not limited to only L.A. They chased Princess Diana in Paris, leading to her death. Just this past week, two paparazzi in camouflage gear fought with bodyguards for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie outside their estate in the south of France.

Some free speech advocates have said the paparazzi’s work is constitutionally protected — so long as their celebrity targets are in a public place. Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton has also said that existing laws such as jaywalking and assault statutes are enough to curb the paparazzi’s excesses.