The commentary I heard on CNN was right on the money. If they keep on chasing down celebrities for the sake of a few bucks, somebody's going to get injured or possibly killed. It showed images of Britney's car being surrounded and swarmed by paparazzi. I was thinking: "Go ahead Britney. Run 'em over." Do you think she enjoys it? Why do tabloids so lust after celebrities during times of tragedy? Just like the Heath Ledger deal. Nobody's making investigative articles in Us Weekly about the death of a soldier in Iraq. There's not a four-part story on MSNBC about a hometown soldier who was killed in a land mine attack, leaving 2 dead and 6 wounded.




What the fuck is the matter with this country?
[Edited 2/7/08 2:24am]

That damn British accent is back

I guess in a way it could be good for people to see what crazy looks like so they can spot it in people in their lives or something like that.

And in a way, since she won't act responsible for anything, the paps videoing her reveal the truth.

But they should definitely be stopped from swarming while she's driving.

I do too actually. What these people are "covering" isn't news. It's harrassment.

As an example, the day after Halle Berry's pregnancy was confirmed the paparazzi swarmedher like bees to honey. They then proceeded to hound her in an insane autombile chase that led to her to crash her car WHILE PREGANT. They scattered immediately because no one wanted to be blamed if the chase impacted her baby and she was left alone looking for help, scared to death. We all know that Halle's not the best driver, but REALLY this is criminal . To make matters worse, did you know that most paparazzi remove their liscence plates when they're in pursuit of a celebrity? That's just layers of wrong. Meanwhile, to get any decent coverage on the soldiers losses a miniscule triumphs, or just as importantly, how we've affected the Iraqi people with this war in all its' ugliness, and that gets ignored

Ottensen said:

Bit of advice Britney....If you want to avoid Paparazzi use a back door, don't drive out the front and make yourself a target

agreed, there needs 2 b a line drawn

Agreed. The paparazzi are endangering lives. This isn't freedom of the press. This is criminal behavior.

coolcat said:

So what do you guys think? Will we ever reach a cap where people will say that this is dangerous behavior, or will it just continue to spiral out of hand until somebody dies the way Princess Diana did during that paprazzi chase in Paris?

I generally don't see too many entertainment sites outside of the Org, but for about 2 weeks I've been checking some of them out and they're actually kind of freaky to me . I don't get to see alot of paparazzi coverage where I live unless it's a special event like a film or music festival, or if a big international celebrity comes to the EU specifically for a PR stint for a film, music project, product/advertising endorsement or humanitarian project they're working on. The few times I have gone to entertainment and gossip sites, the amount of video they have simply stalking people for no reason felt weird to me.

Even scarier are the posts that people leave at these places, doing everything from people asking for more video to calling the celebrities every vile name in the book to wishing for them to die .

Not to be elitest, but are the members of the org the only folks in cyberspace that seem to get there is something totally wrong with this behavior?

Oh, by the way,if you can believe it (although what's not to believe?), German MTV has now started delivering all of their American music and celebrity news from the links they read at TMZ ...

Not sure what can be done about this, but after watching what Britney goes through on a daily basis, I can see where her emotions would be frazzled.

It reminds me of a story a reporter did back on Michael Jordan, back in his heyday. The reporter spent a full day with Jordan, at his side every minute. His conclusion?

"I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy."

mattj said:

Good advice...for someone that is not mentally ill.

mattj said:

She shouldn't be a target in the first place.

Ottensen said:

I think prince.org is great and definitely a cut above other sites. But I do think that there's a "get the celebrity" mentality here also. People wanting Paris Hilton to go to jail etc. thinking that somehow she was to blame for all our social ills.

I truly think fame is a curse. Prince was so smart to stay the hell away from reporters.

The public and the media do not see celebrities as human beings. On the one hand there's adulation... but adulation can turn into hatred easily...

An easy paparazzi restraint is for her to move to Kentucky or Kansas or somewhere other than LA or NYC.

Why was she driving around aimlessly right after leaving the psych ward? She was barely out for 5 hours when this video was shot. She should have had her ass at home. I don't agree with the paparazzis constantly following her, but she doesn't make it very easy on herself or very hard for them. Why does she even own a house...or houses? She's almost always checking into hotels. Paying a mortgage on two houses that you barely stay in and then dropping thousands of dollars on a hotel suite almost every night is just fucking retarded. She doesn't try to avoid these people, so I don't feel sorry for her. Plus, after being in a mental hospital for a week, I don't believe this little adventure has anything to do with her 'mental illness', because I'm pretty sure that they managed to regulate her meds in the time she was there, so, what people saw yesterday is her in a most likely clear state of thinking.

Instead of this girl driving to the courthouse, dropping to her knees, and begging a judge to allow her to see her sons for any amount of time he chooses to give her, this selfish twat goes to a hotel so that she can meet up with her paparazzo boyfriend. Stop feeling sorry for her and feel sorry for her family who have to deal with a person who can't or doesn't want to get their shit together. The only ones who are really suffering in all this are those two precious little boys. There are soo many women who do this to their kids everyday and I'm sure many of them aren't suffering from any mental illness. It just makes me sick and angry. Those kids don't deserve to be dragged through this crap. She can't even straighten her life out for her own kids without being force to do so. Disgusting.

As long as people buy tabloid magazines and subscribe to tabloid internet sites, there is money to be made. And as long as there is money to be made, there will be paparazzi swarming celebrities.

ABSOLUTELY the paparazzi must be restrained!!!!! they have already killed princess diana. what they've been doing to britney is harassment.

these laws need to be changed and FAST. public figures should not be tortured by greedy camera wielding bastards

Are they going right up to the front door of her house!?

estelle81 said:

Why is it so difficult for people to understand that she is not acting normal because she has a serious problem? People with mental illness deny treatment all the time. Just because she is out, doesn't mean she is in any good state of mind or that she is now ok. She is out because she wanted out, as do many people who are suffering with mental illness.

JustErin said:

It's not difficult to understand that she has a problem. It's difficult to understand how after she leaves a mental hospital and has been regulated on her meds, that she continues to behave the exact same way as before she went in. If she hadn't been in a mental hospital for the past 5 days and was doing this, than I would agree with the 'mental illness is affecting her' statement 100%, but she was in there for over a week and comes out unchanged. I highly doubt that they didn't make her take medication while she was in there. My mom suffered from severe depression throughout my teenage years and checked herself into more than one mental facility on more than one occasion and my aunt suffers from Schizophrenia, so I've been around people with severe mental disorders to know that not all mentally ill people act like that. Many of the ones who do act like this are probably sitting in psych wards due to court orders or jail because of their behavior. They don't just let them wonder around because they hate the mental facility. Criminals hate jail, so is that a reason to let them out before they have been rehibilitated or have served their time? I would seriously hope not. She wanted to leave and her lawyers had the ability to override her doctors who said that she shouldn't have left soo soon.

estelle81 said:

My point is that people who fight against treatment will continue to do exactly what they were doing before they were forced on medication as soon as they are under their own free will again. A week of "treatment" and being sedated on meds does not cure anything.

Do you honestly think this girl is faking it? All the weird behaviour is for shits and giggles? Just for publicity? Let's say that's true. That right there is a good indication that something is really, really off with her. What she is doing is far from normal.

The girl is in serious trouble and that's the bottom line.

Instead of feeding into her issues, people should know better and just back off.

Her behavior has nothing to do with them.

These people take pictures because:

Celebs pay them to

Celebs make sure they frequent places where they hang out

Celebs build a career and image for themselves that demands that element

Celebs don't have a good PR team around them

This "problem" is actually their way of promoting themselves or living a certain life. The second any of them decides they don't like it, they can turn it off.

Ottensen said:

There are a lot of people, but right now they're a minority. Most people either don't care because the celebs are millionaires or don't care because they want to make millions off the millionaires.

Ottensen said:

When the public stops eating up all the celeb tid-bits they can stuff down our throats, I think that's when all of this mess will go away....because based on what happened to Diana, people dying doesn't seem to be much of a deterrant...

truefunksoldier said:

Not Kansas. I don't want her near my town. Ick.

She needs to go back to the hospital for AT LEAST 90 DAYS.
Then, talk about relocating.

But yeah California, Hollywood and being "on the scene" have done her a world of shit. Sure, it is partly the people around her. However, she is responsible enough to go shopping, so she should be responsible enough to get help. I'm so sick and tired of people feeling sorry for her. Hell, we ALL have problems. Feel sorry for her kids! They didn't pick to have such a down-right shitty Mom.

And yet somehow, Janet Jackson has always been able to stay completley hidden when she wants.

It's really very easy if you're not a tabloid whore.

I support a law barring tabloid whore celebs from going to gas stations at 3AM and having loud cell phone convos in the ladies washroom when they know the paparazzi are about.
[Edited 2/7/08 20:38pm]

I think harassing people with cameras should be against the law. Britney should be able to ring the cops and say "there are a bunch of people surrounding my car with cameras and I feel harassed" and the police should come and arrest those people. It should be against the law.

Well its a whole new world, so please lets NOT compare the crazes of the past with the shit going on in the last few days. With the advent of the net, TMZ,PEREZ HILTON, and youtube, there is no way anyone can compare things like Prince or the Jacksons dodging photogs back then with the way the business of getting a photo goes now, its just on a whole new level. I guarantee if Madonna was married to Sean Penn now in these times, and she was in her height fame wise, Sean would be killing a fotog a day. I have no sympathy for these cats because i have seen them push people down for a photo, ive seen them knock down people into the street to get footage for their fucking youtube site. So im not excusing Britney or any other celeb who is losing their mind, but the only reason you keep hearing about Britney or Whinehouse or Lohan is because its BIG BUSINESS, do you know how much a shot of Britney goes for? its really sad that this is where we have gone, this is why i despise the places that technology has gone. So i really could care less when i hear a foto guy got his ass beat down by george clooney or tom hanks, i fucking laugh my ass off when that happens. Pictures at events are one thing, but jumping in someones face as they get into their car, im sorry, in this day and age, you are lucky you arent shot at.

lastdecember said:

Well said.

Apparently, the shots of Britney have caused her to become a percentage of the entertainment economy!

haven't read any of the responses, but let's keep in mind that this lunatic calls up the paparazzi to follow her when she's serving her mother with papers telling her to leave her alone and when she decides to go swimming in the ocean alongside a highway in her underpants