Melissa Giaimo
Staff Writer
Malibu residents may be willing to put up with swarming paparazzi when Britney Spears orders a latte at Starbucks, but when interaction between paparazzi and locals turned dangerous, the mayor turned to Dean Kenneth Starr at Pepperdine School of Law for help.
Malibu Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich, who is also an adjunct professor at the law school, said she began seriously considering drafting legislation to curb paparazzi intrusion after receiving complaints about paparazzi ambushing celebrities’ children at local elementary schools.
“I need[ed] to get the best brains in the country together to see how we can balance [public safety and First Amendment rights],” she said.
Malibu made international headlines this summer after a brawl broke out between surfers and paparazzi on Saturday, June 21, when a “pap pack” arrived at Little Dume Beach to get a shot of Matthew McConaughey surfing.
In the search to capture celebrities’ unguarded moments to sell to magazines for thousands of dollars per photos, local residents and officials say an aggressive new breed of paparazzi has descended on the beachside community in a manner never before seen.
“I heard what sounded like a herd of horses going by,” Cindy Erickson said, describing a mob of paparazzi that chased after Halle Berry outside of the Malibu Beach Club where she works. Erickson, who has lived in Malibu for 45 years, said she has seen the number of paparazzi dramatically increase over the last 10 years.
Ulich said some of the most serious reports that she has received include reckless driving on Pacific Coast Highway in pursuit of celebrities, a report of a third-grader who protected her friends at school from photographers and a celebrity mother who feared for her own safety and that of her three-year-old when paparazzi surrounded her. This conduct by paparazzi, especially on Malibu’s main road, puts all residents and visitors at risk, Ulich said.
After attending a First Amendment symposium at the Pepperdine School of Law in April, Ulich contacted Starr’s office.
“[Starr] graciously agreed to help as a good neighbor,” Ulich said.
Starr helped coordinate a team to serve as informal advisers to the mayor. The team worked throughout the summer, researching existing case law related to paparazzi and advising on ways for the city council to consider drafting ordinances that regulate paparazzi while complying with the First Amendment.
“This was friends and neighbors coming together for informal advice,” said Starr, who also noted that he was especially concerned about issues of public safety and the welfare of children. “We did not try, in any respect, to be anything more than a resource for the city.”
City councilman Jefferson Wagner, who also owns Zuma Jay’s surf shop, said he is happy the mayor approached Pepperdine for help, especially as the aid comes free of charge.
Soon after organizing the group, Starr left to teach at Pepperdine’s campus in London for the summer, and Assistant Dean Shelley Saxer of the law school assumed the lead. She directed a team of Pepperdine legal experts, which included nationally recognized First Amendment expert Barry McDonald and law professor Mark Scarberry.
The team researched all areas in which paparazzi could potentially break the law, including trespassing, speeding or reckless driving, loitering, blocking streets and sidewalks, intentionally inflicting harm or threatening harm, causing a nuisance or making a public disturbance.
“What we found was that there are a lot of laws that already exist out there that could potentially be applied to the paparazzi situation,” McDonald said.
Additionally, they looked for areas where the law could be strengthened.
“We also discussed where there were gaps in the existing laws, where they weren’t effective to deal with some of the problems, particularly at public schools,” McDonald said.
One way the mayor could draft new laws to curb paparazzi intrusion is by regulating the time, place and manner that paparazzi take their photos, McDonald said. “Time, place, manner” ordinances are a standard type of law in First Amendment jurisprudence that typically stand in courts, because they do not regulate the content or substance of the activity.
“Where First Amendment law makes it very difficult for government to pass laws is when the law itself is discriminatory between speech activity on the basis of their content, [such as politics or religion],” McDonald said. “Sometimes, it’s tricky to tailor [the law] enough in public places that it doesn’t restrict too much expressive activity, while [still] addressing the harm the law was passed for.”
The team provided the mayor with draft “time, place, manner” ordinances, which aim to protect children at public schools from paparazzi. The language of the ordinances addresses specific types of disturbances that have been occurring at schools.
One draft ordinance protects the privacy and security of celebrities’ children while at school by preventing paparazzi from taking photos of children and publishing them in violation of parents’ wishes. Another prevents paparazzi from forcing their way into school pick-up and drop-off lines, potentially causing physical and emotional harm to children and their parents.
Although most media attention this summer has focused on the controversial proposal for paparazzi buffer laws, which would create a “personal safety zone” around celebrities, these recommendations were not made by Pepperdine, according to McDonald. Rather, the Los Angeles City Council, led by Councilman Dennis Zine, has been the prime backer of these laws.
Another proposal Ulich is considering that did not come from Pepperdine’s team requires paparazzi to obtain special licenses to photograph in Malibu. Because state law already requires anyone taking photographs for commercial purposes on state or public land to obtain a permit, some are proposing that the law could be rephrased to include paparazzi. However, because “breaking news” coverage is protected by the First Amendment, it does not require a permit.
Los Angeles Police Department Chief William J. Bratton and Los Angeles County Sherriff Lee Baca have been outspoken about their belief that existing laws are sufficient to deal with the paparazzi in Malibu. Bratton blamed the celebrities themselves for their problems with paparazzi.
“If the ones that attract the paparazzi behave in the first place, like we expect of anybody, that solves about 90 percent of the problem. The rest we can deal with,” Bratton told KNBC-TV in July.
Some Malibu residents agree with Bratton that sufficient laws already exist to deal with paparazzi.
“I don’t think we need more laws,” said Erickson of the Malibu Beach Club, where celebrities often shop. “I think they just need to follow the same laws we do.”
Erickson, who has lived in Malibu for 45 years, believes getting chased by paparazzi comes with the territory for celebrities.
“I have mixed emotions about paparazzi,” she said. “[Celebrities] can’t have it both ways … If you’re Matthew McConaughey, how do you go surfing by yourself? You don’t.”
Another local, Ed Meyer, has argued against action to curb paparazzi in a series of letters to the editor of the Malibu Surfside News. The celebrity publicist and former producer of “Entertainment Tonight,” believes paparazzi are integral to celebrities and to the city of Malibu.
“By running the paparazzi out of Malibu, we are destroying our own Malibu glitz, glamour, economy and future,” he wrote in the Aug. 14 issue of the Malibu Surfside News. “I know first-hand how hard it is for [celebrities] to maintain their ongoing appeal among their fans, without the paparazzi following and photographing them.”
He argues that the allure of Malibu is its unique status as a place where celebrities can live like everyday people.
“The power of Malibu can turn a routine traffic stop into a headline in every single media outlet within mere minutes. The celebrities and the paparazzi both know this power of Malibu, and that is why they hang out in our little town,” he wrote in the Aug. 28 issue.
Ulich will be holding a public hearing on Monday, Sept. 29 from 4 to 5 p.m. in Malibu City Hall. At the hearing, Ulich will invite members of the public to offer their viewpoints about how they want the city council to address the paparazzi situation, if at all. Ulich said she is taking no further action until the hearing, other than reviewing the research Pepperdine School of Law has provided her.
Having transmitted the research material on Aug. 7 to Ulich, Saxer said Pepperdine law school’s role in assisting the mayor is now complete.
09-04-2008