Experts Predict Baldwin Loss in Photographer Case

Lawyers for Alec Baldwin began Monday to lay out their case against a photographer Baldwin has been battling, with many media law experts saying the movie star has little chance of winning his privacy claim.

“I would say that it’s an uphill battle for Baldwin,” said Douglas Mirell, a Los Angeles lawyer specializing in 1st Amendment issues. “Anything a celebrity does in public can be filmed.”

Baldwin contends, among other things, that celebrity photographer Alan Zanger intruded on his “solitude” when Zanger camped outside Baldwin’s Woodland Hills house and videotaped the actor bringing home his wife, Kim Basinger, and their newborn daughter, Ireland, from the hospital after her birth three years ago.

Zanger replies that he was within his rights, shooting from his truck which was legally parked on a city street.

The incident ended with Zanger getting hit in the face by either his camera or Baldwin’s hand. The photographer sued Baldwin the next day and Baldwin filed a countersuit.

Mirell and others say celebrities have had mixed results in filing privacy lawsuits against those who make their living taking stars’ photographs.

As long as the photographer was not trespassing on private property, and was only taking shots of what could be seen from a place to which he had legal access, there’s not much legal recourse for the subject of the photos, attorneys familiar with such cases said.

But when photographers use high-powered lenses to peek through bedroom shades, climb trees to see over fences, or sneak into hospital rooms, for instance, the stars are in a stronger legal position, they said.

“This case is on one extreme of the spectrum. It’s perfectly legal,” said Rex Heinke, a 1st Amendment lawyer who has represented Newsweek, Paramount studios and the Los Angeles Times. “If I’m in a public place and I take a photo of something that anybody can see, there’s no invasion of privacy.”

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But Neil Papiano, who has represented such celebrities as Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins and Ed McMahon, disagreed.

“When the celebrities are using the media, they’ve waived their right of privacy. But there’s a time and a place when that’s all done,” Papiano said. “You do expect you’ll have the right to bring your wife home from the hospital and have a right to privacy.”

Baldwin’s lawyer, Philip D. Weiss, said that while he thinks he does have a case of invasion of privacy, his primary goal is really to defend his client against Zanger’s claims of assault, battery, negligence and infliction of emotional distress.

“Baldwin would have never brought this lawsuit,” Weiss said. In his countersuit, Baldwin is also claiming assault, negligence and infliction of emotional distress.

How the jury will rule in the remainder of the issues will depend on whose story they believe.

Both sides agree that when Baldwin noticed Zanger’s customized truck parked outside his home, the actor covered the camper’s windows with shaving cream.

Zanger said he was terrified, haunted by flashbacks of an earlier incident in which a celebrity’s boyfriend bashed his car with a baseball bat. Afraid to be trapped inside, Zanger said he climbed out so he could get away, then was attacked by Baldwin who smashed him in the face, then kicked him in the rear.

Baldwin said he was going back to his house with his can of shaving cream when he saw Zanger get out of the truck and continue filming, according to his lawyer. The actor said he walked toward the paparazzo to tell him to turn the camera off, but Zanger continued to film. Baldwin claimed Zanger quickly raised his camera, startling the actor, who slapped it away, accidentally hitting Zanger in the face with the camera.

Baldwin was arrested after the incident, but a jury eventually acquitted him of criminal charges. Jurors at the time said Zanger lost credibility when he admitted exaggerating accounts of the confrontation in a news interview.

The civil trial began last week. In testimony that stretched over three days, Zanger said he still suffers from dizziness and nasal problems because of the blow dealt him three years ago.

Leonard Steiner, Zanger’s lawyer, rested his case Monday. Baldwin is expected to take the stand today.