Paparazzi gone wild
By Denise Martin, Special to The Times, and Patrick Day, Times Staff Writer
But there are those celebrities who have been fighting back against the invasive lenses for years. Here’s a look at some the strange (Avril Lavigne spits!), expensive (Kanye West smashes cameras!) and violent ways (Scarlett Johansson runs them over!) stars have gotten even.
At left, paparazzi magnet Lindsay Lohan. (James Devaney WireImage.com)
On Sept. 11, 2008, West and his bodyguard smashed the cameras of photographers trying to take pictures of the rapper while he was awaiting a flight at LAX. (TMZ caught the incident on tape, for your viewing pleasure.)
Police arrested West on suspicion of felony vandalism but released him on bail just hours later. West wrote on his blog the next day that there’s no hard feelings between him and the paparazzi: “We back in the lab!!! I’m cool with the paparazzi. This guy wasn’t cool. I gotta work now... I’ll rant later!” (Justin Lane EPA)
After being temporarily denied access to her kids while on leave from rehab, Britney Spears took out her frustration on an X17 photographer’s car near the
She spits, she scores! Avril Lavigne’s choice method of dealing with pesky photographers is to hawk loogies at them. Her aim is good: She hit the lens of a TMZ camera one night. A few days later, after celebrating her 22nd birthday at Hollywood nightclub Hyde, the singer’s saliva smacked another member of the paparazzi square in the face. (Ballesteros EPA)
Reese Witherspoon took several photographers to court in 2005 for “false imprisonment,” alleging that they had followed her from her Westside gym and blocked in her car outside a gated community. She lost. Before that, she was confronted by aggressive paparazzi trying to photograph the actress and her children during at trip to Disney’s California Adventure theme park. The photographer allegedly assaulted two park employees, prompting security to call the police. (Kiyoshi Ota / Getty Images)
Matthew McConaughey
Scarlett Johansson
In the summer of 2005,
The former couple got into a tussle with photographers Saul Lazo and Joe Gonazales, who filed a complaint with the LAPD accusing the pair of battery and grand theft. The incident occurred outside of the Chateau Marmont in 2004. Lazo told US Weekly that after he took some pictures, “Cameron just ran at me. She tried to take me down. Then she took my camera.’' Gonzales, meanwhile, said he dealt with Timberlake, who “jumped in front of me to block the shots so there would be no evidence.” (Andrew D. Bernstein NBAE)
While bringing their newborn daughter home from the hospital in 1996, Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin were confronted by a paparazzi trying to get a shot of their baby. Baldwin and the photographer got into a scuffle, which led to the actor being arrested. He was later cleared of the charge of misdemeanor battery. (Associated Press)
The troubled young actress was involved in a car crash in May 2005 caused when a pursuing paparazzo accidentally struck her car. The incident led to a statewide law reining in the intrusive photographers. But Lohan encountered more trouble later that year, when she struck a parking van on Robertson Boulevard in