Paparazzi

These days it is not unusual to see hordes of photographers outside celebrity homes or surrounding a stars vehicle as they try to leave a restaurant, store, hairdresser, etc. But when is enough going to be enough? Princess Diana was killed while fleeing paparazzi and that was not enough. Brittney Spears has flipped out, in no small part thanks to the constant pressure from the paparazzi, and that was not enough. We have watched stars feud, flash their vejayjays, crash and flip out and still it is not enough. Now Madonna has been injured after a photographer jumped from the bushes, startling her horse. Mercifully she suffered only minor injuries, bur she could have been another Christopher Reeves. If we do not start curbing our morbid fascination with everything a celebrity does, someone else is going to die. A star, a photographer, or some unlucky sap who just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I think this new wave of 'anything goes because stars have no right to privacy' started with the Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson sex tape. A tape stolen from their home, that the courts ruled they could not block its distribution, has been seen by millions all over the world. I, personally, have not seen this video because I totally disagree with the court's decision. So I refused to watch it even though it is in a thousand places on the net for free. Millions of us have done what they did and videotaped themselves during intimate moments. Imagine how you would feel to have it plastered all over the net where anyone, from your mother to your childhood Sunday school teacher, could not only view, but comment or criticize it?

That case seemed to open the door to more intrusive behavior by the media. Suddenly. there seemed to be less of a boundary. Since then that line has become more and more blurred to the point there really is no line anymore. It seems anything goes in the name of freedom of the press(yea right) and entertainment. The more humiliating, compromising, or controversial the better. If you have the misfortune to be even somewhat famous, you have no right to privacy of any kind.

And who is to to blame for this debacle? We are. We the American public. If we did not lust after every last piece of a celebrity's soul, there would be no market for this trash. If we didn't buy this claptrap, the paparazzi would be out of business. To that I would say 'good riddance.' Because this can only end badly. For us and the stars. For the celebrities it will mean that so many talented people will either walk away and decide it is not worth it or just not do it to begin with. And that will be our loss. Or like I mentioned earlier, someone will end up losing their life to this craziness. We have already become so jaded and so blase in our response to this rubbish, we have stopped noticing the effects it has on our children. Let's face it kiss emulate their heroes and when their heroes are barely legal drug addicted, alcoholic floozies who are lucky if they can find their way home most nights yet seem to have little or no consequences, what kind of behavior do we expect from them. By not censoring what they see and by not talking to them about it, we essentially condone it.

By continuing to buy the magazines and watch the shows that use the photos and video obtained by these vultures, we are supporting an industry that we are contributing to the demise of our own morality. Everyone has a right to some privacy and respect. As human beings we need to have things we keep just for ourselves. Imagine for a moment how having your private life beamed all over the globe would affect you. Some stars, like Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher on twitter, are willing to share pieces of their lives. That's great but when they don't wish to share and the paparazzi get that story buy any means necessary, a line is crossed. The only way to get back across that line depends on us and us alone. If we do. we may get back a little bit of the dignity we have lost as a culture. If we don't, then we can only blame ourselves when it all, inevitability, goes so horribly wrong.