The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 2

Death of a Princess 2 THE AOE MONDAY 1 SEPTEMBER 1997 Paparazzi verdict: 'Frbrn obnoxious to the criminal' By ALAN ATTWOOO, New York correspondent, New York, Sunday To escape them, John Kennedy junior planned his wedding like a secret military operation and held it on a remote island. Fed up with them, actor Alec Baldwin responded with blows while George Clooney tried a boycott. It is a war they can never win completely, as any attention creates yet more, but over the past few years American celebrities pursued by paparazzi have been fighting back. At issue now is whether the behavior of the paparazzi thought to have been chasing Princess Diana had gone, as one Hollywood figure said last night, "from the obnoxious to the In March last year, Alec Baldwin was acquitted of battery charges when he convinced a jury that he feared for his safety when he struck a photographer trying to video his wife, actress Kim Basinger, and their newborn child. This was seen as a pivotal case, as it was a contest between a celebrity's right to privacy and freedom of the press, a right pro brand of photographers known as "stalkerazzl" who make a living trying to provoke celebrities and then catching the response on film.

Clooney was so angered by footage of himself with his girlfriend aired by the Hard Copy TV show, a Paramount production, that he refused to do any interviews on the high-profile Entertainment Tonight, another Paramount show. "I think they (video paparazzi) cross a line a lot right now," Clooney said. Clooney, involved in a scuffle with a photographer in Mel bourne this year, acted soon after the singer and actress Madonna protested about the way her house was staked out so footage could be obtained of herself and her new baby, Lourdes. In the same week, the Prime Time Live aired footage of Princess Diana begging cameramen In Europe to leave her and her sons alone. JFK junior, meanwhile, Is now in the media business himself.

Last month he provided readers with the sort of shot paparazzi would break limbs for: a nude shot of himself, published In his own magazine, George. lOve-hatfe deal with mo love The limits (of photographers) should be good taste. There is a limit where someone should just say 'stop'. You shouldn't let it go this far. tected under the first amendment to the US Constitution.

Baldwin testified that "anyone with a shred of human decency would understand there are times In your life when you want your privacy respected, whether you are a public figure or Responding to the verdict, Baldwin said it showed it was not open season on celebrities. But he added that if bothered by photographers again, he would instead call the police. Baldwin was charged with one count of battery after a fracas with a cameraman trying to videotape the homecoming of Bald tors and, in the end, the reading public. In November 1993 the Princess took out a writ against several publications in an (unsuccessful) attempt to prevent the publication of pictures of her exercising in a -gym, which had been taken with a concealed camera. More recently she has seen her thighs examined closely in the tabloids for signs of cellulite, her stomach perused for evidence of possible pregnancy and her shoulders criticised for being those of a navvy.

Small wonder that occasionally she snapped. Last April she got a passerby to seize a photographer she saw taking her picture and take the film from his camera. Yet she was well aware of her win, Basinger and their baby daughter, Ireland. His lawyers argued that he was trying to protect his newborn baby from a man he feared could be a stalker or kidnapper. Cameraman Alan Zanger, the defendant in the Baldwin case, later told an English paper: "When they (stars) come out of their house, they have no privacy.

If we outsmart them, with all their money and their resources, tough That what I live for, outsmarting them." Later in 1996, another actor, George Clooney, engaged in a less physical dispute with a new value to the media, and though she may have hated the non-stop glare of publicity, she was not above turning it to her advantage. Quite apart from her polished performance in the BBC Panorama interview in which she lifted the lid on her marriage and struck a major blow in her war with Buckingham Palace, she has used her superstar status to gain publicity for the good causes she has adopted. The most recent of these was her campaign to ban landmines, which has seen her in Bosnia comforting the maimed and limbless while surrounded by packs of television journalists. During her first of four holidays this summer in the Mediterranean aboard Mohamed al-Fayed's yacht she teased the press pack By CHRISTOPHER HENNING, European correspondent, London, Sunday Diana, Princess of Wales, was of all people in the world the most in danger of being loved to death. Beautiful, wealthy, charming and linked to the archetypal royal family, she brought glamor to everything she touched, and because of it the world would not leave her alone.

This morning's fatal high-speed pursuit by five paparazzi through the streets of Paris was a logical consequence of the industry that has grown up to feed the public's insatiable desire for her. The demand is enormous. The US rights to the pictures of the Princess and Mr Dodi al-Fayed holidaying aboard his yacht in the Watchers may now become the target of legislation By LOUISE ROBSON, London, Sunday The image of Princess Diana being chased to her death by paparazzi will linger long enough to trigger crackdown on the opportunist photographers who ply what has now become a deadly trade. France has strong laws governing interference in a person's pri- vate life, but they did not stop the high-speed chase that left the Princess and her recent companion, Dodi al-Fayed, dead. Up to seven photographers were detained by police after the crash.

It was reported that some took pictures before help arrived. Last week, Diana called the British tabloids Her attack belied the cat-and-mouse games she played with paparazzi who tailed her every move, but she had repeated run-ins with them over when the game should stop. Buckingham Palace said today that the tragedy was an "accident waiting to happen" in the light of the media whirlwind that has raged around the Princess since her marriage to Prince Charles in 1981. And the British Government signalled moves against media intrusion, but appeared to stop short of any knee-jerk restrictions. The Foreign Secretary, Mt Robin Cook, said Princess Diana's death "would be doubly tragic if it did emerge this accident was, in part, caused by the persistent hounding of the Princess and her privacy by However, the Government was not planning any immediate strengthening of existing privacy laws.

The Home Office Minister, Mr Alun Thomas, called for voluntary controls by the press, saying it would be difficult to frame legislation that would not restrict investigative journalism. Mr Michael Cole, a spokesman for Mr Mohamed al-Fayed, hit out at the unacceptable "hot pursuit" waged by the paparazzi pack. He said in a statement: "There is no doubt in Mr al-Fayed's mind that this tragedy would not have occurred but for the press photographers who have dogged and pursued Mr Fayed and the Princess for weeks. "This sort of pursuit is entirely unacceptable. The Fayed family and the Princess's family put up with the press in St Tropez with good humor but they should not have had to endure such intrusion, which cannot be justified." The veteran broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby, whose interview with Prince Charles secured his confession of adultery, urged editors and proprietors to draw the line.

"It's not only the motorcyclists and photographers. It's those who hired them, the editors and proprietors, who now need to examine their consciences." The British media were quick to distance themselves from any blame. The royal watcher James Whi-taker said his paper, The Daily Mir- ror, would withdraw when the subject felt the pressure was too great, but the paparazzi were not constrained by such policies. The Daily Telegraph columnist William Deedes, who recently accompanied the Princess on her landmines tour of Bosnia, said she had been plagued by photographers ever since her engagement to Prince Charles in 1981. "The Princess of Wales has always had a deep aversion to photographers and now it seems photographers have been partly responsible for her death," he said.

Lines from an early speech by the Princess sounded prophetic when broadcast as part of her obituaries. "When I started my public life 12 years ago, I understood the media might be Interested In what I did," she said. "But I was not aware of how intense that attention would come to be." AAP, AFP by making an extraordinary spectacle of herself, showing off in her swimming costume and eventually talking at length with the royal press pack, bobbing alongside their launch in her own speedboat, dressed in a leopard-skin patterned swimming costume. And she didn't have to leave the gym regularly wearing bicycle shorts and bare legs if (he scrutiny was too intense. On balance though, the losses from being the cynosure of all eyes outweighed the gains.

Despairing of her chances of forming a new relationship with a 'man before her involvement with Mr Fayed, she is reported to have told the model Cindy Crawford: "I have my picture in the paper every single day. Who would want to take me on?" really shocking. But the photographer is just there to try to take a picture, lust let yourself be photo-grahed and let it end there. Just move on to the next stop." Italy's paparazzi were the notorious street photographers who exposed the secret affairs of movie stars during the heyday of Rome's Dolce Vita era. In the late 1950s Mr Secchiarroli and his comrades immortalised Egypt's deposed King Farouk overturning a table on Rome's Via Vcneto and married actors punching photographers who caught them in the company of starlets.

Fellini, who was toying with the idea of a film on the cafe society, had seen some of their pictures in Rome newspapers and sought out Mr Secchiaroli. The late director based the character on Mr Secchiaroli and named him In the film, Paparazzo was the photographer who worked with the late Marcello Mastroianni, who played a frustrated gossip reporter. "I can't tell you how surprised and saddened I am. I liked her (Diana) a lot," Mr Secchiaroli said. "She was a real anti-conformist who made the royal family look like a bunch of pre-historic animals." Reuter Mediterranean last month were recently sold for They had already fetched more than 450,000 in Britain.

Being in the right place at the right time could make a lucky photographer very rich indeed. The consequence for the victim was incessant intrusion of a sort beyond the imagination of most people. Diana had to assume that she was being stalked all the time, but unlike most stalking victims, she knew that pictures taken by her tormentors would end up virtually every day in mass-circulation papers. The consequence for the media has also been corrosive. No shot was too intimate, no invasion of her privacy too gross to deter the photographers, the edi scramble to to nation keep up with events, found themselves using snatched pictures of the couple In Paris on Inside pages.

"Suntanned Diana and Dodi seek the romance of Paris" read the Sunday Express. All reports focused on how Princess Dianas love affair with Mr Fayed, which appeared to have set her on the road to recovery after her divorce from Prince Charles a year ago this week, was cut short after five weeks. The. car crash "brought to a tragic end the fairytale romance of the divorced princess and the Muslim 71m Observer said. The BBC and other television and radio channels suspended normal programming and dedicated Its channels-to blanket coverage of the death.

The; BBC played the national antheni' with-plctures of the-Unton lack flying at half mast every hour. AFP Scene of the accident: Motorcycles that were transporting photographers are guarded by police at the and their driver were killed. scene of the crash in a Paris underpass. Princess Diana, Dodi al-Fayed Picture: reuter Fleeing is wrong, says Italian king of snappers Ebobi KiiiEi mm BHsSI UK papers bring news Rome, Sunday The Italian known as "Mr Paparazzo" said Princess Diana's death showed there were no longer limits of good taste in his profession, but he faulted Diana and Mr Fayad for apparently fleeing photographers. Mr Tazio Secchiaroli, 72, was the inspiration for the photographer-named Paparazzo in Fellini's 1960 film La Dolce Vita, which immorta- lised the genre of photographers who pursue the rich and famous.

"The limits (of photographers) should be good taste. There is a limit where someone should just -say 'stop'. You shouldn't let it go this far," Mr Secchiaroli said. "But on the other hand I don't see why. people (in the public eye) try to run away from paparazzi.

At a certain point, they should just let themselves be photographed and move on. "At least half of the fault is that of the people who were In the car." Another leading paparazzo of Italy's Dolce Vita era, Mr Elio Sorci, 65, said that the blame lay squarely on the occupants of the car for apparently trying to flee. "This is tragic but to put the blame on photo-reporters seems absurd and crazy to me," said Mr the photographer who exposed an affair between IJz Taylor and" Richard Burton while they were in Rome filming the epic Cle- Star's plea Washington, Sunday The Hollywood actor Tom Cruise yesterday called for laws to curb press harassment of celebrities. Interviewed on CNN television, Cruise said It was "an absolute lie" that celebrities "cooperate in any way whatsoever" with paparazzi, "I've actually been In that same tunnel being chased by paparaz-. zis, and they run lights, and they chase you and harass you the whole time.

It happens all over the world, and It has certainly gotten worse," he said by telephone. "I think we need laws for what is harassing an Individual," he said. Reuter opatra in 1962. "I am really shocked by this. But to risk one's life to flee from photographers is something 1 really can't understand," said Mr Secchiaroli, now retired.

"In our day it was different. There were one, two or three of us on a hunt for pictures, Perhaps today there are too many. In my day we never would have reached this point. There were small fist-fights and skirmishes. But this is London, Sunday Britain's media scrambled to bring the news of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, to the nation as newspaper staff worked through the night to bring out special editions.

The stark headlines "Diana Is dead" in the Sunday Express, "Princess Diana and Dodi are killed In Paris car crash" In the Sunday Telegraph struggled to convey the tragedy enormity. Many papers already contained criticism of the paparazzi photographers who were pursuing the princess and her companion, Mr Dodi Al-Fayed, when their car crashed In a tunnel by the river Seine In Paris. "Paparazzi blamed as Mercedes smashes Into wall" read the Sunday Telegraph, "Paparazzi blamed for death crash" said the Sunday Timet. But many papers, unable to.