The Celebrity Fight For A Little Privacy

George says, "I'm perfectly willing to take my hits if I'm caught doing something stupid. The problem is that some of these guys aren't professional videographers; they're a bunch of kids with videocams who try and force you into a confrontation. They'll push and yell volatile things like, 'Hey, George, who's the fat chick?' Or I'm walking with a guy, they ask, 'Is that your gay lover?' And as soon as you say, 'Why, you son of a bitch!' they sell it to Hard Copy."

Mr. Clooney has charged that the tabloid media has failed to take its "share" of the responsibility for the death of Princess Diana. Many celebrities approached him because of his previous fight, to hold a Press Conference. These celebrities included Madonna, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robert DeNiro, Whoopi Goldberg, Alec Baldwin, Dean Cain, and the list goes on and on. At the Press conference he said the supermarket tabloids and television celebrity shows have made "bounty hunters" out of photographers. He challenged editors to clean up their act or have others do it for them.

While Clooney has not slugged a videorazzo--yet--he did exact unusual revenge on a cameraman who was hiding in the bushes next to his house. It seems Clooney has a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, and it rooted out the photographer and sent him scrambling over a fence, causing him to drop his camera in flight. "He wanted to sue me," Clooney says incredulously. "But I ended up with a nice broken camera that's hanging on my mantel right now."

Madonna, knows all too well the intrusive nature of the paparazzi. During the filming of Evita in Argentina, paparazzi paid small children to lie down in front of her car so she might accidentally run them over; when they stopped the paparazzi snapped pictures of her. Madonna's privacy is constantly invaded as photographers try to take pictures into her home, to get a picture of her daughter. Madonna, also claims she has been chased through the same deadly tunnel in Paris by the paparazzi.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and pregnant wife Maria Shriver claim they barely avoided a crash early this year in Santa Monica, after being forced off the road by pursuing photographers trying to cut off their car. The photographers are facing criminal charges.

In 1995, Alec Baldwin tookout his rage on the video paparazzi who shot footage of him bringing new baby Ireland and wife Kim Basinger home from the hospital to their Hollywood abode. Baldwin was arrested after the freelance lensman, Alan Zanger, alleged the angry actor had given him a black eye. A jury acquitted the actor of all charges after a trial.

Robert De Niro, too, was involved in a fight with a lensman that made headlines. In late '95, he was accused by cameraman Joseph Ligier of pinning him to an automobile outside a Manhattan bar, demanding he hand over his video. A lawyer representing the actor said he had been informed by telephone that the case could be made to go away for $300,000. The charges were eventually dismissed, at the request of the victim.

Tony Danza chased a cameraman down Pacific Coast Highway last year near his Malibu home, trying to retrieve film footage the man had taken of Danza and his daughters playing on a private beach.

When Jackie Kennedy Onassis, bothered by ubiquitous lensman Ron Galella in the '70s, got a court order preventing him from coming closer than 300 feet when she went out in public.

Tom Cruise called for laws to curb press "harassment" of celebrities. "I've actually been in that same tunnel being chased by paparazzis, and they run lights, and they chase you and harass you the whole time. It happens all over the world, and it has certainly gotten worse," he said by telephone. "You don't know what it's like being chased by them. It is harassment under the guise of, you know, 'We are the press, we are entitled,' and when people are having a private moment, they should be allowed to have a private moment," Cruise said. "I think we need laws for what is harassing an individual," he said. The "substantial" prices paid for pictures of celebrities cause such aggressive behavior, the actor suggested.

Woody Harrelson defended his family from a hord of reporters at an airport by punching the reporter in the face. Woody was upset by them pushing and shoving to get a picture of his daughter.