We've all seen the photos and read the reports about famous people running from photographers and reporters.
Since the Britney Spears incidents the photographers are known just as “Paps” and are hated by many.
Wait a minute. Do the photographers pursue you and me as we go about our daily routine? No one snaps us buying lettuce or filling up the car...and the reason, of course, is that we aren't famous. And there is the double edged sword.
People want to be famous...they want what goes with fame...money and perks...luxuries, big cars, designer fashions, the best restaurants, diamonds on loan for special occasions and plenty of cash.
What we don't want is the result of that fame. In other words, we want it both ways-we think, at least.
We want to be able to dine out at a top flight establishment and walk out to our car with no problem, but it doesn't work that way.
The reason is simple. Gossip magazines, newspapers, web sites, blogs...they all live for the special “shot” of someone famous, or infamous. Without the photos, no delicious pictures on mag covers. How many copies of that mag would you buy if the cover was devoted to Joe Blow walking his mongrel dog on Thursday night, or Mrs. Joe unloading groceries from the SUV?
Photographers and reporters are people, too. This is their profession like yours might be working in an office or a factory. They get paid to produce. How long could they find work if they never came back with the “money shot”? Not long, you bet.
“So let them take ordinary photos,” you say, and how much is someone going to pay for yet another photo of the Golden Gate Bridge? If someone offered you $50,000 to get a photo of a famous person sunbathing in the nude, in most cases, you'd go for it.
For one thing getting the “money shot” is the ticket to better assignments and everyone wants to move up in their chosen profession.
And a few words about the celebrities. Let's say they went to dinner and came out and instead of taking their photo, the photographers were staring off in space, totally disinterested. They'd be pretty mad, you can be sure.
If you don't want your photo taken, don't go to dinner in Beverly Hills, drive your high dollar car in a wild manner, drive drunk, hit other cars or do other things designed to get attention.
It's something like the girl who dresses in a low cut blouse and mini-mini skirt and gets mad at the guys who stare at her.
There are celebrities who live very quiet lives, never appear in magazines, never heap abuse on photographers and reporters, and there are those who obviously court this attention and then deny they do.
Actually it looks pretty intentional to me. You want major coverage you go to a public place, then make a scene when someone takes your photo. That way you get double coverage...and how would those famous people feel if they had a major announcement to make and nobody came? Or if they created a scene in public and nobody cared?
Before they complain, they should think a while about why they wanted to become famous in the first place. They wanted the attention, after all.
You don't become an actor, an actress, writer, producer unless you hope to become well known, make lots of money, get lots of big, challenging projects and maybe show those people back home they were wrong about you all the time.
The price for this is both good and bad, but that is the price. Blaming the little guy making a living snapping photos is not the answer. He's a result, not a cause. If you don't want what you appear to want, go eat supper at Burger King, wash your car yourself, do your sunbathing under a sun lamp and keep your underwear on...that might help.
