banking services chronicle august 2020
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services chronicle august 2020 Hollywood
celebrities were cropping up so often on TV talk shows last week that you would
have thought it was Oscar time. They were grieved of course over the tragic
death of Princess Diana. But they were also eager to gripe about the paparazzi
whose aggressive tactics may have played a role in her death. Elizabeth Taylor
called them murderers. Tom Cruise recounted how he and his wife Nicole Kidman
had been chased by photographers through the very same Paris tunnel. Everyone
from George Clooney to Whoopi Goldberg chimed in boycotts were advocated
legislation proposed. Some stars reportedly even want to investigate the
private lives of tabloid editors to give them a taste of their own medicine.
There was a self-serving side to all this of course. Hollywood stars would like
nothing better than to cow the press into docility thus clearing the way for
nonstop coverage of their thriving careers happy home lives and unflagging
concern for the spotted owl. Yet in this instance Hollywood perfectly tapped
into the public mood. The week of mourning that followed Dianas death also saw
an outpouring of revulsion at paparazzi tactics prompting a fresh round of
self-appraisal by publications that use their photos and tacitly at least
condone their excesses. Paparazzi--the celebrity photographers who trail stars
looking for shots of them in unguarded moments--have been around for decades
dogging the tracks of people like Elizabeth Taylor and Jacqueline Onassis. But
the game has grown increasingly fierce in recent years as media outlets devoted
to celebrities have proliferated and new technology such as digital photo
transmission has come into use. And lately the absence of wars and other world
crises (as well as skimpier budgets for covering foreign news) has forced many
photojournalists to do celebrity work just to make a living. Theres big money to
be made. Two weeks before Dianas death the Globe tabloid ran eight pages of
photos of her and Dodi Fayed on their vacation off the island of Sardinia and
boasted in a note to readers of paying $210000 for them It was a big payday for
photog Mario Brenna who stands to make as much as $3 million worldwide. Lured
by such sums paparazzi are resorting to ever more aggressive tactics--sometimes
even provoking confrontations with stars in order to catch their temper
tantrums on film. About a year ago there was a real increase in invasive kinds
of pictures says Valerie Virga photo editor for the National Enquirer people
really going over the edge to get the picture--climbing roofs scaling buildings
super-super long lenses into peoples backyards. Weve turned down hundreds of
pictures over the last year for that reason. U.S. photographers blame their
European counterparts for upping the ante. They are ruthless says Scott Downie
the owner of Celebrity Photo an agency that covers official show-biz events.
Those who came here in the 80s laughed at us as babies You dont know how to get
a good photo. Were here to get them in a private moment not in diamonds at an
event. Yet every paparazzo is familiar with the pressures. Its a collective
hysteria says Mark Saunders who has covered Diana for the past five years. Its
the adrenaline flowing and that desperate need to get a photograph. Ive seen
[U.S. photographers] in action outside John Kennedy Jr.s house. If America
wants a tragedy on the same scale just allow that to continue. Saunders says
Dianas death confirmed a decision he made six months ago--to get out of the
paparazzi game altogether. But most other paparazzi and the agencies that hire
them and peddle their photos to magazines were incommunicado or unrepentant
last week. I feel no responsibility legal or moral says Goksin Sipahioglu
director of the Paris-based Sipa agency. Of course Im sad because someone we
all adored is dead. But when you become Princess Di you are a public person. In
a telling irony several of the agencies representing photographers detained by
French police after the accident would not release photos of them to the press.
And some agencies supplying pictures of Dodi and Diana to magazines last week
specifically asked that they not be given the usual credit line. Yet editors of
publications that rely on paparazzi are taking a fresh look at how far their
intrusive tactics should be allowed to go. Shortly after the accident Steve Coz
editor of the National Enquirer publicly vowed not to buy any photos taken at
the scene while claiming that his tabloid had instituted a policy a year ago of
not using so-called stalkerazzi pictures. (The Enquirer issue on the newsstands
when Diana was killed however featured several candid shots of the princess
with Fayed trumpeted by the cover line DI GOES SEX-MAD. The issue was pulled by
a number of newsstands after her death.) Dan Schwartz editorial director of the
more freewheeling Globe also promised to toughen standards. Were going to
become more conservative about our assessment of what will offend people
because we have to he said. Peoples consciousness of what is paparazzi and what
isnt has been raised. Mainstream publications are hardly exempt from the
debate. Dozens of publications including TIME and Newsweek used paparazzi shots
to illustrate their stories on the tragedy last week. A news photo of Dianas
two sons glimpsed inside a car after her death--a shot that could easily be
regarded as intrusive--ran even in the sober New York Times. Though editors and
publishers say clear-cut rules are hard to set the tragedy has heightened their
sensitivity to the issue. You have to exercise judgment when you know
competitive forces are going to exercise less judgment and less taste says Mort
Zuckerman publisher of the New York Daily News. In a letter to readers in this
weeks PEOPLE (published by Time Inc.) managing editor Carol Wallace writes that
decisions on whether or not to use paparazzi photos are made on a case-by-case
basis weighing the news value of a picture against a story subjects right to
peace and privacy. Such self-policing is unlikely to satisfy the paparazzis
sharpest critics. California legislators like Tom Hayden are planning to
introduce legislation to curb paparazzi exploits such as requiring photographers
to maintain a certain distance from their subjects. Such laws however might
have a tough time passing constitutional muster because of the threat they pose
to freedom of the press. (Not to mention the freedom of any grandmother at
Disney World to snap pictures of a famous person who passes by.) Legal experts
point out moreover that most abuses can be dealt with by current criminal laws
(against trespassing and assault for example) or by civil lawsuits as
Jacqueline Onassis brought when she won injunctions against photographer Ron
Galella. Both legislation and self-regulation have been tried overseas with
mixed results. A French law enacted in 1970 allows the courts to punish press
actions that are deemed an assault on intimacy or privacy. Actress Isabelle Adjani
used the law to win a judgment against the tabloid Voici in 1995 for running
photos taken without her permission. Still French paparazzi are widely
perceived to be among the worlds most brazen. In Britain meanwhile the Press
Complaints Commission established in 1991 has drawn up a code of practice to
prevent invasive press tactics. Though hard to enforce the rules have succeeded
in removing at least some paparazzi shots from the raucous British tabloids.
The campaign against paparazzi has its dangers. Almost by definition journalism
involves some measure of intrusion--investigating matters that the subject
would rather not be publicized. In covering Hollywood moreover journalists must
battle a sophisticated armada of publicists who seek to manage every jot and
tittle of media coverage of their client. The paparazzi have become more
aggressive because celebrities and their publicists have got so controlling
says Steve Sands a New York City-based celebrity photographer. Nor are the
stars above using the paparazzi for their own purposes. When the Kennedy family
gathered for a family outing in Hyannis Port Mass. two weeks ago photographers
snapped pictures of the happy clan playing touch football. Far from shooing
away the nosy cameras the family clearly welcomed the coverage as a chance to
let the world see their togetherness in the wake of recent family troubles.
Then there are the people who buy the newspapers and watch the TV shows that
keep the paparazzi in business. These consumers of celebrity news got lectured
last week by those same celebrities for not curbing their appetites. They may
yet listen. But for now they are too busy paying their last respects to the
biggest celebrity of all. banking
services chronicle august 2020
banking services chronicle august 2020
