Paparazzi
Encyclopedia
Paparazzi pɑːpəˈrɑːtsi (singular: (m) Paparazzo papaˈrattso or (f) Paparazza) is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography
of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people. Paparazzi tend to be independent contractors, unaffiliated with a mainstream media
organization.
originating in the 1960 film La Dolce Vita
directed by Federico Fellini
. One of the characters in the film is a news photographer named Paparazzo (played by Walter Santesso). In his book Word and Phrase Origins, Robert Hendrickson writes that Fellini took the name from an Italian
dialect word that describes a particularly annoying noise, that of a buzzing mosquito
. In his school days, Fellini remembered a boy who was nicknamed "paparazzo", because of his fast talking and constant movements, a name Fellini later applied to the fictional character in La Dolce Vita. This version of the word's origin has been strongly contested.
The English usage of the word paparazzi is traced to Italian poet Margherita Guidacci
, in her translation of George Gissing’s travel book By the Ionian Sea (1901), in which a restaurant-owner is called Coriolano Paparazzo. The name was supplied by the screenwriter of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita
, Ennio Flaiano, who in turn got it from Margherita Guidacci's Sulle Rive dello Ionio (1957). By the late 1960s the word, usually in the Italian plural form paparazzi, had entered English as a generic term for intrusive photographers.
In an interview with Fellini's screenwriter Ennio Flaiano
, he said the name came from the Italian translation based on a 1901 southern Italy travel narrative by Victorian writer George Gissing
, By the Ionian Sea. He further states that either Fellini or Flaiano opened the book at random, saw the name, and decided to use it for the photographer. This story is further documented by a variety of Gissing scholars and in the book A Sweet and Glorious Land: Revisiting the Ionian Sea (St. Martin's Press, 2000) by John Keahey, and Pierre Coustillas.
of "paparazzi" is used in several languages that do not use the Latin alphabet, including Japanese
, Korean
, Russian
and Thai
. Chinese
uses "", meaning "puppy squad."
) restrict their activities by passing laws and curfew
s, and by staging events in which paparazzi are specifically not allowed to take photographs. In Norway
, Germany
and France
, photographers need the permission of the people in their photographs in order for them to be released. (see model release
).
In Norway it is legal to release photographs when they are relevant and of general interest.
An inquest jury investigated the paparazzi involvement in the deaths of Princess Diana
and Dodi Fayed, who were killed on 31 August 1997 in a high-speed car chase in Paris, France, while being pursued by paparazzi. Although several paparazzi were briefly taken into custody
, no one was convicted. The official inquests into the accident attributed the causes to the speed and manner of driving of the Mercedes, the speed and manner of driving of the following vehicles, and the impairment of the judgment of the Mercedes driver, Henri Paul
, through alcohol.
In 1972, paparazzo photographer Ron Galella
sued Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
after the former First Lady ordered her secret service men to destroy Galella's camera and film following an encounter in New York City's Central Park
. Kennedy counter-sued claiming harassment. The trial lasted three weeks and became a groundbreaking case regarding photojournalism and the role of paparazzi. In "Galella v. Onassis", Kennedy obtained a restraining order to keep Galella 150 feet away from her and her children. The restriction later was dropped to 25 feet. The trial is a focal point in Smash His Camera
, a 2010 documentary film by director Leon Gast
.
In 1999, the Oriental Daily News
of Hong Kong was found guilty of "scandalizing the court", an extremely rare criminal charge
that the newspaper
's conduct would undermine confidence in the administration of justice. The charge was brought after the newspaper had published abusive articles challenging the judiciary
's integrity and accusing it of bias
in a lawsuit
the paper had instigated over a photo of a pregnant
Faye Wong
. The paper had also arranged for a "dog team" (slang for paparazzi in the Chinese language) to track a judge
for 72 hours, to provide the judge with first-hand experience with what paparazzi do.
Time
magazine's Style & Design special issue in 2005 ran a story entitled "Shooting Star", in which Mel Bouzad, one of the top paparazzi in Los Angeles
at the time, claimed to have made US$
150,000 for a picture of Ben Affleck
and Jennifer Lopez
in Georgia after their breakup. "If I get a picture of Britney
and her baby," Bouzad claimed, "I'll be able to buy a house in those hills (above Sunset Boulevard
)." Paparazzi author Peter Howe told Time that "celebrities need a higher level of exposure than the rest of us so it is a two-way street. The celebrities manipulate."
In 2006, Daniela Cicarelli
went through a scandal when a paparazzo caught video footage of her having sex with her boyfriend on a beach in Spain, which was posted on YouTube
. After fighting in the court, it was decided in her favor, causing YouTube to be blocked in Brazil
. This caused major havoc among Brazilians, including threatening a boycott
against MTV
unless Cicarelli was fired from the company. The block only lasted a few days, and Cicarelli did not get fired. The legal action backfired as the court decided she had no expectation of privacy
by having sex in a public location.
The E!
network program Celebrities Uncensored
used often-confrontational footage of celebrities made by paparazzi.
In 2008, a paparazzo sued and lost his case against actor Keanu Reeves claiming that Reeves hit him with his car after he left his friend's house. The photographer also claimed that he was unable to work since the accident stating that his hand was permanently injured and asked the court for over $700,000 in compensation. The photographer was privately investigated and filmed still working using the said injured hand and shown to have many inconsistencies in his story.
In the United Kingdom the actress Sienna Miller
and singers Amy Winehouse
and Lily Allen
have won injunctions that prevent the paparazzi from following them and gathering outside their houses. Miller was awarded £53,000.
Candid photography
Candid photography is photography that focuses on spontaneity rather than technique, on the immersion of a camera within events rather than focusing on setting up a staged situation or on preparing a lengthy camera setup.-Description:...
of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people. Paparazzi tend to be independent contractors, unaffiliated with a mainstream media
Mainstream media
Mainstream media are those media disseminated via the largest distribution channels, which therefore represent what the majority of media consumers are likely to encounter...
organization.
Etymology:
The word "paparazzi" is an eponymEponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
originating in the 1960 film La Dolce Vita
La Dolce Vita
La Dolce Vita is a 1960 comedy-drama film written and directed by the critically acclaimed director Federico Fellini. The film is a story of a passive journalist's week in Rome, and his search for both happiness and love that will never come...
directed by Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
. One of the characters in the film is a news photographer named Paparazzo (played by Walter Santesso). In his book Word and Phrase Origins, Robert Hendrickson writes that Fellini took the name from an Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
dialect word that describes a particularly annoying noise, that of a buzzing mosquito
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
. In his school days, Fellini remembered a boy who was nicknamed "paparazzo", because of his fast talking and constant movements, a name Fellini later applied to the fictional character in La Dolce Vita. This version of the word's origin has been strongly contested.
The English usage of the word paparazzi is traced to Italian poet Margherita Guidacci
Margherita Guidacci
-External links:* , introduces the work of Margherita Guidacci to English-reading audiences presenting her work in the context of the diversity of women's poetry in Italy during the decades since World War II....
, in her translation of George Gissing’s travel book By the Ionian Sea (1901), in which a restaurant-owner is called Coriolano Paparazzo. The name was supplied by the screenwriter of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita
La Dolce Vita
La Dolce Vita is a 1960 comedy-drama film written and directed by the critically acclaimed director Federico Fellini. The film is a story of a passive journalist's week in Rome, and his search for both happiness and love that will never come...
, Ennio Flaiano, who in turn got it from Margherita Guidacci's Sulle Rive dello Ionio (1957). By the late 1960s the word, usually in the Italian plural form paparazzi, had entered English as a generic term for intrusive photographers.
In an interview with Fellini's screenwriter Ennio Flaiano
Ennio Flaiano
Ennio Flaiano , was an Italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist and drama critic...
, he said the name came from the Italian translation based on a 1901 southern Italy travel narrative by Victorian writer George Gissing
George Gissing
George Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published twenty-three novels between 1880 and 1903. From his early naturalistic works, he developed into one of the most accomplished realists of the late-Victorian era.-Early life:...
, By the Ionian Sea. He further states that either Fellini or Flaiano opened the book at random, saw the name, and decided to use it for the photographer. This story is further documented by a variety of Gissing scholars and in the book A Sweet and Glorious Land: Revisiting the Ionian Sea (St. Martin's Press, 2000) by John Keahey, and Pierre Coustillas.
In other languages
A transliterationTransliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
of "paparazzi" is used in several languages that do not use the Latin alphabet, including Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
. Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
uses "", meaning "puppy squad."
Legality of paparazzi
Due to the reputation of paparazzi as a nuisance, some states and countries (particularly within EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
) restrict their activities by passing laws and curfew
Curfew
A curfew is an order specifying a time after which certain regulations apply. Examples:# An order by a government for certain persons to return home daily before a certain time...
s, and by staging events in which paparazzi are specifically not allowed to take photographs. In Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, photographers need the permission of the people in their photographs in order for them to be released. (see model release
Model release
A model release, known in similar contexts as a liability waiver, is a legal release typically signed by the subject of a photograph granting permission to publish the photograph in one form or another...
).
In Norway it is legal to release photographs when they are relevant and of general interest.
Injunctions against paparazzi
Death of Diana, Princess of Wales
On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Fayed's...
and Dodi Fayed, who were killed on 31 August 1997 in a high-speed car chase in Paris, France, while being pursued by paparazzi. Although several paparazzi were briefly taken into custody
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
, no one was convicted. The official inquests into the accident attributed the causes to the speed and manner of driving of the Mercedes, the speed and manner of driving of the following vehicles, and the impairment of the judgment of the Mercedes driver, Henri Paul
Henri Paul
Henri Paul was the Deputy Head of Security at the Hôtel Ritz Paris. He was the driver at the time of the car accident at the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris that killed him along with Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed on 31 August 1997. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the sole survivor of...
, through alcohol.
In 1972, paparazzo photographer Ron Galella
Ron Galella
Ron Galella is an American photographer, known as a pioneer paparazzo. Dubbed "Paparazzo Extraordinaire" by Newsweek and "the Godfather of the U.S...
sued Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier "Jackie" Kennedy Onassis was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and served as First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. Five years later she married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle...
after the former First Lady ordered her secret service men to destroy Galella's camera and film following an encounter in New York City's Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
. Kennedy counter-sued claiming harassment. The trial lasted three weeks and became a groundbreaking case regarding photojournalism and the role of paparazzi. In "Galella v. Onassis", Kennedy obtained a restraining order to keep Galella 150 feet away from her and her children. The restriction later was dropped to 25 feet. The trial is a focal point in Smash His Camera
Smash His Camera
Smash His Camera is a 2010 documentary film directed by filmmaker Leon Gast about the life and career of paparazzi photographer Ron Galella. In early 2010, the film won "Best Director" of a documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, began a limited U.S. theatrical release on 30 July 2010 through...
, a 2010 documentary film by director Leon Gast
Leon Gast
Leon Gast is an American documentary film director, producer, cinematographer, and editor. His documentary When We Were Kings depicting the iconic heavyweight boxing match termed The Rumble in the Jungle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman won the 1996 Academy Award for Documentary Feature and...
.
In 1999, the Oriental Daily News
Oriental Daily News
Oriental Daily News is a Chinese language newspaper in Hong Kong. It was established in 1969. It is one of the two newspapers published by the Oriental Press Group Limited , found by Ma's Family.-History:While Oriental Daily targets at a more mature reader group, Sun Daily Oriental Daily News is...
of Hong Kong was found guilty of "scandalizing the court", an extremely rare criminal charge
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
that the newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
's conduct would undermine confidence in the administration of justice. The charge was brought after the newspaper had published abusive articles challenging the judiciary
Judiciary
The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes...
's integrity and accusing it of bias
Bias
Bias is an inclination to present or hold a partial perspective at the expense of alternatives. Bias can come in many forms.-In judgement and decision making:...
in a lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
the paper had instigated over a photo of a pregnant
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
Faye Wong
Faye Wong
Faye Wong is a highly successful and influential Chinese singer-songwriter and actress who is usually referred to as a diva . Early in her career she briefly used the stage name Shirley Wong . Born in Beijing, she moved to Hong Kong in 1987 and rose to stardom in the early 1990s by singing...
. The paper had also arranged for a "dog team" (slang for paparazzi in the Chinese language) to track a judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
for 72 hours, to provide the judge with first-hand experience with what paparazzi do.
Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine's Style & Design special issue in 2005 ran a story entitled "Shooting Star", in which Mel Bouzad, one of the top paparazzi in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
at the time, claimed to have made US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
150,000 for a picture of Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
and Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
in Georgia after their breakup. "If I get a picture of Britney
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
and her baby," Bouzad claimed, "I'll be able to buy a house in those hills (above Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
)." Paparazzi author Peter Howe told Time that "celebrities need a higher level of exposure than the rest of us so it is a two-way street. The celebrities manipulate."
In 2006, Daniela Cicarelli
Daniela Cicarelli
Daniella Cicarelli Lemos is a former TV show hostess for MTV Brasil and a fashion model. She was engaged to Brazilian footballer Ronaldo for three months in 2005....
went through a scandal when a paparazzo caught video footage of her having sex with her boyfriend on a beach in Spain, which was posted on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. After fighting in the court, it was decided in her favor, causing YouTube to be blocked in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. This caused major havoc among Brazilians, including threatening a boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
against MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
unless Cicarelli was fired from the company. The block only lasted a few days, and Cicarelli did not get fired. The legal action backfired as the court decided she had no expectation of privacy
Expectation of privacy
In United States constitutional law the expectation of privacy is a legal test which is crucial in defining the scope of the applicability of the privacy protections of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution...
by having sex in a public location.
The E!
E!
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...
network program Celebrities Uncensored
Celebrities Uncensored
Celebrities Uncensored is a TV program on the E! network that edited together amusing paparazzi footage of celebrities, usually in public places such as public sidewalks, restaurants, nightclubs, etc. The celebrities were often friendly, but sometimes their more unfriendly antics were featured in...
used often-confrontational footage of celebrities made by paparazzi.
In 2008, a paparazzo sued and lost his case against actor Keanu Reeves claiming that Reeves hit him with his car after he left his friend's house. The photographer also claimed that he was unable to work since the accident stating that his hand was permanently injured and asked the court for over $700,000 in compensation. The photographer was privately investigated and filmed still working using the said injured hand and shown to have many inconsistencies in his story.
In the United Kingdom the actress Sienna Miller
Sienna Miller
Sienna Rose Diana Miller is a British-American actress, model, and fashion designer, best known for her roles in Layer Cake, Alfie, Factory Girl, The Edge of Love and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2007, the London Film Criticsnamed her British Actress of the Year for Interview...
and singers Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize...
and Lily Allen
Lily Allen
Lily Rose Beatrice Cooper , better known as Lily Allen, is an English recording artist and fashion designer. She is the daughter of actor and musician Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. In her teenage years, her musical tastes evolved from glam rock to alternative...
have won injunctions that prevent the paparazzi from following them and gathering outside their houses. Miller was awarded £53,000.