Hunting Lindsay Lohan

Every day on the streets of Los Angeles, paparazzi chase after today’s biggest stars for their pictures. Meet the man everybody loves to hate.

Peering over a privacy gate that rings the garden of Hollywood’s storied Chateau Marmont, Giles Harrison cracks a wicked smile. The six-foot-eight, 300-pound paparazzo has a lens trained on one of the hottest teen actresses on the planet as she enjoys some afternoon drinks with friends. “We’ve got Lindsay Lohan drinking a Corona,” he whispers as he clicks away. “That’s underage drinking. That’s a good one.” While the 19-year-old Lohan’s frequent visits to chic nightclubs litter the gossip columns, no one has snapped the money shot of her actually imbibing—until now.

It’s the catch of the day for the British-born Harrison, 37, a battle-hardened soldier in the SUV army of paparazzi who trawl Los Angeles for celebrities. In 1998, he spent 39 days in jail after he and another photographer were accused of running Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mercedes, which carried his son and pregnant wife, off the road and then jumping out to take pictures. The incident, on the heels of the death of Princess Diana, prompted California to pass its first antipaparazzi law.

While he hated doing time, Harrison hasn’t managed to stay out of trouble. In 2002, he served 17 days for breaking the nose of a rival shooter from Fame Pictures who Harrison claims uttered the n-word while they were jockeying for a photo. And earlier this year, Harrison was hit with felony assault charges after a brawl with rival snapper Tomas Maidana. A videotape of the incident reportedly shows the men trading slurs: After Harrison yells, “Take the boat back to Cuba!” Maidana spews a racial epithet. Harrison responds by punching him in the head.

“I don’t regret doing it for one second,” Harrison says. “I believe in a live-and-let-live policy: You leave me alone, I leave you alone. They don’t call me names, I don’t get in fights with them.”

Read the rest of the article at STUFF MAGAZINE.