Mia Navarro

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Ohio Police Chief Learns the Cost of Celebrity

Posted:

11/27/09

Filed Under:Woman Up

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This is what the paparazzi have wrought: Barry P. Carpenter, a police chief in Ohio , was convicted this week of "theft in office" and other charges in connection with a break-in at the home of the surrogate mother carrying twins for actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick.

The motivation? He was trying to steal ultrasound pictures of the twins, pictures of the mother and legal documents to sell to the photographers, who testified against the chief during the trial.

The bright spot in this immensely bizarre episode is that the price of paparazzi pictures is down, just like everything else in this economy, so the economic incentive to break the law for a celebrity photo has lessened. The Daily Beast recently estimated that a celebrity shot sells for 31 percent less these days than two years ago. At the high-end of the market (Brangelina and company,) pictures fetch 50 percent less than they used to.

In my years reporting on Hollywood and its lifestyle, I always found paparazzi to be completely unapologetic for their business. They said the public is eager to see the photographs and the celebrities are eager for the publicity, so why should the photographers be blamed? They've got a point, which is why they've thrived despite all the criticism hurled their way.

The paparazzi's negative image dates back at least to Jackie O's public feud with Ron Galella, and was heightened by the accident that killed Princess Diana during a 1997 paparazzi car chase in Paris. These days, the paparazzi's ranks include many amateurs who have found hanging out at Los Angeles celebrity hangouts, or trolling the beaches of Malibu, where movie stars like Pierce Brosnan own homes, highly lucrative.

I once ran into a college student who had turned occasional paparazzo after a chance encounter with Dustin Hoffman. She snapped a few pictures of the actor and sent them to two photo agencies on a lark. She made $780 for 13 pictures -- "in not even 10 minutes of work," she noted. Since then she had devoted her weekends and free afternoons to staking out celebrity hot spots with an old-fashioned 35-mm film camera.

The corps of opportunistic paparazzi I ran into also included a moonlighting Spanish-speaking cook and a couple of teenage boys.

But now business is down, which may be bad news for the paps but good news for the vulnerable, including easy-to-corrupt police chiefs.

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Mia Navarro

Mia Navarro is a New York Times reporter based in New York, where she covers the environment. She is also the author of Green Wedding.... more

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Wish Belkin

11:23AM Nov 27th 2009

Paparazzi = bottom feeders

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Bart

2:06PM Nov 27th 2009

Please don't call paparazzi photographers. I spent years in photo school learning how to shoot. I was trained to shoot every camera from 35mm to a 8x10 cameras. I do photography for editorial and advertising clients now. Paparazzi's I agree are bottom feeders with very little photo knowledge about photography. Most put their store bought digital cameras in the automatic mode and start shooting. It is sad to see how much money they can make for staking a celebrity. I am for all laws against that type of photography. Me and my photography friends have very little respect for these guys and they do give hard working photographers a bad name.

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bonbon

3:51PM Nov 27th 2009

no amount of money is worth doing what the Paparazzi do.

many of them should be ashamed of themselves,

they killed Princess Diana.

I hope this police officer loses his job and his benefits, we do not need people like him working for us.

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(2)

tyrebitre

9:57PM Nov 27th 2009

bonbon
3:51PM Nov 27th 2009
no amount of money is worth doing what the Paparazzi do.

many of them should be ashamed of themselves,

they killed Kenny.

I hope this police officer loses his job and his benefits, we do not need people like him working for us.

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michael

8:15PM Nov 30th 2009

Same old story above the law better than everybody else more perfect saints get caught, the only and most privelidged people in our society, Just think of the ones that didn't get caught yet, You all know this person was one of the most protected people in society with a 50 state carry liscense for life HUH whats with that. Another real perfect saint, locals HUH Everybody else is unsuitable and untrustworthy except him and his partners in crime HUH Yep just a perfect saint and everything you do he can do better. He is great and you are just a piece of taxpayer dog crap.

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