I had my first run-in with the paparazzi yesterday while visiting my family in Los Angeles. My friend Erika and I were waiting outside a local breakfast place for a table and all of a sudden we saw three guys with huge camera lenses chasing a woman into her car. It was like a horror movie come to life. Erika explained that the celebrity was a woman from Desperate Housewives.
Perhaps the North Carolina air has made me soft, but I do not see why it is legal for the paparazzi to chase down people. All that the actress was doing was loading bags into the back of her car on a Saturday morning. It certainly did not see like she was asking for her picture to be taken or trying to draw attention to herself.
Once the actress drove off, the three cameramen got into separate cars and sped away. It was as if nothing had happened. The people at the restaurant never seemed to skip a beat. In fact, I was the only one on the street who seemed the least bit disturbed.
After this scary experience, I started researching laws surrounding the paparazzi. It turns out that if you are a public figure, you have less of a right to privacy than normal folks. Erika pointed out that the paparazzi would not exist if people were not drawn in by celebrity magazines. Watching the paparazzi in action is like "seeing how the meat is made." I am strongly considering becoming a gossipotarian.