Saturday, March 1, 2008

ET assignment: My ride along with paparazzi chasing Britney

Yesterday I spent all day chasing Britney Spears and other celebrities on assignment for Entertainment Tonight. It's not a glamorous job. I went in there thinking I could make a funny piece-- but these guys DO NOT JOKE around. And they let you know you are an outsider. I rode with Craig Williams from Hollywood.tv and he was very kind to me. It's a controversial job and their position is twofold: stars like Britney WANT to be shot (she does roll down her window at times to let them get a clear shot) and if the public didn't have such an insatiable appetite for this stuff-- they would be out of business. They shun the word paparazzi and euphemize their profession calling themselves "Content Providers". You pass your own judgment. I was just along for the ride.

5 comments:

Steph said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Just call me Katie! said...

Content providers my "arse". I put them in the same class as repo people. Slimmy and ruthless.

I loved the awkward moment between you and the cab driver. I can totally relate.

Sharon Stone is very gracious. She is originally from Pittsburgh, I think.

Well, good luck with this venture with ET. I hope they give you some creative freedom in your pieces. You are brillant and funny. Your honesty and humbliness is your prize. Keep it real and you will be fine! Rock on SuperStar!

Anonymous said...

I do wonder about the morals of some of those "content providers," particularly the ones that put themselves, their subjects or innocent bystanders in physical danger or in situations of social discomfort.

But admittedly, the profession is its own hard-working, high-tech, fascinating world. I highly doubt that Orny's 14-hour day was atypical. The majority of these people are in an area of the entertainment industry where they do work their butts off and spend a great deal of their own time and money on an assignment, often for very little in return.

It is one where the photographers are driven as much by worldwide readership as by the content demands of any given website or publication.

So while the paparazzi's behaviors are at times deplorable,you can't hate them alone. Anyone that has ever picked up a People, Globe, Star, Enquirer, Okay or other celebrity-centric magazine... and anyone that watches ET, The Insider, TMZ and so on... has fed the beast and contributed to this madness.

Just call me Katie! said...

Does second hand reading count in that deplorable category?

The Actress said...

I'm going to mirror here what I left as a comment on your MySpace profile:

I wish E.T.'s website had a place for comments (unless I missed it). First, I would like to say that I very much enjoy your clips. Second, although doing a GREAT job at showing how insane and ridiculous some celebrity photographers are, I have mixed feelings about the latter, because it IS dangerous and it IS dehumanizing and it DOES feed and pacify America's culture of IDIOCY, distracting the majority of the population from important news and issues.

Despite the fact that I'm an actress and you're a comic, and we both stand to benefit from exposure, I wish that stiff laws would be put in place to prohibit and punish this type of behavior. It just isn't good.