What the Experts Say

My experts are the celebrities, government officials, magazine editors, and the paparazzi themselves.

"There are illegal things going on, or at least they should be illegal. It should billegal to hit me with your car. It should be illegal to block my car with your car. It should be illegal to prevent someone from leaving a location. It should be illegal to verbally harass people to elicit a response. And it should be illegal to shout obscenities at children." --Reese Witherspoon

"The goal was to draft legislation to protect personal safety and privacy in a climate where journalistic competition sometimes leads to agressive news-gathering tactics." --Anne Hawke (an associate in the First Amendment group in the Washington office of Baker & Hostetler)

"Diana was the 'most hunted person of the modern age'" --Earl Spencer, Diana's brother

"This is a defining moment in out attitude toward certain aspects of media intrusion. The circumstance of her [Princess Diana's] death should be used as a rapier to pierce and destroy the ruthless intrusion of the camera that serves us no useful purpose." --David Mellor (senior minister in the former Conservative government in Britain)

"I'm not trying to take photographers' lives away. I understand their job is to take pictures, But I don't want children involved and other innocent pedestrians getting hurt while walking down the street." --Lindsay Lohan

"When it comes to your son, he didn't choose this. One time I was holding Ryder, and some guy jumped out of the bushes and scared me and Ryder, I got so mad. I couldn't believe the audacity. How dare you scare a baby?" --Kate Hudson

"It's the adrenaline flowing and that desperate need to get a photograph." --Mark Saunders (ex-paparazzo)

"I'm perfectly willing to take my hits if I'm caught doing something stupid. The problem is that some of these guys aren't professional videographers; they're a bunch of kids with videocams who try and force you into a confrontation. They'll push and yell volatile things like, 'Hey George, who's the fat chick?' or if I'm walking with a guy, they ask, 'Is that your gay lover?' And as soon as you say, 'Why, you son of a bitch!' they sell it." --George Clooney

"Celebrities don't like all the moves of the media; they'd rather have privacy on their terms." --Todd Gitlin (a media sociologist at NYU)

"It's getting ugly out there." --Deputy District Attorney William Hodgamn, who is heading the investigation of Lindsay Lohan's accident because of a paparazzo.

"They're almost like a pack of wolves. Eight guys out there to get one picture." --Arnold Cousart (president of JFX Direct, a photographing company)

"The word 'paparazzi' can be taken as synonymous with scum-sucking, criminally inclined, mercenary, manipulative photogs, aimed and dangerous with their motor-driven Nikons." --Susan Walker (journalist at the Toronto Star)